Letters to the Editor
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Hey Sankara's publicist - Good Job of Self-Promotion
In the midst of a discussion on Karen Armstrong, the letter writer, unabashedly, details an autobiography and a testimonial of an unrelated writer who's trenchant thoughts promise to improve the world. It's comforting to see that the religion of the Almighty Dollar still thrives.
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Crusades and Purges
wacky,
Thank you for your post. It seems so many (vocal) atheists feel obliged to trot out the Crusades and the like whenever making an argument about the evils of religion yet are quick to disown the excesses of Stalin and Mao and the like. If Christians have to claim the Inquisition, then atheists have to own up to the Cultural Revolution. Neither is representative of the "true truth" of their respective traditions, but fair is fair.
And, btw, I write as a non-theist religious humanist.
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Misunderstanding Atheism
Atheism isn't a moral belief system in competition with Christianity. Atheism isn't an ethical code. Atheism is simply the refusal to "believe" in some rather outlandish stories of supernatural occurences which form the basis of most of the world's religions. Atheism is a very specific example of what's sometimes more commonly described as "common sense", "reason", or "sanity".
If I told you I had superpowers, if, for example I said "I can fly like superman", you [hopefully] would not believe me, provided you are a grownup. You'd recognize that my claim is at odds with everthing human beings have so far learned about how the universe seems to work. If I couldn't prove my superpowers in any way, you'd be right to not believe in them. This, is what atheism is. It's refusing to turn off your BS detector when confronting the "sacred".
Hitler, Mao, Pol Pot, et al may or may not have been atheists but to blame atheism for their moral failings is nonsense. It's entirely possible for one to recognize Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Santaria, and plain old superstition are all unified by their dependence on hokum and nonsense, and still be a total asshole. Let's go back to my superpowers example. Let's say I tell a serial killer that I can fly, and he doesn't believe me. Then he kills 25 people in the worst way imaginable. Does this mean I can fly? Does this mean that disbelief in my powers of flight is in any way responsible for murder?
Bad things are done when people don't follow the golden rule, or some equivalent of it. I for one don't want to be treated badly by others because it's miserable. If I treat others well, I'll more likely be treated well in return. When I see others treated poorly, I tend to empathise with their situation and I "feel" bad. When I help someone out, I "feel" good because I can empathise with their happiness. I find that when people are open and generous with each other, life it better, and when people are cruel and vicious, it tends to suck. This is a morality based on the real world. It's quite simple. I find such morality far more reassuring than those based on the often self-contradictory, ignorant, sexist, homophobic, hateful, and largely apocryphal ravings of the ancient lunatics and liars that founded the worlds religions.
I disagree with Karen Armstrong in that I don't think the major religions of the world add anything of great value to discussions of morality, and it's possible to live a full and wonderous life without paying the slightest heed to any of them. This isn't intollerance. I don't think Gilgamesh or Star Wars are crucial to one's life either.
I also believe she is mistaken when she defends Christianity et al claiming that they aren't meant to be taken literally. She may want to read them as symbolic, and she may discover things of great worth in doing so, but she should be honest about how in so doing she is picking and chosing and ignoring things that by their own definitions, are supposed to be absolute. She may want to honestly examine why she's so desperate to cling to these "holy" texts, and yet so quick to interpret them against their own exhortations when they say things that she finds repugnant. Karen, you're so close to common sense...just let them go.
Finally, I am not suprised at all by the statistical correlation between those who describe themselves as religious and those who believed attacking Iraq was a good idea. Belief in religion is indicative of irrational thought. Straight up.
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Some thoughts for the religious...
1. As an atheist, I do not believe. It is not my job to disprove the existence of a god/gods. It is not my job to prove the non-existence of a god/gods.
2. If you are a believer then it should be your job to prove why. The burden is yours. So far that I'm aware, nobody has been able to do this.
3. If you are a believer, by all means, go for it. Just don't use your religion/beliefs to influence our secular laws in our secular society. Go ahead and worship IN YOUR PLACES OF WORSHIP, and leave it there. Nobody is trying to pull your church/temple/mosque down with a wrecking ball. All we atheists ask is that you keep your personal beliefs to yourself. We don't need to hear about it. Not constantly, not even a little bit. If you want to believe in the virgin birth, have at it. But far be it from you to then turn around and criticize another religious person's beliefs because they don't match your own, or because the aliens of scientology are a little too much for you to accept. Please, aliens are not crazier to accept than the virgin birth. Get over yourselves.
4. If your religion forbids you to have an abortion, then don't have one. If your religion forbids you to use birth control, then don't use it. If your religion forbids you to wear modern western dress, then don't wear it. If your religion forbids you to have sex before marriage, then don't have sex before marriage. If your religion forbids you from drinking alcohol, then don't drink it. But PLEASE, stop using *your* religion as justification to tell others what to do.
5. IMO, god/gods, if in fact they do exist, would have probably come forward by now and shown themselves in order to prove their existence. This would be a win-win for all, if we go by what christians want us to do, which is to get saved and also to convert others. If what god/jesus wants is for us all to believe in him so we can all be eternally saved, this could be accomplished simply by showing their face and proving their existence. Everybody would then "believe" and everybody wins. This has not happened.
6. If god does exist, there is no way for anyone living on this earth to know what he/she/it is thinking, wants, wishes, does, makes, works, saves, etc. When someone says marriage is between a man and a woman because god says it is, they only reveal themselves to be, well, crazy. There is no way for anyone here to know what god wants. Claiming to know what god wants is a feeble and sickening attempt at furthering your own agenda.
7. The net result of religion has been negative. Has religion done some good? Yes, but these good things could have been accomplished without religion.
8. Many religions claim they are the only "true" religion. This is intrinsically ridiculous. I had this conversation with my christian believer sister once. It went something like this:
Her: Christianity is the only true religion, and unless you accept Jesus as your savior, you will go to hell.
Me: How do you know?
Her: Because it says so in the bible.
Me: So what? Other religions teach their believers the same, that *their* religion is the only true religion and the only path to salvation.
Her: Yes, but they are wrong. It says it in the bible.
Me: Okay, but their religious texts say that too, that their religion is the only path to salvation and that non-believers and different-believers are infidels, and it is written with similar language as the christian bible.
Her: Well, they will find out when they die, because if they have not accepted Jesus as their savior they will not be accepted into heaven.
Me: But their religions say the same about christian followers, that unless they come away from christianity and accept their religion, they will not be accepted into eternal salvation.
Her: I know I am right because it is written in the bible, and I believe in the bible. I am a christian and I will live on with Jesus in heaven for all of eternity. Those who don't will be damned because their religious texts are wrong.
...and soforth. You get the idea. Simply futile.
9. In this country, last time I checked, we had a little something called freedom of religion. It would serve you well to remember that this means people are free to believe whatever they want, yourself included. Please leave your judgements at the door about what others believe. Not all religions are the same, so if you want the freedom to believe what you want, then please remember that it is the next person's right to believe something different than what you believe. And just because you *believe* something does not make it fact.