Militant Atheist
-noun
- an atheist who opens their mouth.
Atheists are often criticized for being militant. I really don’t think the theists calling us militant really understand what a religious militant is. For example:
This is a militant Muslim. Notice the large weapon with a high firing rate, mask, and serious amount of ammunition? Not to mention his buddy with the RPG behind him. Also notice the twin towers after having two passenger jets slammed into them.
This is a militant Christian. Notice the FBI building blown to shreds?
Now for the worst of them all, a militant atheist! These terrible monsters go around blogging about religion and the separation of church and state! Notice all of the carnage and blood and clearly militant actions?! Yeah, me neither.
Any time someone writes something critical of religion they will get one of two different responses: apologetics and/or copouts. If a religion needs apologetics then it was clearly not created by “the most intelligent thing ever” and can be ignored. Religious copouts are appeals to magical forces or the issue being some failure on the doubter’s part that cannot be proven and removes the burden of proof from the commenter. Here are some of the ones I see often and annoy me the most:
- You’ve already been given all the evidence you need.
Then why the hell am I asking for more? - You weren’t sincere enough in your prayers.
How can anyone make that kind of judgment? Are these people suddenly psychic? Do they know they can make $1,000,000 for that over at the Jame Randi Educational Foundation? - You have to believe first and then you’ll see the evidence.
I can no more make myself believe without evidence in a god then I could that there are communist reptilians controlling the U.N. I’m not capable of believing without an acceptable amount of evidence. - God hides the true message of the scripture from you unless you have the holy ghost.
Let me get this straight. The only way to become a Christian is to read your bible, and the only way to read your bible is to be a Christian. That’s real smart. - God is talking to you, but you aren’t listening.
I’m listening as best as I can, if that’s not good enough for your god then I guess I’m just screwed. - Your heart is hardened against God.
No, I’m just a skeptic and I don’t have the burden of proof. You do. - I’ll pray for you.
This usually pops up when the believer has exhausted all of their arguments and just wants to throw out a final passive-aggressive “fuck you”. My usual response is “and I’ll think for you”.
I’ve very likely missed some “good” copouts so if you come up with one put it in the comments.
I live on the buckle of the American “Bible Belt” and every once in a while I have evangelical Christians come knocking on my door at dinner time to tell me the “good news” (that I will be burning in Hell for all eternity). So I’ve decided that I should probably work out the major problems I have with Christianity so that my discussions with them will include less rambling and be more to the point (I don’t just slam the door in their faces because I enjoy making them squirm). Below I have listed my major issues with Christianity. However, it is primarily tailored towards the evangelical branches of Christian faith because those are Christians I deal with on a normal basis.
In no particular order:
- Biblical literalism is inconsistent with scientific knowledge.
- Biblical interpretation proves the book to be a human invention or the god to be incompetent.
- Biblical law is immoral as it condones slavery, genocide, xenophobia, incest, rape, and misogyny.
- Biblical scholars’ god is very different than the layman’s god.
- We are fully capable of rational and critical thought yet we are only rewarded for blind faith and obedience.
- Historical evidence for Jesus outside the bible is largely thought to be forgeries or too ambiguous.
- Evangelical Christians give huge amounts of money to the church and are the poorest and least educated of all the major denominations. So much for the Prosperity Gospel.
- If we are all loved equally by this god why was Thomas and Paul given much more evidence than me?
- Many of the sins in the bible are arbitrary and lack any founding in reason.
- The idea of Hell and an infinite punishment for a finite crime make very little sense when sinners could just be annihilated.
These aren’t my only issues with Christianity, but they are my most pressing problems at the moment. Do you have major issues that I haven’t mentioned? Put them in the comments!
In the past, when I’ve discussed my non-belief with Christians I’ve often been told: “You’re just an atheist because you haven’t been to my church yet!”. Before I became an all out atheist, or more accurately, before I came to understand that my position was atheism, I decided to see if these Christians were right. In the last fifteen years I’ve been to several different kinds of churches, each with it’s own take on the story of Christianity and each a unique approach on how to better teach its gospel. I think I can now safely say that it is not the individual church, nor is it the way in which the church presents the “good news” that keeps me from being a Christian. It is what is at the heart of every Christian church, your theology contained in your bible.
Either the stories contained in your bible are the literal truth or they are not. Either the world presented by the scientific community is a fiction or it is not. Both entities are opposed to each other whether you like it or not. Your bible contains many stories that cannot be true when put against the tests of the scientific mind. They have been contested for the last two thousand years and up until recently those who contested your bible have not been debated, they have been tortured or murdered, which seems quite ridiculous when one understands your entire faith is based on the torture and murder of one man, but I digress.
The biblical account is found wanting by the skeptic because of the extraordinary stories presented and the lack of any evidence to prove these stories true. No matter what light you show your god in, we will easily be able to see the truth of the matter by taking a quick look at your book. We see genocide, slavery, misogyny, and xenophobia covertly trying to be covered up by a thin layer of “love” and “compassion”. We see the justifications for a father who hits you because he loves you, but anyone with common sense can see that love is love because it doesn’t beat the shit out of you, even if you might deserve it.
The rest of the world moves forward scientifically and ethically, past the bronze age rules and punishments detailed in your book. Christianity will never be able to convince the skeptical community on the whole because your religion will always have to be based on the accounts in your bible. The cornerstone of your faith is also the rock you have tied to your feet, enthusiastically drowning yourselves.
Today is Father’s Day, so I thought it would be useful to write about the worst father ever imagined. I’m talking about Yahweh, so “imagined” is an amusingly appropriate term. Why is he the worst father ever? Let’s take a look at why Yahweh deserves the title of “Worst Dad Ever”:
- When his children misbehaved he drowned the entire planet, killing 99% of them.
- He ordered one of his sons to murder his grandson, only telling him it was a joke at the last second.
- Yahweh also made a deal with another one of his children to kill the first thing that left the man’s house, in order to win a battle, knowing full well ahead of time that it would be the man’s daughter. He did not stop this man and the daughter was slaughtered and burned.
- He sent another one of his son’s to Earth to be tortured and then murdered so that his own bloodlust could be satisfied. Depending on your theology, he may have also sent this son to Hell to be tortured more for three days.
- He plays favorites by deliberately showing his power to a select few and then punishing the rest of his kids when they are skeptical of the claims of the handful of kids.
- He gives infinite punishment to those who are not even able to comprehend infinity, for finite crimes.
- Lastly, Yahweh also plays the meanest game of hide and seek ever, hiding from his children in such a way that he cannot be found, then sending those children who can’t find him to Hell for eternity.
I do not think there is a universal absolute morality. However, I do think there is a basis for morality for humans. All humans are restricted by three constructs: pain, death, and our genes. We can build up a tolerance to pain and can even learn to fight our primal urges, but, ultimately, death is the only construct that cannot be tampered with. For humanity, a morality using those 3 constructs as a basis is logically sound and anything not based on them is illogical.
For example; trying to avoid pain, death, and causing other humans pain or death would would be a simple form of morality that has logical ground based on the human condition.
This kind of morality is easily extended to non-human species who also have genetic predispositions, feel pain, and die.
Before humanity can have a conversion on morality they must have some point to start from. I posit that the different kinds of human moral systems can be judged on how moral they are based on the criteria shown above.
So what do you think?
Moral Relativism
I do not think there is a universal absolute morality. However, I do think there is a basis for morality for humans. All humans are restricted by three constructs: pain, death, and our genes. We can build up a tolerance to pain and can even learn to fight our primal urges, but, ultimately, death is the only construct that cannot be tampered with. For humanity, a morality using those 3 constructs as a basis is logically sound and anything not based on them is illogical.
For example; trying to avoid pain, death, and causing other humans pain or death would would be a simple form of morality that has logical ground based on the human condition.
This kind of morality is easily extended to non-human species who also have genetic predispositions, feel pain, and die.
Before humanity can have a conversion on morality they must have some point to start from. I posit that the different kinds of human moral systems can be judged on how moral they are based on the criteria shown above.
So what do you think?
This has been making the rounds in the Atheosphere and I’ve decided to help propagate it. Happy Friday everyone!
In our galaxy alone there are over a hundred-billion stars. There are over a hundred-billion galaxies in the known universe. In comparison to the grand scheme of things, I can’t even begin to comprehend exactly how small I am. Anytime I think about these things, I am put into a state of awe. I am impassioned by the majesty of the natural world. The Earth itself is so diverse and amazing that it can keep me up at night thinking about how ecosystems and genetic diversity play out and have played out for the last three or four billion years.
Our universe is 13.7 billion years old, which is another number so large the human mind can’t comprehend it. What’s more interesting to me is that Sol, our local star, is only 4.57 billion years old. It’s a third generation star, which means that it and the rest of our solar system is made up of material from a star that sat in this same spot and then died, twice. I often wonder if life had managed to evolve on a planet rotating around the first or second generation Sol. Maybe that life had reached the stars and colonized this whole galaxy, only to eventually die out in the billions of years that have passed since their first sentient thought.
This seems like a lot of rambling but my point is this: the universe is exorbitantly large and remarkably old. Our entire civilization, whether we leave Earth or not, will be more than lucky to even last a blinks worth of time to this universe. I think that one of the most repugnant things about most organized religion is the kind of self centered id they have about our place in this world. The whole universe was created so that our puny planet could come forth nine billion years later, and we puny humans could come about in another four billion years after that? That is a kind of egocentrism and arrogance that even an atheist could never have. I find all of that incredibly unlikely. However, I do feel fortunate to have been able to witness as much as I have so far, and I can only hope to see more of the wonders the natural world has to offer.
Something I don’t understand is this aversion many atheists’ have towards an atheist symbol. While I don’t think there will ever be a consensus among atheists for a single symbol, I don’t see a problem with trying. I also don’t see a problem with multiple symbols, atheists are varied and while one subgroup may be of an anti-religious, another may be more pro-science, and multiple symbols can help differentiate that.
Western atheism is a subculture, there can be no denying that. It’s a rallying point for an oppressed people and that is an important thing. Aside from that, atheism already has a well used symbol. A word like “atheist” or “atheism” is a symbol for an abstract concept. When you’re calling yourself an atheist you’re already using symbology, so just get over it and find an image you like or choose none.
A Christian on Twitter recently told me “Without God nothing matters.”
I really don’t understand how someone can come to this conclusion if they are thinking at all. To me, without a god everything matters. Our lives are so short that every last second is a page in the novella of our lives. Why on earth would you want to live your life thinking “If I’m wrong on this one issue then my entire life is for naught”?
Life is infinitely more important when it’s finite. This is my only life and I have no idea how long it’s going to be, with the advance of modern medicine I may live to be 150 if I can avoid a terrible accident, maybe even 300 years if we don’t have any more Republican presidents banning funding on research. Ultimately, I can’t know though and that is a scary thought, but that doesn’t mean I start believing in things that are completely devoid of evidence.
So what about you, fellow atheists, do you think life matters even though we don’t get to live forever?
