Why I'm an Atheist.
WARNING: It’s a bit long but I hope you find it thought provoking. Enjoy, or not.
I am in fact an Atheist. I like a lot of the cool pagan stuff but I can’t bring myself to actually believe it. Why am I an Atheist?
It’s not to be controversial or to make fun of religious people. Just because someone is religious doesn’t make them stupid. It isn’t so I can argue with people and challenge their idea either even though I like to do that on a number of topics. I’m an Atheist because it makes sense to me.
There are many reasons for this.
When I look at the world I see a very complicated place. Things are almost never as they seem from the structure of how a government really works to how atoms and molecules work. Almost nothing in the world has a simple explanation at its core. So how can the meaning of life and existence be explained by a book the size of the bible or the Koran? On top of that, the main characters in these books are too much like us. They’re monsters most of them. Let’s look at how Richard Dawkins describes the God of the old biblical testament.
"The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully."
This God is way too human in my opinion. Life is too complicated and it would be an insult to human existence and accomplishment to squeeze it all into small story book, and yes this applies to ALL of them.
I would never tell an individual that their faith is wrong but I wouldn’t encourage it either. What I’ve learned about the planet has pretty much forced me to believe that there aren’t any intelligent designers out there. I will tell them what I think if they ask me about my beliefs on religion. I would tell them that I don’t like the fact that it preaches wisdom yet restricts knowledge as a practice. I would tell them that I don’t like how most religious preach peace and then use the same doctrine as the ultimate excuse to go to war.
I would tell them that I don’t like the fact that people revere the Pope as a Holy man even though he lives in a house made of gold and says contraception spreads deadly viruses when he could be breaking off pieces of his own kitchen to help feed a small fucking country instead. That one really gets me. It gets on my pecs even more than the tolerated sexual abuse of children, or not, it’s hard to say what angers me more. That combination of stupidity, greed, ignorance and apathy should be enough to wake the world up, but it hasn’t yet.
I would tell them that I don’t like the fact that it preaches unity while separating you from society. I don’t like how a lot of religions take our base human instincts and make them out to be the worst possible things you could ever do, you know like sex and other fun stuff.
I would tell them how I greatly dislike the fact that Religion conditions people to disbelieve blatant and proven facts when it contradicts their faith. If faith is the most powerful thing in the universe, how in the hell is a fact going to hurt it? If your faith is true, should it not remain intact no matter what you learn? Why fear certain knowledge if your faith by its nature will overcome it?
If I was a spiritual leader I wouldn’t tell my congregation to resist temptation and not to listen to false profits. I would tell them to learn all that they can. If their faith is strong enough it will survive through anything they learn or experience that may test it. If our Holy book is true and all others are false surely you’ll find your way back to it, unless of course you’re one of the damned and the fallen……but if you’re good and pure you have nothing to worry about in the end right? It’s all been worked out already so it doesn’t matter.
I can’t think that way personally, again it’s too simple a life for such a complex universe.
Alright let’s try this, although I must warn you that this scenario might be complete bollocks, so let’s see.
A primitive culture is freezing to death in some wasteland. Say these people discover a bus. We don’t know how it got there, it just appeared one day. So they investigate this bus and wise men and women of the time learn how to use it. They’re not sure how it works but they work it anyway and it manages to take them many many miles away from the frozen wastes. Then abruptly it stops and works no more. Well since these people went from an existence of suffering to a better one they praise the bus, and get inspired to tell tales about the bus and build monuments to it. Soon an entire mythos is created about the vessel that took them from the frozen lands and into paradise and one day the bus will work again and when it does more buses will come and take everyone away to the promised land!
Look it can happen ok?! I know that most of the smart guys and gals would be asking where the fuck the bus came from in the first place but not these guys! That’s not how they do things!
Moving along…
So one day some people decide they’re going to examine the bus in an attempt to learn about it. There is an argument about this because some others believe the bus is holy and shouldn’t be tampered with. There is some fighting and deaths but over time things are discovered about the buses workings. Let’s assume there are wars to impede the examiners progress and many people die but eventually they find out how the bus works and they explain it to everyone. Now that everyone knows how the vehicle works they know it isn’t a magical device and anyone who believes that is laughed at. They still don’t know where the bus came from but they do know it’s a machine and there’s nothing mystical about it.
The moral of this very weird tale is this. I think that once we know enough about the universe the religious and the superstitious will have no choice but to change or they will find themselves laughed into the insane asylum. I don’t think we’re ever going to know everything about the universe but we’re finding out more and more everyday and soon religion will have no choice but to retire. The more you learn about what we already know the more I think you’ll realize just how silly the idea of a God really is, although that’s just my opinion. The only thing sillier of course is my bollocks bus metaphor.
Cheers.
I am in fact an Atheist. I like a lot of the cool pagan stuff but I can’t bring myself to actually believe it. Why am I an Atheist?
It’s not to be controversial or to make fun of religious people. Just because someone is religious doesn’t make them stupid. It isn’t so I can argue with people and challenge their idea either even though I like to do that on a number of topics. I’m an Atheist because it makes sense to me.
There are many reasons for this.
When I look at the world I see a very complicated place. Things are almost never as they seem from the structure of how a government really works to how atoms and molecules work. Almost nothing in the world has a simple explanation at its core. So how can the meaning of life and existence be explained by a book the size of the bible or the Koran? On top of that, the main characters in these books are too much like us. They’re monsters most of them. Let’s look at how Richard Dawkins describes the God of the old biblical testament.
"The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully."
This God is way too human in my opinion. Life is too complicated and it would be an insult to human existence and accomplishment to squeeze it all into small story book, and yes this applies to ALL of them.
I would never tell an individual that their faith is wrong but I wouldn’t encourage it either. What I’ve learned about the planet has pretty much forced me to believe that there aren’t any intelligent designers out there. I will tell them what I think if they ask me about my beliefs on religion. I would tell them that I don’t like the fact that it preaches wisdom yet restricts knowledge as a practice. I would tell them that I don’t like how most religious preach peace and then use the same doctrine as the ultimate excuse to go to war.
I would tell them that I don’t like the fact that people revere the Pope as a Holy man even though he lives in a house made of gold and says contraception spreads deadly viruses when he could be breaking off pieces of his own kitchen to help feed a small fucking country instead. That one really gets me. It gets on my pecs even more than the tolerated sexual abuse of children, or not, it’s hard to say what angers me more. That combination of stupidity, greed, ignorance and apathy should be enough to wake the world up, but it hasn’t yet.
I would tell them that I don’t like the fact that it preaches unity while separating you from society. I don’t like how a lot of religions take our base human instincts and make them out to be the worst possible things you could ever do, you know like sex and other fun stuff.
I would tell them how I greatly dislike the fact that Religion conditions people to disbelieve blatant and proven facts when it contradicts their faith. If faith is the most powerful thing in the universe, how in the hell is a fact going to hurt it? If your faith is true, should it not remain intact no matter what you learn? Why fear certain knowledge if your faith by its nature will overcome it?
If I was a spiritual leader I wouldn’t tell my congregation to resist temptation and not to listen to false profits. I would tell them to learn all that they can. If their faith is strong enough it will survive through anything they learn or experience that may test it. If our Holy book is true and all others are false surely you’ll find your way back to it, unless of course you’re one of the damned and the fallen……but if you’re good and pure you have nothing to worry about in the end right? It’s all been worked out already so it doesn’t matter.
I can’t think that way personally, again it’s too simple a life for such a complex universe.
Alright let’s try this, although I must warn you that this scenario might be complete bollocks, so let’s see.
A primitive culture is freezing to death in some wasteland. Say these people discover a bus. We don’t know how it got there, it just appeared one day. So they investigate this bus and wise men and women of the time learn how to use it. They’re not sure how it works but they work it anyway and it manages to take them many many miles away from the frozen wastes. Then abruptly it stops and works no more. Well since these people went from an existence of suffering to a better one they praise the bus, and get inspired to tell tales about the bus and build monuments to it. Soon an entire mythos is created about the vessel that took them from the frozen lands and into paradise and one day the bus will work again and when it does more buses will come and take everyone away to the promised land!
Look it can happen ok?! I know that most of the smart guys and gals would be asking where the fuck the bus came from in the first place but not these guys! That’s not how they do things!
Moving along…
So one day some people decide they’re going to examine the bus in an attempt to learn about it. There is an argument about this because some others believe the bus is holy and shouldn’t be tampered with. There is some fighting and deaths but over time things are discovered about the buses workings. Let’s assume there are wars to impede the examiners progress and many people die but eventually they find out how the bus works and they explain it to everyone. Now that everyone knows how the vehicle works they know it isn’t a magical device and anyone who believes that is laughed at. They still don’t know where the bus came from but they do know it’s a machine and there’s nothing mystical about it.
The moral of this very weird tale is this. I think that once we know enough about the universe the religious and the superstitious will have no choice but to change or they will find themselves laughed into the insane asylum. I don’t think we’re ever going to know everything about the universe but we’re finding out more and more everyday and soon religion will have no choice but to retire. The more you learn about what we already know the more I think you’ll realize just how silly the idea of a God really is, although that’s just my opinion. The only thing sillier of course is my bollocks bus metaphor.
Cheers.
posted by Fictional Correspondant at 3:43 PM
2 Comments:
Hi Thomas,
Auntie Yvonne here! I loved your 'holy bus' theory. I too, although mostly from family experience, don't believe in organized religion! I was raised and baptised and confirmed as a Lutheran, but I've been sorely disillusioned by that particular denomination.
Your theory brings to mind the book I'm reading right now. I think it's called "Fingerprints of the Gods", author's name escapes me. It started out rather dry but as I move through it, I'm finding it more and more enlightening.
The author starts out talking about the Mayan civilization in South America and shows pictures of the ruins at Michu Pichu. I'm now reading about the Egyptian civilization and how and why the pyramids were built. It seems that there are still loads of unanswered questions about the technical and engineering required to create these monuments, one of them the heaviest single 'building' in the history of the earth (some millions of tons of stone - granite and limestone). Some of the pyramids are found to be empty and not because of tomb robbers. So the author asks all kinds of questions about why would people design the way the did, for what purpose were they built, were there reasons why some were not completed, but were left almost as if some great catastrophe suddenly hit and all civilization in that part of the earth was instantly gone.
The author talks alot about the so-called higher beings (ie educated people) who took advantage of the lower castes by using fear and intimidation.
Anyway, I didn't mean to ramble. I check your blog occasionally because I find very interesting reading there! Hope you don't mind!
No Worries about rambing, I'm glad you checked it out. I'm not on this thing much anymore but I'm trying to put more stuff on here.
The book sounds interesting and when I have time I'll try to look it up.
Take Care.
Post a Comment
<< Home