A Brief Review of Why I Am an Anti-Theist
Okay, just to make a clear distinction so people do not feel attacked unnecessarily, I am gonna talk a little about what I actually oppose, and why.
I am coming from the anti-theist position. Which means I oppose theism, as in belief in a personal god that listens to prayers, intervenes in human affairs, cares about being worshiped, miracle heals some while not others, cares about the gender of the person you might be fucking or the kind of meat you might be eating for breakfast. Specifically, this translates to opposing Christianity and Islam (Judaism, while still a theistic tradition, only claims one sliver of land as their god-given right, while the other two Abrahamic faiths have aspirations of blanketing the entire globe) I tend to concentrate on Christianity, as I feel I am less ignorant of Christianity than I am of Islam.
I attack these religions on two grounds 1) that they are ‘true’, or based on reason or logic, or evidence and 2) on the harm, damage and suffering I see caused as a direct result of these religions, their doctrines and dogmas.
Now, to qualify a little.
If people believe that there is eternal energy in the universe, or that there is a guiding spirit to the universe, or that the universe itself is “god” or that energy is “god” to them, or that love is “god” to them, the only quarrel I have with that is using the word “god” being that it is a word so loaded with connotations for so many (and others will co-opt your use of it and assume or pretend that you are talking about the Abrahamic god) but that is a small matter. There is much to the universe that humanity doesn’t know or understand, and I don’t think that having faith that the universe might not be completely pointless is necessarily a bad thing (nor does atheism dictate that the universe is pointless. And for some it is definitely a good thing to believe in a power greater than oneself (and I include myself in this) if only to stop the ego from attempting to run the show constantly. My point being that I have no disagreement with those who believe in the god of Spinoza, those how are moved to “religious” respect or awe by the wonder and majesty of the universe, what little of it we currently can even comprehend. I think that respect is important, If people want to call that ‘god’, well, I think it might be a little misleading, but hey it’s up to them…
My problem is with the god that supposedly sent AIDS to kill homosexuals, the god that burns people in hell, or the genocidal god of the old testament.
I feel it is important to provide a vocal resistance to the idea of this god, and to the idea of this god being ‘respected’ right now. We are seeing a rise in fundamentalism in both Christianity and Islam. There are people working within the US to pervert the Wall of Separation between church and state and remake the US into a “Christian Republic”…(it would actually be a conspiracy if they weren’t so open and public about it) meanwhile in the Muslim world some radicals have ‘hi-jacked’ Islam (which, in my opinion, seems VERY easy to twist into a violent, death-cult type of religion, tho so was Christianity for most of it’s time on earth) and seem to have declared war on most of the western values I truly believe in (liberty for the individual, pluralism, multiculturalism, freedom of speech, freedom of religion and FROM religion, reason, civic duty etc etc) so I want to EMPHASIZE this…
Where fundamentalists are concerned, CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAM ARE NOT COMPATIBLE. ie if people believe in their beliefs strongly enough, christianity and islam are SURE to clash, they ARE MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE!
I know that most religious people are moderate, intelligent people with good moral compasses, I believe this to be true of all faiths. But there is something VERY FRIGHTENING about the ‘true believers’ something very disconcerting about people that have that completely unwaivering certainty. Sometimes (not always) that certainty is a key part in absolutely horrific events.
I have been through every so-called ‘proof of god’ arguments, every argument in favour of the existence of god, every argument designed to encourage belief in god, or persuade someone to ‘have faith’. They have ALL (so far), ALL OF EM, EVERY LAST ONE, been logical fallacy’s. Based on poor reasoning or bad assumptions. The only real reason to believe (and most honest religious folks who aren’t out to convert will tell you this) is ‘faith’ and faith is actually a non-reason, it is a non-starter, it is the opposite of reason.
So, it comes down to people believe in the religion they believe in because they were raised to, and because of the comfort it gives them. Believers believe (partly at least) because it makes em feel better to believe. Which is fine, except for all the harm and damage and suffering and so on that CONTINUE to be caused as a direct result of religious belief, doctrine or dogma. My hope is that there will be a reform movement within both religions, and that some good, moderate believers and clergy will seek to remedy some of these things, these assertions of belief that are causing needless suffering and damage to our world. I only hope that the hierarchal structure of these faiths allows for such an event (followed of course, with the absolute and total refusal of support for all them fundamentalist lunatics and their intolerance and death obsession and need to stick their nose in) and hope I hear about more religious moderates stepping up and doing something so I can applaud their efforts.
In the meantime, until religious beliefs stop being so central in so many horrible, avoidable and pitiful human tragedies and horrors, I am gonna continue to reason out why the beliefs are ridiculous, and then ridicule em.
If beliefs stop causing harm and damage, then I really wouldn’t care. If people thought that tiny invisible pink elephants living inside their rectum kept gravity functioning, as long as they weren’t using that belief to hurt or hate on others, or attempt to convert others, or campaigning for political office on their pink-elephant-rectum-gravity-faith-card, or blocking sciences progress into understanding the actual mechanism by which gravity works, I mean, if they didn’t do any of those things, fuck it, I wouldn’t even say nothing.
thanks for reading, please feel free to comment or question any points or ideas.
BrendoNintendo