So, out of 1,000+ pages, you choose to focus on Rand's atheism?
Well...I do agree with her viewpoints on producers vs. users, or "looters," as her characters refer to them. I also share most of her disdain for government bureaucracy, and the "looters" who think they are entitled to the work of the producers. Like obummer's stupid statement, "You didn't build that."
George Soros wrote a series of essays, commentary on events as they unfolded, focusing on economics, which included references to politics, since it is impossible to separate economics from national/world politics. Those essays, written over a span of 20 years, were collected into a publication. I point to his take on the European economic woes from about 10 years ago, when Greece, Italy and a few others were in deep chit. Citing the agreement which founded the EU, Soros wrote that Germany had a moral/ethical/legal obligation to bail out Greece, Italy, Spain? I think as well...saying Germany had the means to do so. Never mind, Soros write, that Greece's woes (and the others) were their own fault, and never mind that Germany was to be commended for making the right decisions and therefore was sound financially. Germany still had a moral obligation to give, not loan, aid to the struggling nations.
It's like the old tale of the one squirrel who diligently "squirreled-away" nuts while his friends partied and made fun of him, and then that harsh winter, they banging on his door demanding he share his stash. This is the moral of the story in Rand's novel. As for her allusions to "thinking" and her being an "atheist," I find this explanation interesting:
It is misleading to say “Ayn Rand was an atheist.”
It should be this: “Ayn Rand was atheistic.”
Translation: “Ayn Rand was a-theistic, without God. ”
The formulation “She was an atheist” invokes an establishment of identity or proactive belief system called “atheism” which has attendant characteristics that are practiced as part of a system. Rand had no God in her system. Moreover there are legions of “atheists” whom she would reject as fellow-travelers, and whom despise her actual philosophy, Objectivism. Being atheistic conveys exactly zero about the proactive belief system of the person.
The only reason Rand ever wrote about God/theism was this: other people keep bringing it up.
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