Atheism 101

How do you know who your Daddy is? Because your Momma told you so.

This quote from the movie JFK has always stuck with me for some reason. I suspect because it has stopped and made me contemplate all of the things that I was told were truths when I was a child.

One of the things that I take the most pride in is my ability to come up with my own set of beliefs, regardless of what others think or what the consequences might be. I have a thurst for logic and reason that I hope will never be quenched. Some people think that I am argumentative at times but really it is just my attempt to look at something in its most logical light.

It is this spirit that prompts me to analyze something that I think most people never do: their "faith". I'll get right to it... I think religion is horsesh**. I think it is the cause of so much of the evil in the world. I could list all of the evil things that have been done in the name of god but we all know them. Instead, I'll list my reasons for believing what I believe (or rather, not believing what so many others believe).

The History of Belief

One needs only to look at the history of "belief" to see its hypocrisy. There have been hundreds or thousands of religions in this world that have come along. Early religions believed in many gods ruled the heavens but the more modern superstitions narrowed it down to one god. Some religions believed that the sun was at the center of the universe, others adjusted with science.

So pick a religion, any religion. Lets say, for argument's sake, that your religion is the "real" one and that all others were wrong. That means that 99% of the people that have inhabited this here pile of dirt were partially or completely wrong in their belief. With those odds, why would anyone like to think that they picked the winning long shot?

Take it a step further. There is a reason why religious leaders scorned science. After all, free thinking is the enemy of faith. Why is that? The answer is obvious - you are not supposed to think or question. Think of all of the people that were maimed, imprisoned or killed because they dared question the (current) word of god? On top of that, just about every military conflict in the history of this planet can be traced to the same kind of our-faith-is-better-than-yours mentality. And people wonder why our founding fathers wanted a separation of church and state?

When you think about it, all religions have several things in common. You can only believe their god(s) and none others. All other religions were wrong. There is an afterlife and this is the carrot that is used to keep everyone in line. There is some kind of supernatural event that proves that their guy is the chosen one. And since every other nonbeliever is blasphemous the word of god (their god) has to be spread.


The Bible

One need only to look at the Bible to see how ridiculous this all is. The Bible itself is full of contradictions, including the very beginning of Genesis that states that Adam arrived with Eve before then stating that Eve came with Adam. You can find all kinds of really entertaining things. You'd almost think that some high schooler had made up all of this stuff (at least the Scientologists got an actual writer to make up their religion, even if it was never meant to be a religion). You can find more contradictions here.

While researching this post I saw that many people said that the vagueness and contradictions are actually enriching because they encourage different interpretations. Really? So let me get this straight: you've got the greatest story ever told and you felt the need to write it well after it happened and then keep rewriting it through the centuries? And you can't even gets your facts straight? Maybe it isn't a good idea to say in one sentence that homosexuality is wrong and then not even a paragraph later say it is ok. Of course, any religious group will take the part that supports their view. And this is enriching? This is also the same kind of thinking that has allowed people (including our own lovely president) to say that he is doing god's work.

To explain away some of the ridiculousness of the bible, apologists often say that the sillier stuff are actually metaphors and not to be taken literally. I give the fundamentalists credit when it comes to this kind of thinking - they went all in rather than trying to explain everything away. The problem with going all in is that you have to ignore common sense (see a recurring trend here?) by pretending that the dinosaurs didn't exist. The problem with explaining things away is that it is a slippery slope and at that point everything can be explained way. If half of the Bible is meant to be metaphorical, why couldn't all of it be so?

I know, I know... "your science isn't everything". But as the years go by science and archaology tear away more and more of the stories on the bible. In one sense the believers will say that the stories are just those - stories. But if there is in fact some kind of archaelogical evidence that (maybe) supports a myth it is championed as proof that their religion is in fact valid. My favorite example of this is the Shroud of Turin. At least the blanky would be a unique twist to this story. The son-of-god-then-died-then-resurrected is an old one in world mythology. Hell, even common tales like Noah's Ark were pilfered from someone else.

Please check out Penn and Teller's The Bible is Bullsh** if you want to see many more examples. Some more gems include:

- It is ok to sell your daughter into slavery (Exodus)
- Anyone working on the Sabath should be put to death (Exodus)
- Having long hair is a sin (Corrintheans)
- A man should not go near a woman when on her period

And this says nothing about the cruelty and hatred that is espoused in this book. And this is supposed to be a moral code?

god

Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?      Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing?      Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing?      Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing?      Then why call him God? - Epicurus For some reason people take the beauty and wonder of this world as proof that there is a god and that he loves us. Really? This is the same thinking that says lights in the sky are proof that there are UFOs. I've never understood the need to make the unexplained have to be related to the supernatural. At the end of the day it is not encumbent of disbelievers to prove that there isn't a god. I ask for just one reason to think that there is a God. Quite honestly, there isn't any.

Even if you play along with the idea that there is a god, Epicurus points out the obvious in the quote above. If there really is a god then he really can't love us that much because he allows or even brings upon us so much evil. Why worship such a being? Why pretend that such a being loves us? And what exactly are people praying for? Are they asking for god not to keep looking the other way? So if we beg enough, he'll listen? And why should we have to pray for things? Aren't we taught to be a good person and not to ask for anything? "Hey god, I know that you're busy ignoring my sick friend but could you see it in your goodness to not allow him to be sick?". There is even proof that prayer doesn't work. Something really stinks here.

Jesus (or any other prophet)

There is a fair amount of evidence that states that Jesus never claimed to be the son of god and it wasn't until much later (and many translations) that he was given this distinction. I could include a link or two here that debates the topic but at the end of the day it is really just a piece of text that has been rewritten and retranslated over the years versus other text of questionable authenticity. Apparently the claim to be the son of god and resurrected to heaven was not a unique claim at that time - see the story of Apolonius. Sound familiar?

Summary

The only thing that I struggle with is exactly how the universe started. Believers say that this is the ultimate proof that god exists but I'm not so sure. When I stub my toe in the dark I don't think that because I couldn't see what happend that a supernatural event is the cause. Science has come so far in telling how where we came from that at some point I believe they'll know how this random mess started (there are already theories as to how it happened).

At the end of the day all of this is exhausting. I recently heard that people believe in the "belief of god" rather than actually believing in god. We all want to believe it is true and it is what we were raised to believe so it is easy and comfortable to just go along with it. All you have is because your Momma told you so.

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