Frequently Asked Questions
And comments
Dear Theist:
Over the years I've
heard plenty of questions, some good, some totally ridiculous. And I've
received
plenty of comments many of which made little sense to me. I understand that it
is difficult to relate to atheism when you are well entrenched in god-belief.
You interpret experiences in a way that I do not. You are in a bubble; it
is difficult for you to be in my shoes without piercing it. One of the problems I have seen
with Christianity is that its adherents accept certain ideas about atheism that
make them comfortable. If you want to continue to think a certain way
about me because it makes you comfortable with what you believe, go right ahead.
But in my opinion, that is a dishonest position. Try to step into my shoes
for just a moment. Try to accept what I say as truth, at least for me, as
I accept your truth for you. It's not hard to do once you get the hang of
it. But, it will challenge some of your notions.
For a deeper look at why I don't believe what you believe and
how I came to realize I was atheist, look for my book.
Like Rolling Uphill
Realizing the Honesty of Atheism
available from:
Llumina Press
Amazon
Barnes and Noble online
Books-a-million online
and other online retailers
How
can you be an atheist?
Well, how can you not be? That's the answer I'd like to give...it's the
one that I am thinking. But it doesn't help to further understanding
between people like me and people like you. So, seriously, how can I be an
atheist?
1. I was never
indoctrinated into theism or supernaturalism. (Neither was I indoctrinated
into atheism.)
2. Once evidence of gods and a supernatural realm were presented to me, I found
the propositions to be without merit.
I can think of no
other "hows" in the matter of my being an atheist. That's how. It's
too simple, really.
How did the universe get here? How did the Earth get here? How did
we get here?
I don't know. And, frankly, neither do you.
If
there is no god, what is man's purpose?
I, personally, don't believe that man has any purpose. But if he does, I
don't know what it is. And, frankly, neither do you.
You
are denying god.
I am of the opinion that the verb "deny" is an active word. I can't deny
something that isn't there and I have no god-concept. To me, god isn't
there. I can't deny something I don't believe exists. I deny the
existence of gods because I haven't seen any evidence that they exist. But
I don't "deny" any individual gods. All they need do is present themselves
to me and I'll willingly accept that they exist. After that, we can deal
with their demands.
You
are atheist just because you want to be. You don't want to live with the
consequences of obeying god.
This is always said with great righteousness and it is a flagrant insult.
I live a moral life on par with the kindest, most moral Christians I know.
I am not a bad person. The only thing I don't do is worship a god.
If that's the worst crime I ever commit, I at least commit it for good reason.
I can't worship something that I don't believe is there. To pretend to
worship when I don't believe would be a worse crime, in my opinion.
Give
god a chance; pray to him (usually in a dark closet) for a sign of his existence
and he will reveal himself to you.
Been there, done that. I used to think I believed what you believe.
I read the Bible. I prayed. I just came to the realization one day
that I didn't believe; I was just going along with the crowd. I fell away
is all. That's when I started to ask questions, to look at the evidence.
That's when I came to understand that I am atheist.
It has been my
experience that signs of god are natural and rather mundane. I read an
article in the newspaper recently about a woman who lost her trailer in a
tornado. She prayed to god to save her roof. Well, he saved the roof
alright, but nothing else...except her life. She claimed that god answered
her prayer. Fine. I just don't see it. I read in a Dear Abbey
column recently too, about some women who found a bunch of pennies outside a car
dealership and took it as a sign that their dear departed wanted them to buy a
car at that place. It really was just a sign that someone dropped some
pennies and didn't pick them up.
I don't put meaning
into normal occurrences without some good reason to do it. If I pray
to god to show me a sign and then a few days later I "almost" get in a car
accident, is that the sign? How do I know? How many times have I
"almost" gotten into an accident when I didn't pray for a sign before-hand?
Lots! God is just too subtle for me. He's going to have to hit me
hard over the head. I've heard he's not willing to do that, which only
leads to my belief that I am closer to right on this one: there isn't a god
there. You've been taught he's there, you believe he's there, but that's
not enough for the rest of us.
You
are atheist because you choose to be.
If you want to believe this, go ahead. I can't stop you. But I would
like to say that it's not true. If I had my drothers, I'd choose to be a
Christian. A liberal one, true...maybe a Universalist. But I'd be
Christian. Why? Because I'd like to feel I belonged to a larger
family. The family of MAN is too large and diversified to offer much
solace. It'd be nice to belong in a smaller niche but one that offered
some companionship, support, feelings of familiarity, of not being different.
And of course, if the Christian god is real and there is a place called hell
where I will suffer eternal torment for not believing in him, well who would
actively choose such a fate? I'm not insane! I don't want to go to
hell. I just don't believe that hell exists.
So no. I
don't choose to be atheist. It is just something that I am.
Atheists
say there is no god but to know that, you would have to know everything and you
don't. So really, you're an agnostic.
Really, if it makes you more comfortable to use agnostic instead of atheist, go
ahead. But you would be wrong. And if truth and honesty and
correctness mean anything to you, perhaps you might rethink the whole thing.
Agnosticism is a
form of atheism. Atheism means without theism. Without belief in
deity. Agnostics believe that we can't know the truth of the proposition
regarding the existence of deity, therefore, they also have no belief in deity.
Anyone who has no belief in deity is an atheist.
I suppose there are
many atheists that literally say, "gods do not exist." That is a plausible
assertion considering the lack of evidence of gods in our world. Now, I
realize that to you, there is ample evidence. But to the skeptic, it's all
subjective emotionalism and hearsay. That doesn't cut it with us; sorry.
As to the idea that
we need to know everything to know whether or not gods exist, that may be true.
But then we have to know everything to know whether or not gnomes, fairies,
invisible pink unicorns and gabblecronks exist. Are you an agnostic with
regard to those entities? Or are you willing to say that you are
a-gnomist, without belief in gnomes?
If you believe in god and
you turn out to be right, you haven't lost anything, but you've gained eternal
life. If you don't believe and you are wrong, you've lost everything and
will suffer an eternal torment.
The funny thing about this one is that whenever someone says it to me, they
presume that I've never heard it before when I've heard it dozens of times, and
they act as if it is a profound argument when it's anything but. Pascal's
Wager can be approached several ways.
First, people don't choose to believe in or disbelieve a proposition.
I can't just start believing that gods and a supernatural realm exist. Try
to make yourself believe something that you don't. Believe that the moon
is made of green cheese. Believe that an Invisible Pink Unicorn is in your
garage. You can't do it. You'll know that you are lying to yourself.
I can't believe something that I don't, no matter how much evil you threaten me
with.
Second, pretending that I believe in something that I don't, in my
opinion, would be dishonest and therefore, I would lose a great deal. I
would lose my self-respect. And I can't imagine anyone else would respect
me if they knew I was pretending. Deeper than merely pretending, however,
is the issue of believing in something because you've been taught to, told to,
or it's habit. I think that sort of belief is also dishonest.
Believing in something when there is no evidence of its validity is again,
dishonest, in my opinion. People who do so haven't thought much about what
they believe; they aren't living consciously.
Third, Pascal's Wager can be used against Christians too.
Christians may believe that Allah is the same god as theirs. But, they
don't believe the Koran is the word of their god, and it was supposedly written
by Allah. So, if you don't believe in Allah and you are wrong, you have
lost everything. How do you know that Allah isn't the right god and
Mohammed the true prophet? Be careful, you may have chosen the wrong god.
And finally, let's suppose that the god Pascal's Wager is designed to
support does indeed exist. This god will make non-believers suffer simply
because they could not believe. In my opinion, that is immoral. No
one should be punished for what he believes, certainly not forever. I will
not follow an immoral leader. And I would not worship an immoral deity.
Belief in the torture of your enemies is a slippery slope (no matter how much
you may "pain" for them and their fate) that can lead to immorality. I
wish more Christians would take a closer look at their beliefs and make it clear
where they stand. Luckily, with a lot of them, they proclaim their immoral
stance often. So we know what they are.
Pascal's Wager is nonsense.
God loves you, whether you
love him or not; he wants you to know him.
This one is simple: all the god has to do is show himself to me.
Convincing me of his existence isn't forcing me to love and worship him. I
can still reject him--no free will problem there. But, let's face it, if
some guy I've never met wants a relationship with me, I'm going to have a
problem if he never bothers to introduce himself to me. Christians say,
"but he is trying to reach you through his word (the bible) and through other
Christians witnessing to you." Sorry, doesn't work. If some guy
wants a relationship with me and just sends me his autobiography and his friend
to tell me about him, it's not going to do it for me. Especially when his
autobiography is filled with immorality, contradiction and error...although, he
could still exist, he'd just not be as great as I was told he was.
The only answer I seem to get is that I have to really, really, really WANT him
to come into my heart (whatever that means) before he will. How can I want
a deity that I don't believe exists to do something? If I don't believe, I
can't believe. I won't even get into the biblical assurance that, in fact,
it is the Christian god himself who decides whether or not I will believe!
And besides, I've already done the closet praying thing, remember? So, I
guess your god is just too subtle for me...either that or he doesn't want me to
believe in him. Either that or he just doesn't exist and you guys are
making it all up because you really, really, really WANT there to be more to
life than...THIS!
Why do you
pick on Christianity?
Because it's all around me. It's on every street--it talks to me in the
pithy sayings on church bulletin boards, some of which are quite rude.
Most everyone I know believes in the reality of gods and demons, men rising from
the dead as blood sacrifice, that one day the streets will run red with the
blood of the wicked. And you expect me to take this all seriously, without
comment? I've done that for a bit too long.
I've also found that Christianity isn't what most Christians think it is, at
least it's not what they keep telling me it is. It's immoral.
Speaking out against immorality can't be bad.
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