Ian McEwan

From Philosopedia

Ian McEwan [CBE] (21 June 1948 - )

An English novelist, McEwan was born in Aldershot, a town in the English county of Hampshire. Because his army officer father moved often to East Asia, Germany, and North Africa, McEwan was schooled at Woolverstone Hall School, the University of Sussex (B.A. and M.A.), and the University of East Anglia.

Married twice (Penny Allen absconded with their 13-year-old son at one point, and his second wife is Annalena McAfee who edits The Guardian's reviews), he is openly atheistic.

The author of many books, he wrote a 2001 best seller called Atonement that has been made into a movie.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was awarded the Shakespeare Prize by the Alfred Toepfer Foundation, Hamburg, in 1999.

McEwan is also a Distinguished Supporter of the British Humanist Association. In 2000, he became a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).

Deborah Solomon, in a New York Times interview (2 Dec 2007), asked about the story of Briony Tallis in Atonement, "It seems to me that the impulse to atone is a religious one, and yet you are a self-declared atheist:

Yes, I am an atheist, and probably Briony is, too. Atheists have as much conscience, possibly more, than people with deep religious conviction, and they still have the same problem of how they reconcile themselves to a bad deed in the past. It's a little easier if you've got a god to forgive you.

Isaac Chotiner, in The New Republic (11 January 2008), interviewed McEwan about his outlook:

Chotiner:

I just read a quote of yours, "Atheists have as much conscience, possibly more, than people with deep religious convictions," and I have noticed that recently you have been talking a little more about atheism. You also contributed an essay to a new book called The Portable Atheist. What are your thoughts on the "New Atheist" movement, which has gotten so much publicity and sold so many books in the last year or so. Do you think it differs from strains of atheism in the past?

McEwan:

I am a little baffled as to why it is called the "New Atheism." There is a very long tradition of free thinking, and the arguments made against religion tend to be the same but made over and over again. But I think what has happened is that there have been a number of good, articulate books - Hitchens, Dawkins, Dennett, Sam Harris, and so on. What they have discovered to their own great surprise is that in the United States, and right across the South too, there are an enormous number of people who also think this way. I don't think they have suddenly been persuaded by this rash of books - the feelings were there anyway - but they didn't have a voice, they didn't have a focus. When Hitchens took his book across the Bible Belt and debated with Baptist ministers in churches, there were huge audiences, most of whom, it seems, from when they spoke to him afterwards, were somewhat irritated that the place in the United States that they lived in was called the Bible Belt. I think there was something there that people had not taken into account. Quite heartening really, given that America is meant to be a secular republic with a strong tradition of upholding all freedom of thought.

Chotiner:

Do you see religion as ineradicable, or do you think there is a chance to change people's minds on religion?

McEwan:

I think it is ineradicable, and I think it is a terrible idea to suppress it, too. We have tried that and it joins the list of political oppression. It seems to be fairly deeply stitched into human nature. It seems to be part of all cultures, so I don't expect it to vanish. And yet at the same time, if it is built into human nature, why are there so many people who don't believe in it? I think it is important that people with no religious beliefs speak up and speak for what they value. It is a bit of a problem, the title "Atheist" - no one really wants to be defined by what they do not believe in. We haven't yet settled on a name, but you wouldn't expect a Baptist minister to go around calling himself a Darwinist. But it is crucial that people who do not have a sky god and don't have a set of supernatural beliefs assert their belief in moral values and in love and in the transcendence that they might experience in landscape or art or music or sculpture or whatever. Since they do not believe in an afterlife, it makes them give more valence to life itself. The little spark that we do have becomes all the more valuable when you can't be trading off any moments for eternity.

The New York Times (24 June 2008) reported that McEwan's comments about despising Islamism "because of its intolerance of homosexuality and its limits on women's freedom" were carried by The Telegraph (London) and Corriere Della Sera (Italy). The comments were made while

• defending his friend the writer Martin Amis from charges of racism. Mr. Amis has written that people who look as though they are from the Middle East should be strip-searched and possibly deported. Mr. McEwan said, “As soon as a writer expresses an opinion against Islamism, immediately someone on the left leaps to his feet and claims that because the majority of Muslims are dark skinned, he who criticizes it is racist.” He added: “This is logically absurd and morally unacceptable. Martin is not a racist. And I myself despise Islamism, because it wants to create a society that I detest, based on religious belief, on a text, on lack of freedom for women, intolerance towards homosexuality and so on — we know it well.” He called fundamentalist Christians with similar views “equally absurd,” though at least they are not trying to kill people. Mr. McEwan’s words drew criticism from the Muslim Council of Britain.