What religion are you?

14 December, 2008

Freethinking Part 1: A Will of Our Own
by Silas The Philosopher

There is a belief among many christians that without god, we would degenerate into murderous, selfish, pillaging bastards. They say that he gives us our morals and our guidance, and keeps us civilized. They seem to forget that belief in god has been the cause of many of humanity's greatest wars and slaughters, an excuse for our greed, and a justification of our hate. There have been wars in the name of god, atrocities committed because "god told me to" (holocaust, crusades), and everywhere, religion discriminates against and hates almost everyone who differs from them (Jews, homosexuals, Islam). I am not saying that all religious people are hateful bastards. Quite untrue. There are many who are very kind, wonderful people. Deluded, but that's beside the point This is not because of god, it is because of their interpretation of god. God is simply a middle man, a scapegoat who can be praised for our achievements and cursed for our failures. I say, cut him out. Think for yourself and common sense will supply you with all of the morals, ethics, and selflessness that people attribute with religion. Free will, not god, allows us to think for ourselves and choose not to be bastards.

Not all Atheists are not hateful or spiteful. We do not wish to destroy spirituality or goodwill, or the search for answers. However, most of us do wish for an end to organized religion, because it stops people from finding those answers. Those who follow religion believe they have the answers already. We as Atheists don't hate religious people, we pity them. As you try to convert us to your religions, we hope to convince you to open your eyes, if just for a second, so that you can see past the limitations of the hypothesis of god and start searching for your own answers, outside of the ones provided by religion. We have our own morals and scruples, as freethinking Atheists. I don't want to sound condescending, I want to be blunt and to the point. As a scientific hypothesis, god is over 2000 years out of date and still has no evidence to support it; your texts are full of errors and contradictions and are comprised mostly of older stories taken from earlier systems of belief. (yes, they did exist). Yes, religions have answers. The wrong answers.

This is my call any religious person reading this blog. Stop focusing on recycling flawed ideas that were conceived millenia ago, and experience thinking for yourself. Choose to work towards something more worthwhile than religion. Science is not an organization trying to bring you down, it is a system for finding answers; not so different from religion. It is, however, more careful, more precise, more up to date, more malleable. It is powered by free will and the motivation to learn, where religion is powered by faith, and this is precisely why science has disproved and shaken so many of the foundations of the religions, respectively. Don't let some imaginary being or some old book tell you how to act civilized. You will have so much more power and confidence in yourself if you choose to be civilized on your own.

14 comments:

  1. "we would degenerate into murderous, selfish, pillaging bastards."

    let's analyze that claim shall we? What happens when Atheists take over Government? historically, avowed atheists leading secular regimes have a ~58% chance of committing some form of mass murder. Another delicious piece of evidence for this claim is the fact that the 20th century witnessed the most brutal wars and crimes against humanity in history. the 20th century was also the most godless century in human history.

    "They seem to forget that belief in god has been the cause of many of humanity's greatest wars and slaughters, an excuse for our greed, and a justification of our hate."

    Let's see we have the crusades, the crusades, and the crusades. that's pretty much it, unless you count muslim atrocities committed in the past half century. But that of course is irrational and is tantamount to blaming the entire auto industry for making the Ford Pinto. But there's one interesting fact you shoudl be made aware of. Atheism has really only been popular for the last 200 years. Before that there really were no governments committing genocide against their own people.

    "Deluded, but that's beside the point"

    The amount of arrogance and elitism displayed by Internet atheist retards like yourself is simply overwhelming. I have to plug my nose every time I even think about engaging an internet atheist in religious discourse because I am always certain that they will be incredibly ignorant and incredibly resistant to facts and logic. My expectations really have never been contradicted by reality.

    "Not all Atheists are not hateful or spiteful."

    but of course the overwhelming vast majority of them are hateful and spiteful. It could have something to do with the fact that the overwhelming vast majority of them came to Atheism because of some emotional reasons, or because it has been cool to be a God-hater since 2004

    "because it stops people from finding those answers."

    Atheism merely pretends to have answers by simply not asking questions.

    "and experience thinking for yourself"

    I have done such and have found Atheism to be ridiculous and absurd.

    Good day to you sir, I hope you can one day curb your arrogance because it really smells to high heaven.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Atheism merely pretends to have answers by simply not asking questions.


    Atheism's answers change based on what science tells us (with some people being exempt). The bible has been the same for 2,000 years. It is your religion that pretends to have answers by not asking questions.

    I would have responded to the whole comment if you didn't just absolutely KILL your credibility with that.

    ReplyDelete
  3. You also forgot about Hitler's genocide of Jews, his war, and the country he brainwashed into following him. While not nearly as grand and dark as the Stalinist counterpart, ignoring that and only mentioning the Crusades speaks something to either your honesty or your historical knowledge.

    Hitler was a Christian.

    ReplyDelete
  4. "Atheism's answers change based on what science tells us"

    So I trust that you dont believe in metaphysical presuppositions like "There are other minds besides my own" or "there is an external world" or "the world wasn't created 5 minutes ago"?

    "I would have responded to the whole comment if you didn't just absolutely KILL your credibility with that."

    Oh keep telling yourself that you retard. the only one buying that ad hominem argument is youself.

    "Hitler was a christian" no retard he wasn't. The Nazis tried to destroy the Bible. Hitler was deeply anti-christian. Hell, he murdered Catholic preists in his holocaust. Hitler was more likely a pagan than a Christian or Atheist.

    "Stalinist counterpart" its not just stalin dude, its also people like Mao Tse Tung, Pol Pot, Maxamillian Robespierre, etc.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hitler WAS religious, favoring parts of protestant and a warped form of christianity that favored a jesus that fought Jews.

    Atheism is changed based on science. Science tells us the world wasn't made five minutes ago, science tells us there are more minds than our own.

    And one mistake that you are making that ninety percent of the religious people online make is that Atheists are united in our beliefs. That's far from the truth. The one, and ONLY, thing that qualifies you as an Atheist is a disbelief in a higher power or afterlife. All that other stuff is personal preference.

    Also, Jake? If you have a quotation, you usually end it with punctuation, a comma if you aren't sure what. If you use a period, exclamation mark, or question mark, then you capitalize the word following the quotation. Saying the word "retard" does absolutely nothing to help your side of any debate unless it is the subject of the debate. This is not the case here.

    Don't waste my time with your idiotic bullshit. If you are going to leave a comment on this page, make it thoughtful, make it grammatically correct, and don't insult us, because my friend; there is no scenario in which an insult would support your side of an arguement.

    ReplyDelete
  6. "Hitler was religious" hitler was a pagan, not a christian. he tried to destroy the Bible. does that sound like any christian you've met in your time?

    "Atheism is changed based on science" this is simply out of the realm of science

    "Science tells us the world wasn't created 5 minutes ago" no actually it doesn't. There is no scientific evidence for this

    "science tells us there are more minsd than our own" science cannot possibly tell me that you are a mind.

    "Atheists are united in our beleifs" it sure seems that way when dealing with the fundies like yourself

    "saying the word "retard" does absolutely nothing to help your side"

    "Dont waste my time with your idiotic bullshit"

    HOORAY for consistency!

    ReplyDelete
  7. "Science tells us the world wasn't created 5 minutes ago" no actually it doesn't. There is no scientific evidence for this

    Did you REALLY just say that? I hope to no god you didn't mean it.

    Also, Cynic, calling his argument bullshit is no more helpful than him calling me a retard.

    ReplyDelete
  8. "Did you REALLY just say that? I hope to no god you didn't mean it."

    No there isn't. That is a metaphysical statement. Any scientific evidence against such a thesis would presuppose the falsity of such a thesis.

    ReplyDelete
  9. A minute is a length of time, through which I have lived far more than 5. Its not science; Its empiricism.

    Empirical evidence supports science, not the other way around.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Time is an axiom, a postulate. It is assumed to exist because we are assumed to experience it.

    I can tell you, I damn well have a reason to assume the existence of time and the accuracy of empirical evidence.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Jake.

    You can point to the 20th century and the supposed "attrocities" perpeutated by "aheism regimes".

    If you examine these cases you wil realise that people were moved towards them by ignorance, opportunism, force or by lack or reflection - by not thinking for themselves but by internalising what ideology was drilled into them by the ideological apparatus of the state. This is the prerequisite for a religios mentality.

    As atheists you are less likely to be duped into some twisted belief system which manipulates in the interest of particualar ideological and political agendas.

    In fact, as a Christian, you are atheistic toward all the gods which existed before the Judao/Christian tradition. Atheistic toward the same tradition which provided the basis for your interpretation of god. Think about that. Your God is one of many, created, evolved and spread by men to serve a political needs. God and Religion is so obviously man made.

    Why are you not Jewish or Hindu? because you were brought up in christian circles, if you were born in Pakistan, there is every likely hood that you would be muslim. It is pure chance that you were born, and pure chance that you happened to be born in an environment which thrust upon you a outdated metaphysical worldview with no relation to the empirical world. People do not spontaneously take to the belief that there exist a God, a devil, that priests are messengers of God - this is taught!

    My advice is not to find justification in your present life from some meaningless beyond existing after death - find justification and value for your life in the here and now. You dont necesarrily need to think science is some sort of final truth (its not) but at least come up with your own way to cope with the life there is a huge probability you didnt have.

    Thanks for your input though, as always, i am open to other perspectives, your perspective just happens to be one which i can not bring myself to believe, let alone respect. You could think i am some evil machination of the devil, or just another imperfectly evolved primate who was lucky enough to be tought to think for myself.

    ReplyDelete
  12. "Secular schools can never be tolerated because such a school has no religious instruction and a general moral instruction without a religious foundation is built on air; consequently, all character training and religion must be derived from faith.... We need believing people."
    -- Adolf Hitler, April 26, 1933

    Discuss away!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Jake. I'm sorry that atheists seem arrogant to you. I try my individual best, regardless of my belief, not to be arrogant, but as I'm sure you know, any person from any walk of life is capable of arrogant speech and or behavior. I speak across any divisions of belief when i say that we as humans could do with less arrogance as a whole. That being said, I really don't appreciate your insults and mudslinging. Retarded people do not deserve to have their mental conditions spoken of in vain, and neither do I.

    Regarding your allegation that every atheist is arrogant, I will attempt to provide a possible explanation: Your perception of arrogance may in truth be your observation that while we atheists strive to use careful diction, and express our idea's in a calm and intelligent manner, you and other Christians hastily engage in such lackluster mudslinging as you have exampled in previous comments.

    ReplyDelete
  14. the most spiritual people in history went through serious life phases of atheism, even jesus disbelieved god while on the cross, wouldn't you? our human spirits, unlike the animals, have a documented history of trying to make meaning out of chaos. go read. go sit on a mountaintop and figure it out.

    ReplyDelete