The thoughts of a fed-up atheist (#2).

Note to reader:

This same post can be found in the 'April' section of my blog. I've included revisions, corrections and two additional paragraphs in this version. I hope you enjoy the piece. (If you spot any errors, please tell me.)

The thoughts of a fed-up atheist:

I'm an atheist. So fuckin' what? Big fuckin' deal. As an atheist, I'm pretty pissed off with the world of today. I try to remain quite liberal but I end up finding that the term 'liberal conservative' does have some application. I'm a deep believer in secularism and, luckily, I find myself living in quite a secular country. I'm a deep believer in science, but I'm not a humanist. I'm not a Buddhist. Nor am I a Muslim, a Sikh or a Christian. I don't believe in the Jains or Hinduism - though I do believe in their advocacy of non-violence (not that Christ wasn't a great model - it's just that Christians as a people tend to be quite war-ready; even war-hungry).

The only philospher I can relate to is Confucius, as he seems like a much more wizened version of Jesus. And, although I've never read it, I expect I'd be a rather impassioned advocate of western philosophy! Heck, I guess we all are as we're all probably writing from computers located in democratic countries, right!?

In the Britain of today we have a problem with religion. On one hand, many people are deeply humbled by, and respectful of, other people's religions, but, on the other hand, many people are also deeply wary of how politicians deal with religious issues wearing cotton mittens. Can we really afford to bend to the whims of every person's ignorance? I think not.

There are certain values that we all hold dear, but which I don't think are practised in 'religious countries'. In the Arab Emirates, women are treated like ornaments. They're made to wear their hijabs and burkas and are, in most respects, inferior and subordinate to men. In Catholic nations, contraception is frowned upon, resulting in unwanted pregnancies, the transmittance of STDs and many disenchanted youngsters being brought up into poverty. It also seems that, in the past, at least, Catholic popes have been against gay rights - as well as women's rights - and for slavery, stating that the ultimate ends are justified in that many heathen will be converted to Christianity and saved from both their sins and hell - even if those people were unaware of that religion in the first place. It was also a practise of Spanish Conquistadors to bless Amerindian children before dashing their brains out so that upon dying they wouldn't be sent to hell. Can you see how religious ends allow for a great degree of evil that any moral person would find despicable?

Aside from gay and women's rights, many Christians are against abortion - even in cases of rape or incest. Ultimately, I believe, the decision should rest with the person bearing the child. Are you a single mother? Do you live under the poverty line? Do you work two or three jobs? No? Then shut the fuck up! I find it despicable how some religious people think they can presume on other people's lives just because they feel they have the moral high ground. If you believe in such crazy notions then that's fine; just keep your damn beliefs to yourself. Ultimately, abortion isn't a great thing. It all depends on whether you believe that the spirit enters the zygote at the moment of conception. First of all, I don't believe in the word 'spirit'. Whatever 'energy' (and other psychobabble nonsense words applying to 'soul') we have is reduced to nothing upon death. Consciousness is bound up in the structure of the brain - when it's destroyed upon death so is this so-called 'spirit'. Second of all, a blastocyst is just a collection of cells with no awareness at all - it hasn't a frickin' nervous system for frick sake! Even a child has no awareness of the world upon birth - it's a completely blank and impressionable slate which learns over time and adapts to the culture in which it's born. Not that I'm advocating infanticide or anything; I believe that a child should be given the best possible start - which is why I'm an advocate of family planning, which, in itself, is paradoxically the best way to combat abortion.

A lot of evangelical and fundamentalist Christians will say that liberals are baby killers (I think that all Christians - even moderate ones - deplore abortion). Now that's just nonsense. If you want to know the real killer, look no further than the God in whom you believe. Tens of millions of miscarriages occur every year, many babies die shortly after being born and many fertilised eggs often don't gestate at all. If you believe that all of this was created by some malevolent, disturbed deity then that deity is responsible for all the suffering and pain in the world - and that includes abortions. You can vest your hopes and fears in such a deranged being if you believe he/she/it exists, but I say he/she/it can take his/her/its bad attitude and fuck off! (I am of course making an analogy so don't construe that comment to, in any way, suggest I have some vague belief in the god hypothesis.)

One further variant on that theme is what religion does to children. I'm not trying to indulge in some anti-Christianity polemic (or am I?), but, once again, I'll take a look at what Christianity does to young children. First, then, we have the burning issue of sex. Young, Christian children are indoctrinated from a young age to have a morbid fear of sex. Today, at least, we have sex education - but I don't remember learning about sex until I was ten or eleven years old. From an early age, only cavalier parents tell their young children about sex, thinking that it's only natural. This, of course, is the right attitude to take but many devout Christians think that young children can't handle the information or think it's improper and immoral to tell them of such information (or, sadly, both of these). This inspires in young children a great deal of curiousity which, over time - if untreated - can become a pathological fixation. By witholding such important information from children, we only serve to heighten their interests in the subject of sex, whilst at the same time inculcating in them immense feelings of shame and sin. Second, in the Catholic church children are discouraged from engaging in premarital sex but then they're encouraged to 'be fruitful and multiply' upon consummation. That just seems a bit of a jump from one extreme to the other. Surely, a healthy, normal sex-life should consist of knowing about the subject and being able to make one's own decisions - all the while regarding the law, of course.

It seems dangerous when such ideals threaten world stability. Religious people hold their deities dear, hoping that their gods - their Allah or Yahveh or Jehova or Shiva (maybe even their Zeus, Apollo or Odin - depending on the antiquity of their beliefs) - will act as a protector and big brother, thus guaranteeing them safety in their passages to the next life. It seems fairly selfish and ignorant to live a good life based on the maxim that one will be rewarded with eternity for living it in such and such a way.

Above all else, it's clear that these 'moral' systems have been developed over thousands of years (since the first, illiterate Jewish peasants designed a monotheistic deity in the hills of Judea some 3,500 years ago) simply to control simple people. Also, the gospels were written from between 80AD-200AD by around 500 different contributors - that leaves quite a lot of time and scope for misinterpretation and the changing of 'facts', doesn't it? For those of you who think Christ is the best moral teacher, don't forget to stone your children if they disobey you or pray to different gods from the one to whom you pray - amongst other practices.

It seems fairly obvious that uncontrolled population growth will result in instability, seeing the development of food scarcity, conflict and the spread of disease, but faith seems to give these fools hope that their interventionist gods will step in and save their all-precious bottoms. "Be fruitful and multiply," it says in Genesis. Multiply until every last fruit is vanquished, more like. Well, I don't believe that for a second. The universe doesn't work like that. We are not separate from nature but are, indubitably, a part of it. We're lucky apes who've had the good fortune to have our ancestors not die and also have our ancestors find the means to develop tools.

Yes, the origin of life is a mysterious one but I'm not a deist - nor am I even a pantheist. Just because we'd like to believe certain things doesn't make them true. And there's no reason to speculate on certain religious interpretations of creation when there's no evidence for them. To all advocates of Creationism, I say - apart from you being completely ignorant morons who know nothing of either the scientific revolution of the 1600s or scientific progress - look into a thing called Microwave Background Radiation - that should settle your confusion. Also, look into Uranium- and radioCarbon-dating; it's due to Uranium-dating that we know our planet is at least 4.5 billion years old*, and it's due to radioCarbon-dating (amongst other methods) that we know the first life arose around 3.9 billion years and has been slowly evolving from primordial bacteria-like organisms ever since. The first land-dwelling life crawled from the oceans around 500 million years ago.

Although I have a great appreciation for the world in which I live, I know this all came about by accident and that, ultimately, there is no universal purpose for our existences; we can only find our own reasons for living given time and life experience. We develop likings for certain hobbies and interests - some of which may be detrimental to the self or to society, but all of which are rewarding to pursue!

It's a much more rewarding notion that we aren't in the hands of some malevolent, cruel, big brother, but only the indifferent (both caring and uncaring) hands of nature. Although it seems that existence is pointless, we should be thankful we're here. We don't live in a perfect world as no creature is perfect; a perfect world can only develop from imperfectness, for if we were to be born into a perfect world we'd have no idea of its degree of perfectness - we'd have only the idea that life were easy, agreeable and reasonable in such a model.

Maybe one day, when we've conquered our ignorance and fears, we'll have that longed-for 'dominion' over the world. For dominion isn't the owning of temporary things, but rather the acknowledgement that we can never own such things but only be participating stewards in a grand scheme in which we have our place and in which we thrive.

The universe is what it is. The best we can do is try to understand it and not project onto it meaningless attempts at rationalising it for the sake of people; attempting to rationalise what we see with deeply irrational theism will ultimately prove to be a red herring of the highest, most destructive order. All we'll accomplish is the continued taking up of immovable, dangerous and irrational positions which will indefinitely de-stablise world order. Walk into the unknown frontiers of human evolution untapped and progress past religious dogma. Liberate your minds and liberate your tongues. Prepare a decent world for our children; a world in which they'll be taught to question everything they see; a world in which there's no fear or hatred; no ridicule or shame or sin - a world in which they're free to proceed as they please and not be either distrusting of adults or trusting to the point that they believe every half-arsed and unprovable mistruth they're taught from early childhood.

This world is all we have, and it cannot thrive when there exist various religious factions all claiming that their certain maxims and tenets are universally true and should be obeyed. Only in a world which encourages truthfulness, lack of fear and prejudice, free-thinking, scientific progress, candidness and a respectful attutide to the educating of our children can we thrive.

I long to see it and I'll work towards it. We all can, but only by being responsible for our views and not submitting unthinkingly to systems put in place by ignorant, superstitious, stupid men thousands of years ago.

Next week I'll be writing about how I hate missionaries. Good night!

Notes on the text:

*We know our planet is at least 4.5 billion years old because that's the half-life - the time taken for the mass of a radioactive isotope to decrease by half - of Uranium-238. If you'd like more information and some clarification, visit the following website: http://www.fysik.org/website/fragelada/resurser/ageofearth.pdf

Further reading suggestions:

Russell, Bertrand: Why I'm Not a Christian; The Problems of Philosophy;
Hitchens, Christopher: God is Not Great;
Harris, Sam: The End of Faith; Letter to a Christian Nation;
Dawkins, Richard: The Selfish Gene; Unweaving the Rainbow; The God Delusion;
Dennett, Daniel C.: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon; Darwin's Dangerous Idea;
Confucius: (any of his four books are insightful and brilliant, but I recommend 'The Analects', which is a collection of his sayings and proverbs).