Atheist Nonsense in Washington State

In the Washington State capitol building, a group has put up a display celebrating “Winter Solstice” next to a Christmas nativity scene.  On this display is a line about there being no gods, about reason being paramount, and then the kicker: It says something to the effect that religion “hardens hearts and enslaves men.”  The atheist group just had to put that up next to the Christmas display – I’m sure they’ll say something about how they have a right to display their beliefs on public property.

In other words, these atheists are a bunch of douchebags.

Let’s be clear: I’m a pretty hardcore skeptic.  I repeatedly put up posts attacking creationist and Christian arguments and the notion of so-called biblical morality.  I mock Christians who excuse their deity for genocide, rape, and infanticide.  I think that there is absolutely no reason whatsoever to factually treat Christianity any different from a common fairy tale.  I think most of the “evidence” many Christians present is idiotic and their attacks on science and evolution are misguided and pathetic.

But this is just stupid.  This is nothing but feckless animosity.  Putting up that idiotic display doesn’t serve any purpose except pissing people off – people who just want to celebrate their freaking holiday how they want.  Christmas is a holiday that has roots in both Christianity and paganism, but really, who cares?  It’s an American tradition, and Americans have the right to celebrate it without being trampled on.  There’s no religious agenda being pushed here; there’s no danger of a theocracy being set up because of a nativity scene.

Did this atheist group really need to do this?  Can’t they find something better to do, some cause that actually has merit perhaps?  Winter Solstice?  You have to be freaking joking.  These types of atheists seem to revel in pointing out that they don’t need gods and the comfort of an afterlife, and they just love shoving it in Christians’ faces.  But statements like this smack of them finding “divine” comfort in their own faith-based ideology.  If they truly hold reason in high esteem, perhaps they would see the contradiction.

And this isn’t just about Christians, anyway.  Celebrating Christmas doesn’t mean you have to worship a carpenter or believe in talking snakes.  If nothing else, Christmas is a good reason to be nice and see your family.  Now, is anyone opposed to that?

You can make it whatever you want, you can put on an air of superiority and call it “Winter Solstice” or whatever the fuck.  But why do you feel the need to ruin it for others?  What purpose does it serve to intentionally antagonize others when they just want to celebrate a family holiday?

To the atheists out there who support this crap: Pick your battles.  And grow up.

Why Convicts Should Lose Jesus

One of the stock answers Christians give when someone asks for evidence of their God goes something like this: “You can’t find evidence of God; you just have to experience it yourself.  You have to look for it and discover what His love feels like personally.”

Carl Sagan gave my favorite response to this.  To paraphrase, he said, “I’m not going to go out and try to prove your belief for you – that’s your responsibility.”

Likewise, I have been accused of “never doing the experiment” myself.  I think this accusation means that I’ve never given faith in Jesus a chance, and that I’ve closed myself off from anything that might “prove” His existence.  It’s kind of funny just how wrong it is.

I was raised in an utterly secular environment; I don’t remember either of my parents ever saying a word about God to me.  About the only childhood experience in this vein was a grandmother who took me and my sister to church a few times.  But most of my family, while certainly not atheist crusaders, had little use for religion.

However, I eventually did.  I was part of a church youth group with a couple kids from my neighborhood.  I walked around knocking on doors handing out pamphlets.  I chose to be baptized.  I believed that Jesus Christ had died for my sins, that He loved me, that the Bible was at least mostly true, and that I’d go to heaven one day if I did right by it and Him.  This active participation in organized religion didn’t last very long, but I held these beliefs for several years.

When I was eighteen and lying on my first bunk in my first prison cell, I was still a believer.  I remember the day distinctly when I felt – I “knew” it with the utmost certainty – that God had put me in prison for a reason.  My faith was completely renewed, I had my old Bible sent in to me, and I decided that was to be my path.

It didn’t last long.  My first question was about the “reason” I was in prison.  I know why I’m here, and God certainly had nothing to do with it.  I’m here because I decided to rob a man and he died.  This was completely my choice and my responsibility.  And if God had truly put me here for a reason, that doesn’t say much about God.  After all, a man was killed in the process.  How could I be so arrogant to think that my life and purpose meant more than his?  What kind of God would allow an innocent person to die, simply so He could put me where I was “meant” to be?

I started to think that I couldn’t possibly “know” that God had put me in prison for a reason, anyway.  I started to think that it was almost certainly my mind’s way of dealing with the situation, of finding purpose and reason – and perhaps even a shameful denial of responsibility – for a stupid kid who had no idea who he was.  I had just destroyed someone else’s life and my own: it makes a great deal of sense that I would want to believe that it didn’t happen in vain, that I had some greater purpose.

That was the beginning of my questions, my rejection of revealed knowledge, and my path to accepting reason.  It also led to my moral evolution.  Yes, I am going so far as to say that rejecting Christianity made me a better man.  If nothing else, it made me understand that being a moral person means a great deal more than obedience.

Mr. Incredible’s Incredibly Irrational Views

Lately I’ve been getting comments from a Mr. Incredible, the breadth of which I don’t have the time or space to try to explain (they can be read on several of my posts; almost all of them are random biblical quotes).  Basically, his every response to any question about Christianity is an appeal to authority: The Bible says this or the Bible says that.  The equivalent would be me stating, “Evolution is real because Darwin says so.”  I’d have to slap myself if I ever stooped to such an intellectual low.

Not to impugn Mr. Incredible here.  I realize that he’s made an a priori assumption that the Bible is the Word of God, literally true, and the ultimate authority on everything.  So he’s just doing what he does.  I think a view like this is the height of irrationality – before we treat anything as an authority, we need to establish its veracity.  In other words, show me some evidence that the Bible is what you claim it to be, Mr. Incredible.  Show me some evidence that a deity even exists in the first place, let alone your anthropocentric interventionist deity.  Show me some evidence why Christianity should be given any more empirical weight than say, Greek Mythology.  No offense, but I don’t think you can.  And please, please, for the sake of my sanity, don’t say, “Christianity is true because the Bible says so.”

I have to respond to one of the last things Mr. Incredible said about Darwin and evolution, since it’s one of my favorite topics.  He pulled a quote from Darwin’s The Descent of Man that stated something about men being superior to women, rightfully bashed that view, and then said: “Thus, if Darwin is wrong on this, we may so very seriously doubt his other conclusions on natural selection.”

Everyone pay attention:  This is how intelligence dies.

This is a textbook example of an ad hominem attack.  It’s obvious to most of us, but for Mr. Incredible’s benefit, who cares if Darwin was a sexist pig?  Darwin could have been a child molester – it wouldn’t make his theory wrong.  Hitler was a world-class piece of shit, but that doesn’t mean he would be wrong if said that two plus two equals four.

Me personally, I could care less about Darwin’s views on women.  Like most everyone else’s of that era, they were parochial.  They also have absolutely no bearing whatsoever on the issue.  Honestly, Mr. Incredible, your argument is this: Darwin was a jerk, so therefore evolution is false.  Can you not see how that’s ridiculous?  The theory of evolution stands or falls on the evidence.  That’s what you need to defeat.  I’d love to hear you – or anyone else – try.

Why God is Ignorant of Love II

It’s humorous to me that many Christians who say that love is a gift that God grants to us, that this highest of emotional states can only come from a divine source, also say that homosexuality is a sin (or at least immoral).  The Bible literalists and fundamentalists even say that unrepentant homosexuals will end up burning in eternal torment.

What I want to know is this:  If love is so important to God, why does He define it by a person’s genetalia?  Why does He say that it only applies to heterosexuals?  Why does He place limits and regulations on it?  Why does He tell you who you can love and who you cannot?  God is said to value all forms of love: the love between a man and woman, brotherly love, neighborly love, the love of a child, the love of a parent, the love of strangers, the love of life, the love of virtue, the love of forgiveness, the love of God himself.  Why does he invalidate love between gay men and women?  Why is it that a homosexual is ostensibly capable and deserving of all of these types of love – except for one?

Isn’t this rather hypocritical of God?  Is the love that homosexuals experience not real?  Does it not live up to God’s standard of love?  What about platonic love between two friends of the same sex?  Why is that worthy to God, but suddenly unworthy if the two of them decide to express this feeling physically?  Does their love suddenly become false?  An illusion, a sickness, a trick they’ve played on themselves in search of comfort and companionship?

If not, why should God have a problem with it at all?  If so, why would God play such a cruel trick on them?

If a child grows up in a home with two loving, homosexual parents, would these Christians tell this child that what their parents feel for one another isn’t real?  If these parents are capable of expressing love toward their child, isn’t it fair to assume that they know something about their love for one another?  That they know something about love period?  And if gay men and women are capable of expressing and feeling love the same way a devout Christian married couple can, if they can reach that same level of commitment and trust, what exactly is wrong about the relationship? 

Is this what Christians think is moral to teach children, that love is conditional, that love is not for you to decide, that love becomes ugly and sinful if the arbiter of love doesn’t approve of who you choose to love?

Why I Think God is Useless

What has God ever done for us?  I’m talking about the father-figure sky god of the three great monotheistic religions.  I want to know exactly what purpose He serves, because I honestly can’t figure it out.  This is a serious question, with all due respect:  What is God good for?

Does God put food in our stomachs or a roof over our heads?  No, hard work of the charity of other human beings does that.  Does God heal our children if they get sick?  No, modern medicine does that.  Does God prevent horrible things from happening to good people?  Nope, the action and sacrifice of human beings does that.  Does God give us beauty, grace, and art?  Again, human beings produce that all by themselves.  Does God prevent wars, famine, earthquakes, and floods?  Has God done anything about the AIDS virus?  Did God devise solutions to malaria, yellow fever, and smallpox?  Can God ensure that your kids will grow up safe and educated and happy?  Does God save unborn fetuses?  Did God stop the Nazis?  Did God give us the knowledge for modern agriculture, sanitation, and refrigeration so that the earth can support billions of more people than it otherwise could?  Has God done anything about the madmen trying to produce biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons with the intent of wiping out entire races of people?  Has God ever shed an ounce of sweat to stop a child molester?  Does God ever give money to feed the poor?  Does God ever help build a house for a homeless person?  Has God ever done anything to keep the environment clean or conserve natural resources?  Did God do anything to prevent Mutual Assured Destruction during the Cold War?  Has God ever put any effort into stopping all the evil done in His name?  Has God ever put any effort into stopping evil at all?

If you think God has done any of this, prove it.  Prove that it wasn’t all the effort of human beings.  If you think God did many wonderful miracles in biblical times, prove it.  And if you can, why doesn’t He still do those things, especially since nowadays they are needed more than ever?

Do we need God for morality?  Why?  We’ve devised morality by ourselves.  No sacred text proffers the first amendment.  Jesus never told us to treat women as equals or to free slaves.  Did God give us moral sense to begin with?  Where’s the evidence that points to this?  Even the lower primates have an innate sense of fairness and injustice.  Did God give us the ability to love?  Why is He required for that?  Why take away from a human being’s capacity for love?  Why insult us by saying we’re inherently flawed and low-minded and in need of magic to be capable of love and altruism?

Did God create us in the first place?  Prove it.

We make our own lives, we put in all the labor.  We toil and sweat and fail repeatedly in our attempt to succeed.  Our lives are about struggle.  We aren’t given any divine insight or quick solutions or cheat-sheets; we have to learn the hard way, build from the bottom, stand on the shoulders of giants.  We reap the benefits of our advances, but we also swallow all the pain and consequences when bad things happen.

Where does God come in?  What does He do?  Our earthly accomplishments are the only things that are solid and dependable.  If your child gets leukemia, you might pray, but don’t only pray.  You take that child to doctors who use the science of modern medicine.  You might argue that God gave us the capacity to reason and discover the tools of modern medicine, but until you can prove it, it’s just an opinion that lowers mankind and elevates something else.  Why do that at all?

Nietzsche said God is dead, but does it even matter whether He is or not?  He does nothing.  He can’t even do something as simple as dictate moral laws that every human should follow.  We were forced to improve upon them and reinterpret them and throw away the ridiculous ones.  We do God’s job for Him.  From my perspective, we’re putting in all the work, yet people give Him all the credit.

Why the World Needs Ayaan Hirsi Ali

I just finished reading Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali.  It’s an autobiographical account of the woman who grew up a Somalian Muslim, was circumcised and forced into marriage with a stranger, and fled to Holland and later became a member of the Dutch parliament.  She’s now a very vocal opponent of Islam.  Not just radical Islam, but all Islam.  She has lived under constant security and death threats since a Muslim murdered her friend several years ago.  The killer left a note pinned to the man’s chest by a knife that also promised Hirsi’s death.  The reason?

The two of them had made a short film speaking about the plight of women in traditional Muslim households.  Hirsi is quite clear in describing that plight as hopeless and inhuman.  Young women are inferior beings, owned by their fathers and then their husbands, forced to submit, forced to hide their sexuality, and denied any access to education or job opportunities.  Little girls have their clitorises and inner labia shorn off, then their outer labia sewn shut to keep them “pure.”  Women are killed  by their male relatives if they are raped or have sex outside of marriage to “save the honor” of the family.

I think the book is important for two reasons.  The first is that it exposes the results of literally applying the Koran to one’s life.  Christianity went through the Enlightenment; Islam did not.  Part of Hirsi’s aim is to dispel the notion that Islam is inherently about peace and tolerance, and that only the extremists do these awful things.  As others have posited, she shows that Muslim “extremists” do not exist.  Despite peaceful messages in the Koran, the rank subjugation and mistreatment of women is also codified there, as are violent passages about the slaying the nonbelievers.  Islam is about peace and tolerance only for Muslims – and male Muslims at that.  The so-called extremists are just doing exactly what the Koran says.

Hirsi states repeatedly that the West has taken tolerance to a ludicrous level.  Respecting a Muslim’s religious beliefs is one thing, but respecting a Muslim father’s right to mutilate his daughter’s vagina or force her to marry is simply ignoring injustice.  In other words, it’s not okay to be tolerant of intolerance.  Hirsi rightfully laments that so often when these barbaric practices are criticized, a cry of racism and religious persecution frightens the challenger into silence.  No one wants to be seen as anti-Muslim, and furthermore, criticizing this “tolerant” religion is quite often detrimental to one’s health.  Nevertheless, Hirsi won’t be silenced.

The second message I took from the book is that of reason triumphing over blind fundamentalism.  There has been criticism that Hirsi is an atheist who reviles Islam because of how she suffered in childhood.  This is foolish and boring pop psychology.  Reading the book reveals that the author turned away from her unjust upbringing through a realization that no one deserves such treatment, and she turned away from God because of a realization that literal interpretations of sacred texts leave no room for reason.  She has dedicated her life to defending the Muslims suffering under Islamic rule, and she does so in the face of mortal peril.

As a child, because of indoctrination and negative, violent reinforcement, Ayaan Hirsi Ali was a true believer who even supported the fatwa of death against Salman Rushdie.  Now she is willing to risk her life to speak out against that belief system and to spare others the treatment she endured.  I have heard theists call such a transformation a “miracle” when the result is a new and total faith in their religion.  Hirsi didn’t need miracles or magic for her own metamorphosis; she used the tool of reason and the secular awareness that human beings have intrinsic value here, in this life.  For that, her story is as inspiring as it is eye-opening.