Monday, November 21, 2005
Is Atheism Dangerous?
A large number of people claim that atheism is damaging. “You must accept god!” they shout, “Without god, there’s debauchery.” They maintain that atheists are the pariahs of society intent on its destruction. In their eyes “godless infidels” are attacking government, religion, education, and the culture, hence the “culture war”. According to these views atheists are only content when actively destroying and manipulating all the over bearing goodness that religion has created. Do these claims coincide with reality? Do they have bearing in truth? Of coarse they don’t. Atheism is simply the belief that there is no god, and/or no supernatural entity. I claim there is no god, the religious cry “heresy” ironically enough heresy literally translates into “choice”. Having a choice is engaging in free will, do not the religious believe in free will? Having a choice has never hurt anyone, making the wrong choice is what causes damage. Atheism is merely the choice to posses ones own belief that there is no god. Not believing in the supernatural won’t hurt you, it won’t hurt others, and it won’t deter progress; as far as I’m concerned it is progress. So is atheism dangerous? I say no more than theism.
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14 comments:
Have you ever wondered why christians hate secular humanists more than they hate murderers and rapists? I think that if you are going to crusade against a category of people, start with the violent criminals.
The answer, of course is that secular humanism is a far greater threat to religion than murder, because you can be a "good person" without having to join the club of rediculous dogma. So it is hated more. - JF
JF,
Wow I have never looked at it that way, good point. Honestly though these people and groups should focus much more on the actual betterment and progress of society rather than opposing it. Thank you for stopping by and commenting.
I don't think the hard part for Christians concerning atheists has anything to do with the simple belief of God vs. no God.
It is more the idea that letting go of an absolute and ultimate standard of right and wrong that is bigger than our own collective unconscious leaves us with no real reason for doing the right thing.
Then what? anarchy? Is that really going to work in light of human nature?
Probably so, but their fear of leaving an absolute and ultimate standard of right and wrong is unreasonable and based on a severe lack of knowledge pertaining to morality and ethics and to their own religion.
Morality is something that humans develop cognitively throughout their development. Do some research into developmental psychology. Human beings are a highly social mammal, and as such we have developed a sense of morality and code of ethics in order to produce a better social construct and a more lucid atmosphere. Morality is the urge to survive in the fullest potential possible. Human beings given their evolutionary advantages over other species have developed a highly complex brain and mind; as such they have a better understanding of what it means to survive in the fullest potential possible. A moral absolute would be killing innocent people with reckless abandon is wrong, why? Because it negates the human race being able to survive in the fullest potential possible. Moral codes and ethics are a product of human invention and endeavor and there certainly doesn’t need to be a perceived “white coated technician in the sky” to justify these codes. Humans can and do live up to moral absolutes without a supernatural entity, to help elucidate this point think of organized sports. Football has a man made set of codes and rules, they are absolute; the touchdown is not relative, either it counts as a touchdown or it does not. Morality is the same case, either something is wrong or it is right and human beings do not need to believe in fairy tales in order to understand this.
Your response illustrates not only you “Christian” bearing but your complete ignorance when it comes to anything that requires critical intelligence and reasoning. You must understand that your religion is not the only religion around and that it, in no way, is the infallible truth. If your religion is so morally astute then and absolute then explain the following.
Do you follow every code in the bible?
If so do you really follow the code that tells us to stone rebellious children? - “If someone has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father and mother, who does not heed them when they discipline him, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his town at the gate of that place. They shall say to the elders of his town, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.’ Then all the men of the town shall stone him to death.” – Deuteronomy 21:18.
If no why, it is the infallible word of god, is it not?
Do you follow the rule that would have you sacrifice animals? Deut. 12:11, 12:26, Num 28:9, etc.
Do you follow the commandment telling you to kill one for blasphemy by stoning and then hanging? Deut. 12:22
If not why?
The Bible is the “infallible word of god” then why would you follow some and not others?
And is that not the epitome of relativism? (You follow what you see fit to follow by what is relevant to you by your standards).
So as you can see your assertion that a nonbeliever is engaging in moral relativism seems to be a psychological displacement, for it is you that is engaging in moral relativism, my friend not me.
Furthermore I accept and welcome any/all comments, but I must insist that you think before you write something as ridiculous as this, what you say is an egregious deception and one only put forth by the most fanatical of religious individuals.
Thanks for stopping and commenting though, appreciate it.
Thank you anonymous for making my point so clearly. You believe that the only reason for doing "right" is to get the great candy bar in the sky from god, and the only reason to refrain from wrong is to avoid the great smack in the ass from God. Please read Plato's "Euthyphro" to see how ridiculous it is to say "It's good because God said so". - JF
JF,
That was awesome, thank you for the support!!
I was afraid to come right out and say, "I am an atheist" because of the misconception that the 'christians' have about us. I like the definition of humanism offered by the American Humanists Association:
"Humanism is a progressive lifestance that, without supernaturalism, affirms our ability and responsibility to lead ethical lives of personal fulfillment that aspire to the greater good of humanity"
You are absolutely right that the purest definition of atheism is without a god.
By the way I'm adding a link to your blog on mine :)
Cool, how do you do that? I'll add yours to mine.
To add links to your sidebar use the 'Template' tab and scroll down to the <MainOrArchivePage> section and you'll see the 'Edit-Me' lines. Change one of them to the following:
<li><a href="http://ruskosplanet.blogspot.com/">Ruslo's Planet</a></li>
If you have problems let me know.
I wish this system would let you edit comments. That's why I had to delete one and do it again. Anyway, in the above post, change Ruslo to Rusko. Hehe. And Thanks.
I found the mainarchivepage but I don't know where the editme part is, what does the editme lines look like? As you can see I don't know HTML!
I am a 51-year-old atheist mom of three grown kids. They are all atheists and so is my husband who many people refer to as "the man with broad shoulders" because he is so ready to lend a helping hand to anyone who needs it. Our kids have never been in trouble with the law, They are well-mannered and respectful. They are well-educated, hard workers, and involved in politics and the world around them. I am very proud of them. Some of my christian friends have kids who are into drugs, one of whom was in jail for awhile and they made this kid to go church every week. They still go an pray for him but their god isn't listening. Religion is no assurance of making someone have good morals and ethics.
I can recommend a good book...
Ethics Without God by Kai Nielsen
The author makes a lot of sense.
Well, it's to be expected that some will use tortured logic to attribute immorality to atheism. On the other hand, you have people who do real harm because they think it's the will of the creator of the universe. What's worse, their behavior is supported by their holy texts.
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