Archive for the ‘Atheism’ Category
The question “Why Don’t You Believe?” is often posed to me by most religious people whenever I discuss my rejection of god and religion. They bring up the same tired arguments each time, not realizing that I have (and others) utterly crushed them countless times before. But, after answering this question so many times, I have come to the realization that “Why Don’t You Believe” is not the proper question. The better question is, “Why Can’t You Believe?” Now this is a question that deserves more than just a laugh, but an entire article.
The Scientific Incompatibility
The Scientific Incompatibility is the main reason why I could never believe in anything supernatural. Biology has advanced to the point where, Evolution by natural selection has been proven for all intellectual purposes. Its quite obvious that Evolution or something awfully similar took place, and is currently taking place. The fossil record was good evidence, but the Human Genome Project more or less proves common ancestry. We know that humans, like every other living species, evolved from common ancestors (either one or multiple), that the process was slow and gradual and due to the amount of time, the improbable became possible. However, Evolution by natural selection truly only gets rid of a literal reading of the “holy” books. What about the more common, though equally wrong, metaphorical reading?
The problem with the metaphorical is slightly different, and I believe it to be an even more illogical stance. The first issue arises when one considers, which parts are metaphorical and which aren’t? There aren’t any doctrine based or well founded theological reasons to label one passage metaphorical and the next literal. People pick and choose which part they like based on modern sensitivity and common sense, but they do it on very tenuous grounds. The second issue is, if evolution is indeed true there are many complications that arise. Such as, 99.8% of the species that ever existed are already extinct, why such wastefulness? Couldn’t god just cut to the chase and just start humans from the beginning? Why even create the dinosaurs if they were just going to be extinct a few million years later? Why create humans with organs that have no function (appendix)? Why watch the species that are the ancestors to humans die slow painful deaths for hundreds of thousands of years? Why wait 4 billion years to even consider sending down messages to random people in the Middle East? I challenge my religious readers who believe in a metaphorical reading of their Holy Book to think of answers for these questions, and when they can’t, think why you can’t, for it is part of the reason I can’t believe.
Those of course are just some of the issues with regards to biology and evolution, but there are more associated with physics and astronomy. Now, why create so many stars? Why create planets that cannot and will never be suitable for life? Why create physical constants that if shifted ever so slightly can cause the only planet suitable for life to die within seconds? Why create a planet that large portions of it aren’t even able to be lived on naturally, limiting humans even further (the so called prized possessions of god). Why create moons for planets that don’t allow for life? Why create a galaxy that’s heading in our direction and will cause our extinction if it doesn’t happen prior to it? Again, these are just a few unanswerable questions that religious folk must face, yet don’t (and so they remain religious).
Praying
If there were ever a “eureka” moment with regards to my change from a Muslim to an Atheist it was while I was in prayer. As a Muslim it is considered required after the age of 16 that a person begin reading the redundant five times a day prayers. Mainly these prayers consist of constantly reminding god how good, merciful and awesome in general he is. You get a chance at the end to ask for something you want, so it is not entirely about god. To me, this kind of activity is fit for a slave or a serf. Anyone who would willingly restrict their schedule by adding these five daily annoyances simply is a servile fool. With 1.4 billion Muslims, I don’t see how these people actually think “Allah” cares about each and every one of their insignificant wishes. Also, why does god need praise five times a day? Is the fellow a bit hard on hearing and the repetition allows him to know for sure which ones are his followers? I will go one step further, god or Allah are deaf. For they surely are not listening to the prayers of their faithful, yet servile flock.
That of course is targeted largely at Islam but the same is true about the other religions and their prayer schedules. The Jews and Christians pick the day of Sunday (god’s day off apparently) to get together and pray. What’s so good about Sunday anyway? I could think of many constructive things to do on a Sunday, and none of them involve getting down on my knees and wasting time at a Church, Synagogue or Mosque. Also, I am skeptical of any god which requires its followers to constantly repeat some sort of chant of praise. Shouldn’t a persons actions during their life act as the only criteria for judgment?
The Number of Different Religions
Most religions make incompatible claims with each other. They don’t say, you can be a part Muslim and part Christian, or sometimes believe in Jesus and sometimes believe in Buddha. Rather, they say, you must believe (fill in dogma or nonsense) and that’s final. This means, your entire view of morality and the cosmos is being controlled merely by the accident of your birthplace. If I were born to Christian parents, I might be a Christian, but why does that mean Jesus is more likely than Buddha? The same question can be posed to every religious person. What is so special about their religion, and their place of birth that ONLY it gets to decide which is truth and which are lies. In science, it doesn’t work like this “geographical belief set” that religions have. Either evolution is true or it isn’t, and it makes no difference if you’re in Canada or India. The same should be true about a creator and morality, either they exist or they don’t. And if they do, surely it is not something that changes due to varying locations.
Justice (or lack there of)
Every second, someone in the world is committing a crime. Every few seconds a child dies of starvation. Murderers walk free, and mass murderers are praised and elected as leaders of nations. The poor suffer and are never able to create a better living for themselves, yet the rich dominate the world and spend more in a day than most make in a year (or even a decade). The gap between the rich and poor only grows, and the pain of poverty remains strong. We have rigged elections and criminals roaming the streets, ready to rape, murder and steal at any moment. Natural disasters kill innocent people, and wars kill even more. What kind of cruel creator would allow such injustice? Surely not a just or loving one.
Suppression of Women
The religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam are truly man-made. Not just in the sense that it was humans that created them, but men in specific. In Judaism, one needs to only read the Torah to see the hatred of women, as the inferior sex. For Eve is born out a “bent rib” from Adam. She is created for the benefit and pleasure of Adam. It is she, who is more likely to be tempted and thus Satan targets her first. All of that bigotry without even leaving the book of Genesis. Leviticus also highlights the difference between male and female, for a woman who gives birth to a girl is twice as dirty as a woman who gives birth to a boy. With the concept of Christ, why is the virgin aspect of Mary stressed? What is so bad about female sexuality? Why can’t Christ be born through the normal processes that a woman goes through? Islam has an even more intense hatred of women. Women can’t even look a man in the eye who isn’t part of their family. A woman is suppose to be covered from head to toe, and veiling her beauty because it can cause “temptation.” Oddly enough these religions think they are giving respect to women, when all they do is lay the groundwork for sexism and the hatred of women.
Faith
I define faith as, “belief without material evidence.” That is a concept that I will never, and never can agree with. How can one believe in anything without evidence? Why believe in the first place, why not just take a “neutral” or “undecided” stance instead? Some would counter with Pascal’s Wager, but how would one know which god to pray to? I personally make no leap of faith whatsoever. I believe things not because I would like for them to be true, or because they are comforting, but because there is good evidence. The rejection of faith is the fundamental core belief of any free thinker, and thus it is the basis of my atheism.
Tags: anti-theism, Atheism, christian, christianity, god, islam, jew, judaism, muslim, praying, Religion, women
Due to the immense popularity of the first part of “Great Quotes for Atheists/Non-Believers,” I have come back with another list of great quotes for the atheist/agnostic/non-believer!
“Isn’t it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too? “
- Douglas Adams
“I find the whole business of religion profoundly interesting. But it does mystify me that otherwise intelligent people take it seriously.”
- Douglas Adams
“I don’t believe in an afterlife, so I don’t have to spend my whole life fearing hell, or fearing heaven even more. For whatever the tortures of hell, I think the boredom of heaven would be even worse.”
- Isaac Asimov
“Man is, and always has been, a maker of gods. It has been the most serious and significant occupation of his sojourn in the world.”
- John Burroughs
“[...] since the order of world is regulated by death, perhaps is it better for God we do not believe in him and we fight with all our might against death, without raising our eyes heavenward where he keeps silent.”
- Albert Camus
“I would never want to be a member of a group whose symbol was a guy nailed to two pieces of wood.”
- George Carlin
“The Bible is one of the most genocidal books in history”
- Noam Chomsky
“Isn’t killing people in the name of God a pretty good definition of insanity?”
- Arthur C. Clarke
“I do not believe in God because I do not believe in Mother Goose.”
- Clarence Darrow
“We are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further.”
- Richard Dawkins
“I have never seen the slightest scientific proof of the religious theories of heaven and hell, of future life for individuals, or of a personal God.”
- Thomas Edison
“I don’t try to imagine a personal god; it suffices to stand in awe at the structure of the world, insofar as it allows our inadequate senses to appreciate it.”
- Albert Einstein
“The religion of one age is the literary entertainment of the next.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Religion is an illusion and it derives its strength from the fact that it falls in with our instinctual desires.”
- Sigmund Freud
“A believer is a bird in a cage, a freethinker is an eagle parting the clouds with tireless wing.”
- Robert G. Ingersoll
“A man is not moral because he is obedient through fear or ignorance. Morality lives in the realm of perceived obligation… “
- Robert G. Ingersoll
“Our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions, any more than our opinions in physics or geometry.”
- Thomas Jefferson
“The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions. The criticism of religion is therefore in embryo the criticism of that vale of tears of which religion is the halo.”
- Karl Marx
“The first requisite for the happiness of the people is the abolition of religion.”
- Karl Marx
“Religion deserves no more respect than a pile of garbage.”
- H. L. Mencken
“Religion, like poetry, is simply a concerted effort to deny the most obvious realities.”
- H. L. Mencken
“Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives.”
- John Stuart Mill
“A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything.”
- Friedrich Nietzsche
“God is dead: but considering the state Man is in, there will perhaps be caves, for ages yet, in which his shadow will be shown.”
- Friedrich Nietzsche
“Jesus died too soon. If he had lived to my age he would have repudiated his doctrine.”
- Friedrich Nietzsche
“All religions begin with a revolt against morality, and perish when morality conquers them.”
- George Bernard Shaw
“A miracle signifies nothing more than an event… the cause of which cannot be explained by another familiar instance, or…. which the narrator is unable to explain.”
- Baruch Spinoza
“The truths of religion are never so well understood as by those who have lost their power of reasoning.”
- Voltaire
“Did science promise happiness? I do not believe it. It promised truth, and the question is to know if we will ever make happiness with truth.”
- Emile Zola
Tags: agnostic, agnosticism, Atheism, atheism quotes, atheist, atheist quotes, church, deism, god, great quotes, quotes, Religion
I live in a culturally Christian Nation, America. This great nation was founded by secular intellectuals, but it was populated by religious fools. That of course is something we all have to live with. Most modern businesses all market toward the Christian year, and working at a Target store lets one view this first hand. The entire store changes based on the next holiday, and for the most part, only for the Christian Holidays. But being raised in a culturally Christian nation has its perks. Take for example, Peeps. What a great creation, anyone who has ever ate one knows exactly what I am talking about. You couldn’t get far without noticing the nice pastel colored designs of bunnies, rabbits and such. I have absolutely no problem with such festivities, rather, I enjoy egg hunts very much. However, the Christianity based reasons behind Easter are disgusting and immoral.
What exactly is Easter celebrating?
The point behind Easter is a two part answer. First, it is in celebration of the sacrifice of Jesus. Most Christians believe that Jesus died for the original sin (Adam and Eve) and now for all the sins they will commit in the future. Simply keeping faith in Jesus will guarantee one’s place in heaven alongside Jesus. Secondly, it is in celebration of the resurrection of Jesus on the third day after his crucifixion. Now that we have that part settled, let us move onto why it is disgusting and immoral.
Most Christians regard Jesus’ sacrifice as the greatest one can make. There would be no point to Christianity if Jesus did not die for the sins of the people. It implies first, that people are born with the guilt of the original sin. The original sin is what caused Adam and Eve to be removed from the Garden of Eden. By them merely disobeying god, they were removed from paradise. This is something I struggle with understanding how someone could come to terms with this. What does original sin have to do with anyone except those who committed with it? Why is anyone else guilty for a crime they were never alive for, had no chance to either commit themselves or prevent it. How is it even possible for such guilt to go through each generation of humanity? The answer is indeed rather simple, it doesn’t. Adam and Eve could have been pedophiles who raped babies and committed genocide, but their sins are their own and are only their responsibility. Such is the same with a modern case. If my parents were frauds and charlatans who took the hard earned money of others and spent in wastefully on their own whims, and then they went on a mass murder spree, what does that have to do with me? In our modern systems of justice, nowhere is it found that if, a parent can’t serve their own sentences, that their child is thus responsible due to them being descendants of them. This sort of teaching is immoral, and unjust, the only sins I should be responsible for are the ones I commit or have the chance in preventing, nothing more and nothing less.
Now, to the issue of resurrection. It is physically impossible from someone to rise from the dead. Such does not even need to be pointed out. There are laws of nature that no one can control, they are there, regardless of the beliefs and faith, they are never suspended in your favor. They exist to exist and its simple as that. This is all obvious to anyone modern person with a functional and logical brain. How can Jesus absolve me of my future sins? How can he absolve me of my former sins? Let us examine this doctrine. If you commit a crime, I may pay your legal fees. If you have been awfully nice to me, maybe even serve your sentence for you. Though obviously no justice system would allow that. But that aside, I could do everything except, absolve you of your sin. I could not change the fact that you committed them. I could not forgive you for them, especially not the sins you are going to commit. Also what morally sound person would accept this? How is it moral to allow someone to die for you.
In conclusion, there is no need to be born again to Christianity, you just need to grow up, and become a mature adult. Take responsibility for your action, and only yours. Easter might be a fun holiday to celebrate culturally, but the reasons behind it are as I have established above, disgusting and immoral.
Tags: Atheism, evil, good, holy, jesus, sacrifice, sin
It is very often that people must be reminded of what exactly were the intentions and the goals of the founding fathers of America and the constitution that they wrote. People often say, “Well, America is a Christian Nation,” such piece of sheer ignorance does not even deserve a response. But considering this is a blog, and the entire point is to respond, it will get a short one. And so will this new piece of filth proposed by Sam Brownback, Senate Resolution 483.
America is NOT a Christian nation, nor was it ever intended to be. There is not a single mention of “god” or “Christianity” or “Jesus” throughout the entire U.S. constitution. The only mentions of religion are meant to exclude religion from the public arena, as it states “no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust” and “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Surely, there is no room for interpretation here. It clearly states what position religion holds in government (absolutely none whatsoever). It is quite possibly the greatest achievement of the Founding Fathers, as we have entirely avoided the sort of mayhem religion causes. One needs only to glance over the history of Europe or the current politics of the Middle East to understand why religion and god must be kept separate from government and politics. Hopefully we have this now established and can move onto this “Senate Resolution 483.”
Here is the: Full Text of Senate Resolution 483 as proposed by Sam Brownback and co-sponsored by Joe Lieberman.
What this resolution proposes is that, the first week of May 2008 be recognized as “Ten Commandments Weekend.” I must now propose that this resolution is unconstitutional at its very core. The Ten Commandments hold power only over the Abrahamic Religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam). They simply do not apply to any other religions, so it is therefore established this resolution is indeed “respecting an establishment of religion.”
Further, in (Lemon v. Kurtzman, 1971), the Surpreme Court established a 3 part “test” that determines whether a law is in violation to the 1st Amendment’s religion clauses.
- A law must have a secular purpose.
- It must have a primary effect which neither advances nor inhibits religion.
- It must avoid excessive entanglement of church and state.
If you put Sen.Res 483 through this simple test of unconstitutionality, it fails on every single step. Firstly, it serves no secular purpose whatsoever. It’s primary effect is to advance the Abrahamic religions. And it does not avoid excessive entanglement between Church and State.
Senate Resolution 483 is therefore unconstitutional going on both the words of the Founding Fathers, and the Supreme Court in 1971 when they established their “Lemon Test.”
I must urge you to write to your Senators and Representatives in Congress and make sure this Resolution does NOT get through.
Tags: Atheism, constitution, law, senate
If you missed the previous parts - Click here for Part 1 and Click here for Part 2
I often attempt and try to pinpoint the exact moment in which I left the religion of my parents, Islam. What I have realized is that, it was not just a single moment of “revelation” that no god exists, but rather a series of events which led to my ultimate decision to make leave faith. Honestly, I don’t think it is advisable to dramatically change your beliefs based on simply one event, especially on a question of life itself. A rational approach would largely consist of at the very least a couple weeks of contemplation and research.
To trace back my history with religion, and religious experience, it dates to around October of 2006. That was the month where I finally made the decision (I was 16 years old at the time) to devoutly follow Islam. I prayed five times a day, fasted during the “holy” month of Ramadan and followed just about every possible rule there is to Islam, (everything short of simply leaving society itself). I truly felt that, belief without evidence was virtuous, and belief when there is no evidence would be even more so virtuous. I even thought up what is known as “Pascals Wager” completely on my own, without consciously ever remembering it spoken previously. I defended my faith to anyone who tried a debate, and even started to grow out a beard. I felt a sort of complete dislike toward every other religion, and especially the non-religious, not to the point of violence, since I have never been a violent person, but simply a feeling of disgust to any non-Muslim. I must remind my readers, that this was not due to any sort of religious indoctrination from my parents. My father is a rather liberal Muslim and mother is religious, but truly did not impose it on any of her children. Previously to October 2006, I grew up a “cultural” Muslim more so than a religious one, and this is why it is important to note. I was completely sure of my faith, and simply did not listen to any argument against it, usually dismissing it as “ignorant.”
Fast forward a few months of sheer ignorance (or in other words, faith) on my part. I came across this one quotation that stuck with me to this day, and I will often quote it, or at least paraphrase it to any religious person. If everyone truly followed this model of rational inquiry, given what we know about life and the cosmos due to science, I don’t think anyone could truly be religious, and if they were, it would have to be some sort of Deist similar to Einstein.
“The pursuit of truth can only begin once you start to question and analyze every belief that you ever held dear. If a certain belief passes the tests of evidence, deduction, and logic, it should be kept and defended. ….If it doesn’t, the belief should not only be discarded, but you must also then question why you were led to believe the erroneous information in the first place.” - Socrates
As I said previously, this quote stuck with me, it forced me to reconsider my faith. It would seem like a simple enough method, but ask yourself every time you profess some belief, why do you believe what you believe, how do you know its true…those two questions are essential and will at the very least lead to one abandoning all the absurd ideas (religion and god included).
Now, once I reached this point, I became a sort of “agnostic” or fence sitter, I knew at this point, it is absurd to believe in a personal god, but what about a divine watchmaker? Coming from this background of religion, it seemed impossible that either, the universe was not designed, and secondly that life was not designed, though I knew of the theory of evolution and believed in it, I did not know that it easily answers the complexity and beauty of life and the universe. Day by day, I became opposed to Islam and modern religions in general (this was largely due to reading first the history of these religions, and then the present of them.) It is important to note that I still was not an atheist at this point, I believed in a sort of Deistic god as described by Spinoza. So you may ask, how and when did I become a full-fledged and proud atheist?
Dawkins in Lynchburg VA - Book Reading of The God Delusion
After watching that lecture, I immediately bought The God Delusion online and read the entire book within 2 nights of reading the first words. It accomplished fully and completely one of the goals Dawkins set out to do, push the fence sitters over to one side. His masterful defense of evolution, and his argument that effectively demonstrated that atheism is the only intellectual satisfying position that can be held. I thank Mr. Dawkins, for both his science work, and his work on god, his work has given me freedom from religion and god, and for that, there are no words that can describe my feeling of admiration and thanks.
Due to Dawkins, and his references to other writers, I have read the works of Bertrand Russell, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennet, Stephen Hawkings and quite a few others. Every single one of those authors is someone I deeply admire for their works either on science or religion, or both. They have made me into a rational, reasonable, and more importantly, an overall happy individual. To articulate what disbelief in god does for me, I turn to a lesser known writer and poet, Robert Ingersoll.
Excerpt from, “Why I Am Agnostic” by Robert Ingersoll
When I became convinced that the Universe is natural –that all the ghosts and gods are myths, there entered into my brain, into my soul, into every drop of my blood, the sense, the feeling, the joy of freedom. The walls of my prison crumbled and fell, the dungeon was flooded with light and all the bolts, and bars, and manacles became dust. I was no longer a servant, a serf or a slave. There was for me no master in all the wide world — not even in infinite space. I was free — free to think, to express my thoughts — free to live to my own ideal — free to live for myself and those I loved — free to use all my faculties, all my senses — free to spread imagination’s wings — free to investigate, to guess and dream and hope — free to judge and determine for myself — free to reject all ignorant and cruel creeds, all the “inspired” books that savages have produced, and all the barbarous legends of the past — free from popes and priests — free from all the “called” and “set apart” — free from sanctified mistakes and holy lies — free from the fear of eternal pain — free from the winged monsters of the night — free from devils, ghosts and gods. For the first time I was free. There were no prohibited places in all the realms of thought — no air, no space, where fancy could not spread her painted wings — no chains for my limbs — no lashes for my back — no fires for my flesh — no master’s frown or threat — no following another’s steps — no need to bow, or cringe, or crawl, or utter lying words. I was free. I stood erect and fearlessly, joyously, faced all worlds.
And then my heart was filled with gratitude, with thankfulness, and went out in love to all the heroes, the thinkers who gave their lives for the liberty of hand and brain — for the freedom of labor and thought — to those who fell on the fierce fields of war, to those who died in dungeons bound with chains — to those who proudly mounted scaffold’s stairs — to those whose bones were crushed, whose flesh was scarred and torn — to those by fire consumed — to all the wise, the good, the brave of every land, whose thoughts and deeds have given freedom to the sons of men. And then I vowed to grasp the torch that they had held, and hold it high, that light might conquer darkness still.
Let us be true to ourselves — true to the facts we know, and let us, above all things, preserve the veracity of our souls.
If there be gods we cannot help them, but we can assist our fellow-men. We cannot love the inconceivable, but we can love wife and child and friend.
We can be as honest as we are ignorant. If we are, when asked what is beyond the horizon of the known, we must say that we do not know. We can tell the truth, and we can enjoy the blessed freedom that the brave have won. We can destroy the monsters of superstition, the hissing snakes of ignorance and fear. We can drive from our minds the frightful things that tear and wound with beak and fang. We can civilize our fellow-men. We can fill our lives with generous deeds, with loving words, with art and song, and all the ecstasies of love. We can flood our years with sunshine — with the divine climate of kindness, and we can drain to the last drop the golden cup of joy.
Tags: Atheism, islam, Religion, spirit
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