Saturday, April 03, 2010

Atheist Resurgence

Atheist resurgence

I find the coverage of religion and atheism is on the rise with CNN because of their comment pages becoming so popular. But the funny part is the same old, tired, arguments being used over and over again.

1. Atheists are immoral

Why do people believe that? What is it about me that is so immoral? I have never killed anyone. I have never been arrested. I don't cheat on my taxes. I care about my family (sans my sister who has yet to learn how to respect me). I don't abuse animals. I care about the environment.

2. Atheists worship Satan

How can we believe in Satan when we don't believe in God? We don't believe in the Bible as a literal history.

3. Atheists are incapable of committing an altruistic act

There's no such thing. Any time we do something good for someone or a cause, we get this funny little feeling called happiness. The only possible altruistic act would be to die to save another person. But even then, Christians look forward to going to heaven for this act. Therefore, they expect reward for doing good. Atheist's see no reward in death because there is no afterlife in which to revel for our achievements. Would I die to save another person's life? Yes. Do I hope that I ever have to? No.

4. Atheists are only pretending not to believe in god because it's a rebellious act.

Negative. I don't believe in god (or any other supernatural events/figures/gods/goddesses/etc.) because there is no proof. People love to cite the Bible (or other religious texts) as proof of god, but since all of them were written by humans it seems logical to conclude that god doesn't exist.

A Christian friend of mine, who was trying to convince me that the Bible has done miraculous works by converting pagans who sacrificed women and newborns to their pagan gods, argued that God intervenes by inspiring Christians to write these stories. This "reasoning" still doesn't count as proof. But it's a nice way of saying that Christianity was trying to do good and maybe we should learn that killing babies and women as sacrifice to pagan gods is bad. But all kids have to grow up and learn that Santa doesn't exist. They're stories made up by our parents to teach us right from wrong. Which goes back to argument number one. We don't gain our morals from god, we learn them from our culture and parents.

(Click the culture link to see how Japan has become the target of outrage because of simulate rape games)


So my point is, apologetics are tired and old. The world isn't flat , atheists are not the largest number of criminals, and I look forward to reading anyone's truly well thought out arguments that can make me think.

Until then, I am an atheist. I am an American. I am a law-abiding citizen.