subprocess

It seems to me that when people write critically of religion that people assume the author feels superior to theists.

I don’t think you’re stupid, if you believe in God. I don’t think I was stupid when I believed in God and prayed to him daily. In general, I don’t think that having faith is stupid. I think it’s important for some people to have faith and I think no less of them for having it.

Believing in God is all about faith. There is no evidence for a supernatural being. But at the same time, there’s no evidence against a supernatural being. Some people believe in God, some people believe in Fairies, some people believe in Santa Clause, and some people believe in multiple Gods. Since there is no evidence at all to support these beliefs, it takes faith. And I don’t think you’re stupid for having faith.

I liked the way Richard Dawkins explained what he means when he says he’s an atheist in his book “The God Delusion”: God is very improbable. He doesn’t believe 100% that a supernatural being does not exist. He just finds that God is very improbable. More improbable than an agnostic would admit.

So to him, an atheist is someone who finds God just as improbable as invisible pink unicorns. It’s not definite that neither exists, but it’s pretty safe to say they don’t. I agree with him much on this.

I greatly enjoyed those parts of “The God Delusion”. As he talked about the beauty and awesome power of non-random natural selection. He gets a bit radical towards the end when he declares that raising kids as a “Christian” or “Catholic” or “Jew” is child abuse…

So to claim that you are an atheist is to claim that God is improbable. No faith required. To claim that you are religious is to claim that God definitely exists. Much faith required.

Given all that… I do get passionate about a few things. But that passion has nothing to do with thinking less of religions.

I get passionate about defending atheist’s morals. I have encountered people who think that to be an atheist means you no longer have a reason to be a nice, moral, positive addition to society. If anything, I have become nicer and a more positive addition to society than when I was Christian.

I get passionate about equal rights. Yes, I do think it’s horribly mean and unjust of religion to try and socially hurt homosexuals as much as they can. Go ahead and declare that homosexuality isn’t for you because you disagree with it… but don’t hold that against the GLBT community and don’t fight against movements to grant them the rights they deserve.

I get passionate about education. My kids are entering the public school system and I want them to have a modern education in the science classroom. So I get passionate about a few things…

The Earth/Universe is old and should be taught that way. This isn’t simply a “guesstimate”, multiple areas of science have independently came to the same conclusion. To disagree with the Earth and Universe being billions of years old is to ignore a freaking ton of evidence. Again, this is where faith is required. If you believe the Earth/Universe is young, you believe that on FAITH. And that’s fine, go ahead. Just admit that it’s faith and keep it out of the science classrooms.

Evolution is true. It has been said “nothing makes sense in modern biology without evolution”. It is both a fact and a scientific theory. It needs to be taught in science classes. The fact is that humans have slowly evolved in to what we are now. The scientific theory is the best explanation (”natural selection” – that is testable and has been tested) for how humans have evolved in to what we are now.

If there were valid evidence against an old earth/universe or evolution… Scientists would gladly change their thoughts. Such evidence would be accepted with open arms and praised by scientists worldwide for proving them wrong. Scientists like it when they’re proven wrong.

So to believe that evolution is false takes faith. And I’m OK with that, go ahead and believe (with faith) that evolution is wrong. Just admit that it’s faith and stop trying to get the public schools to agree with your faith.

So I hope that clears any misconceptions up. I respect your faith and do not think less of you for having it. Just don’t attack atheists for having no morals, and keep your faith to yourselves. Just as someone with Christian faith wouldn’t want someone with Muslim faith forcing their faith on them, they should not force their faith on others.

I do not think having faith is stupid. It’s just not for me anymore and I have strong beliefs that your own personal faith should be just that… yours and personal.

It is true that I also think that the world just might be better off without religion. I highly doubt it’d be any worse. But I recognize that a world with no religion is a long long long… LONG way off. And I don’t think the typical religious person (I’m thinking of just about all the Christians/Catholics/Jews I have known and I am still good friends with) are holding the world back. I’m thinking of the extremes, the militant. Faith inspires some to do crazy things like suicide mass murder missions, or to carry out “justice” with their own two hands and murder an individual. Would 9/11 had happened if there was no religion? With no promise of eternal bliss to the terrorists for striking down sinful America? I personally don’t think so.

Posted on July 9th, 2009 under atheism • Tags: atheism. • RSS 2.0 feed • You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed