Ok, I've been thinking some. I've always been fascinated by this quote:
"A God that made the world and allowed evil to exist is incompetent. A God that knows there is evil in the world and cannot destroy it is impotent. A God that can destroy evil but still allows it to exist is purely malevolent."
There are quite a number of people this quote is attributed to, in various translations. This is one of the things I look at when examining religion and shudder. There are a lot of people who say that if you do not believe in God, you are going straight to Hell. If there is a God that will damn me forever, based on a belief instead of an act, I don't want anything to do with It. I also don't really want anything to do with a God that both created evil and still allows it to exist. (We are talking in big, highfalutin concepts here. "Evil" can be awfully hard to define when all of the facts and humanity and messiness of the thing is brought in to it.)
In many ways, I am sick to death of defending my beliefs. I rarely talk about them to anyone anymore. The prejudice attached to it, however, is a real sticking point for me. Its infuriating. Also the continuing feeling of "Christianity is under siege!" abundant across the US is getting old. Seriously. You make up, what, 80% of the population of the country? If this was an election, it would be a landslide. You are far from being a minority. Very, very far. You aren't victims, you aren't all alone, you are, in fact, a super majority of the citizenry of the country. So stop it. Go and read something other than a religious text for once. Get informed. Shut off the TV, turn off the radio. Stop taking someone elses word for it and find out for yourself.
People are really starting to tick me off anymore.
8.18.2008
8.15.2008
"I do not believe in God because I do not believe in Mother Goose." --Clarence Darrow
I am not religious.
For some reason, this makes me:
a) incapable of being a patriot
b) unsuitable marriage material
c) immoral
d) "evil"
e) a member of one of the last groups it is still acceptable to hate openly
In general, I try not to be bothered by the "evil" and "immoral" parts. (I was actually called evil to my face by my 9th grade English teacher [who I did not see fit to inform of my religious preferences], but she was a 79 year-old nun, so I'm inclined to forgive her based on age and upbringing.) Those are things I think are silly to believe, because, frankly, there are plenty of evil and immoral people who are more than happy to call themselves "good (insert religious identification here)" while committing some truly heinous acts (can anyone say "Crusades"?).
This sort of thing baffles me, that a person could consider me some how morally wrong by the simple basis of my lack of belief in their Big Man in the Sky. If simply believing in that doesn't make me moral and good, why should the opposite be true? And how can you make that judgment automatically, when you have no idea how I live my life or who I am as a person? I mean, when lots of religious people don't live up to the creed of their faith, why are you worried about me? At least I'm honest and consistent. My moral code isn't something i took by rote from an ancient culture, its something I had to examine and determine and actually think about, for a long time. I don't take those things on blind faith, but instead look at why these things are important. When the why is answered, it makes you ever so much more likely to follow those codes, because there is a reason to it, not just an arbitrary rule.
As for being a bad patriot, that mostly came about during the Communist era, when the Russian dictatorship tried to banish religion in accordance with Marx's cynical examination of faith among the proletariat (opiate of the masses and all that). Ergo, if Communists = bad and atheists = Communists, atheists = bad. Not the truest of statements, but the amount of paranoia running rampant through the communal psyche of the country makes it much more understandable. What doesn't make sense is the continuation of this prejudice. I love my country, and I'm one of the very, very few that can honestly say I love my country more that I love my God. How does this make me unpatriotic? When someone can explain this to me, I will be happy to listen, but honestly...what more do you want?
Here's some numbers then. 10% of the population of the US is atheistic or agnostic--0.2% of the prison population is made up of atheists though. Christians make up 75-85% of the population of the US, and an equivalent part of the prison population. Atheists have one of the lowest divorce rates of any "faith group" in the country (yes, lower than that of Born Again Christians). Right. Evil, Bad, Terrible people.
The blind hate for atheism has actually been studied; people would rather their child be gay, marry outside the faith they were raised in, marry outside their ethnic group, political group, anything rather than them marrying an atheist. I don't get this. Really. The idea that somehow I'm poison simply by my existence confuses me greatly. And its not just the marriage, its the fact that its everywhere. I have the benefit of living in a secular society, where I do not have to reveal my religious preferences if I don't want to, but try saying "Yes, I am an atheist, actually" and see what kind of reaction you get. Its impressive. People back away from you, don't want to talk to you, all sorts of things based on that one statement. What ticks them off even more is when you are actually informed about their faith and still don't care. (I do this to Christians all the time, which I personally consider both hysterically funny and profoundly sad when I am more familiar with the Bible than they are.) There is also a sense of surprise when they find that, philosophically, I actually agree with a number of Jesus' teachings (I also mostly agree with the Buddha's as well). I just don't buy the Big Man in the Sky bit. I mean, most religious people say they can "feel the presence of god" in their every day lives. I don't. Really. Yes, yes, the Christians have the Bible, the Jews have the Torah, the Muslims have the Qu'ran, everybody has something. And "God Wrote It." How do they know? Because the book says he did.
....
uh....this is what we call "circular reasoning" kids. I know the book is right because the book says its right. That's all it basically comes down to. On the other hand, many religious insist that atheists "prove" that their god does not exist. Not my problem. Also not my philosophy. I'm a student of the sciences, and the scientific method relies on experiments. If you can't design an experiment, how can you prove anything? How do we prove the earth is 4.5 billion years old? Radioactive decay. Carbon 14 (as opposed to carbon 12, which is just regular old carbon) is very common and has a very regular rate of radioactive decay. Depending on the amount of carbon 14 found in a rock, fossil, etc., its age can be determined by the half-life of the carbon. (see here for information on half-lives) How do we know half-life really happens? We can see it happen. Take something with a short half life, and you can literally observe it breaking down into simpler components. (Also, anyone with an ounce of knowledge of genetics knows that a gene pool consisting of two individuals will become so inbred it will kill itself off in maybe four generations. Sorry kids, neither Adam and Eve nor Noah's Ark happened. If it had, we would be...well, just do a netsearch with the word "deformed". Profoundly disturbing.
There is also this question of "where do you get your moral compass?" Well...I get it from my parents, society, philosophy, and from my own personal feelings. "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you." Its pretty simple, but so very few people follow it. I believe this is the only life I've got, and, well, I want to both enjoy it and make the world enjoyable for my children. They are, to me, my immortality. My life beyond this one. If those are my values, to make the world a better place to live, for everyone, because the way I treat others is reflected in the way they treat me--how is that wrong? Or bad, or immoral. I don't need a god to tell me to do that. And really, I believe that the choices I make are my responsibility. I am not afraid of disappointing or angering some far off deity, I am afraid of something much closer to home: disappointing myself, and those I care about. That is ever so much more painful.
"The greatest tragedy in mankind's entire history may be the hijacking of morality by religion."
-Arthur C. Clarke
I think this one I will continue....Later.
Sigh. Dammit Universe.
For some reason, this makes me:
a) incapable of being a patriot
b) unsuitable marriage material
c) immoral
d) "evil"
e) a member of one of the last groups it is still acceptable to hate openly
In general, I try not to be bothered by the "evil" and "immoral" parts. (I was actually called evil to my face by my 9th grade English teacher [who I did not see fit to inform of my religious preferences], but she was a 79 year-old nun, so I'm inclined to forgive her based on age and upbringing.) Those are things I think are silly to believe, because, frankly, there are plenty of evil and immoral people who are more than happy to call themselves "good (insert religious identification here)" while committing some truly heinous acts (can anyone say "Crusades"?).
This sort of thing baffles me, that a person could consider me some how morally wrong by the simple basis of my lack of belief in their Big Man in the Sky. If simply believing in that doesn't make me moral and good, why should the opposite be true? And how can you make that judgment automatically, when you have no idea how I live my life or who I am as a person? I mean, when lots of religious people don't live up to the creed of their faith, why are you worried about me? At least I'm honest and consistent. My moral code isn't something i took by rote from an ancient culture, its something I had to examine and determine and actually think about, for a long time. I don't take those things on blind faith, but instead look at why these things are important. When the why is answered, it makes you ever so much more likely to follow those codes, because there is a reason to it, not just an arbitrary rule.
As for being a bad patriot, that mostly came about during the Communist era, when the Russian dictatorship tried to banish religion in accordance with Marx's cynical examination of faith among the proletariat (opiate of the masses and all that). Ergo, if Communists = bad and atheists = Communists, atheists = bad. Not the truest of statements, but the amount of paranoia running rampant through the communal psyche of the country makes it much more understandable. What doesn't make sense is the continuation of this prejudice. I love my country, and I'm one of the very, very few that can honestly say I love my country more that I love my God. How does this make me unpatriotic? When someone can explain this to me, I will be happy to listen, but honestly...what more do you want?
Here's some numbers then. 10% of the population of the US is atheistic or agnostic--0.2% of the prison population is made up of atheists though. Christians make up 75-85% of the population of the US, and an equivalent part of the prison population. Atheists have one of the lowest divorce rates of any "faith group" in the country (yes, lower than that of Born Again Christians). Right. Evil, Bad, Terrible people.
The blind hate for atheism has actually been studied; people would rather their child be gay, marry outside the faith they were raised in, marry outside their ethnic group, political group, anything rather than them marrying an atheist. I don't get this. Really. The idea that somehow I'm poison simply by my existence confuses me greatly. And its not just the marriage, its the fact that its everywhere. I have the benefit of living in a secular society, where I do not have to reveal my religious preferences if I don't want to, but try saying "Yes, I am an atheist, actually" and see what kind of reaction you get. Its impressive. People back away from you, don't want to talk to you, all sorts of things based on that one statement. What ticks them off even more is when you are actually informed about their faith and still don't care. (I do this to Christians all the time, which I personally consider both hysterically funny and profoundly sad when I am more familiar with the Bible than they are.) There is also a sense of surprise when they find that, philosophically, I actually agree with a number of Jesus' teachings (I also mostly agree with the Buddha's as well). I just don't buy the Big Man in the Sky bit. I mean, most religious people say they can "feel the presence of god" in their every day lives. I don't. Really. Yes, yes, the Christians have the Bible, the Jews have the Torah, the Muslims have the Qu'ran, everybody has something. And "God Wrote It." How do they know? Because the book says he did.
....
uh....this is what we call "circular reasoning" kids. I know the book is right because the book says its right. That's all it basically comes down to. On the other hand, many religious insist that atheists "prove" that their god does not exist. Not my problem. Also not my philosophy. I'm a student of the sciences, and the scientific method relies on experiments. If you can't design an experiment, how can you prove anything? How do we prove the earth is 4.5 billion years old? Radioactive decay. Carbon 14 (as opposed to carbon 12, which is just regular old carbon) is very common and has a very regular rate of radioactive decay. Depending on the amount of carbon 14 found in a rock, fossil, etc., its age can be determined by the half-life of the carbon. (see here for information on half-lives) How do we know half-life really happens? We can see it happen. Take something with a short half life, and you can literally observe it breaking down into simpler components. (Also, anyone with an ounce of knowledge of genetics knows that a gene pool consisting of two individuals will become so inbred it will kill itself off in maybe four generations. Sorry kids, neither Adam and Eve nor Noah's Ark happened. If it had, we would be...well, just do a netsearch with the word "deformed". Profoundly disturbing.
There is also this question of "where do you get your moral compass?" Well...I get it from my parents, society, philosophy, and from my own personal feelings. "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you." Its pretty simple, but so very few people follow it. I believe this is the only life I've got, and, well, I want to both enjoy it and make the world enjoyable for my children. They are, to me, my immortality. My life beyond this one. If those are my values, to make the world a better place to live, for everyone, because the way I treat others is reflected in the way they treat me--how is that wrong? Or bad, or immoral. I don't need a god to tell me to do that. And really, I believe that the choices I make are my responsibility. I am not afraid of disappointing or angering some far off deity, I am afraid of something much closer to home: disappointing myself, and those I care about. That is ever so much more painful.
"The greatest tragedy in mankind's entire history may be the hijacking of morality by religion."
-Arthur C. Clarke
I think this one I will continue....Later.
Sigh. Dammit Universe.
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