100 ‘Damned’ Good Reasons to Be An Atheist, Part 8
Many religious people will tell you that it’s better to believe than it is to not believe, and bring out a whole suitcase of ‘logical’ arguments for why that is the case, but they’d be lying. Here’s why it’s better to be a Heathen like me.
71. No ‘Bonfire of the Vanities’ — Hate to tell you this, Mr. Bibble-Thumper, but sin is an arbitrary thing and burning/destroying books, or other things we disagree with, is a big no-no if doing so is an attempt to suppress the knowledge or ideas those things represent, and an effort to condemn/shame/chastise those who seek out that knowledge or those ideas.
72. Many Ways to Be Atheist — Atheism isn’t a monolith of thinking. There are some intellectual necessities that come with being an Atheist, but the lack of dogma or doctrine gives individuals the freedom to add our own little flavor to the stew of Atheism in society today. It does occasionally lead to strife, given that the ‘relax and be easy’ Atheists don’t always agree with the more politically active and vociferous among us. That said, we enjoy our community because of our freedom to be individuals, unlike religion which enforces community thinking by suppressing creative individualism, which could, ironically, have a positive impact on religion as a whole…
73. No Pedo-Priests — I’m not even going to try and make a joke about this one. It’s absolutely disgusting all the abuses of power that have been perpetuated by ‘men of the cloth’ who couldn’t take their vows of celibacy seriously. The scars their victims have had to carry are absolutely horrendous and the response to these abuses has revealed a level of corruption within the heart of organized religion which betrays every higher ideal religious leaders have professed as essential to good citizenship.
74. HOLY SHIT! War Sucks… — You’ll never hear about Atheist ‘holy wars’ anywhere in the historical record, primarily because we have no doctrine over which to base a violent conflict when disagreements arise, but also because most local Atheist communities can’t even field a complete softball team… At most, there will be a few petty flame wars on internet forums for the digital anthropologists of the future to write about as they examine history; certainly nothing on the scale of the various religious wars of expansion and conquest that have plagued humanity throughout recorded history.
75. Pickets are Fences, not Rhetorical Garbage — Sure, some Atheists do a fair amount of protesting, but our picket signs generally tend to be well thought-out, rational arguments for why we are justified in our views. Contrast this with the pettiness of some religious people, which informs some sects that it’s perfectly fine to protest funerals, for example, with signs and placards which hold crap like ‘Thank God For Dead Soldiers.’
76. There is Only the World — One of the more nauseating aspects of growing up Evangelical was having to endure the inculcation of ideal which came by way of constantly hearing my elders refer to the world in ‘othering’ ways, in that I mean I grew sick of hearing my elders refer to the ‘secular’ world in a way that suggested it was inferior to their ideal of a virtuous ‘religious’ world. And this from people who had their bibles so far up their own asses that they genuinely felt it was ok to abuse children with leather belts for even the most minor of infractions, like objecting to a parental order to get ready for church.
77. Marriage is for Adults Only — Child-Brides are RIGHT OUT! You’ll never find Atheists forcing children to marry men three times their own age. It’s absolutely nauseating that men of a certain cultural/religious bearing would find it acceptable to pulverize the innocence of youth by forcing young girls in their societies into roles of matrimony and motherhood years before they are emotionally and psychologically prepared for such things, let alone physically capable. Men like this need to be castrated, no ifs-ands-buts-maybes about it.
78. Moral Superiority Requires Evidence — It’s particularly galling when an arrogant prick like Ken Hamm uses the simplistic expression ‘Because God’ as a justification for his intellectual ineptitude. The tired arguments of Evangelicals over the last century have never, NOT ONCE, come close to equating to legitimate, tangible evidence which irrefutably and unequivocally demonstrates the veracity of a moral argument. What’s worse is that these Hamm-Fisted assholes would never consider it intellectually dishonest to demand that Atheists aspire to levels of evidence which they themselves would never aspire, owing to their utter lack of imagination with regard to their hypocrisy.
79. No Capricious Deities — It’s perfectly acceptable for humans to abandon a project if said project goes wrong, and if no one gets hurt in the process. Popular religious narratives say gods are not liable for doing the same if it does lead to harm. All they have to do is put up a cute little rainbow after the evil is committed and promise to try WEAL WEAL HAWD not to do it again, and humans are ready to bow and scrape and worship in abundance.
80. Black Sabbath… — …just a band. Revisiting the whole Satanic Panic of the 80s, as I tend to do, never ceases to make me laugh. It’s utterly fucking absurd how stupid one has to be to believe that a popular rock band, which just happens to be exploiting popular thematic tropes for marketing appeal, is inherently serving as a gateway to Occultism and other ‘dark’ forms of belief. As it stands, many of the messages Black Sabbath were putting into their lyrics were direct responses to the injustices they were seeing in society in the 70s, not the gateway spell-casting Evangelicals tried to claim they were fostering several years later. Are there forms of music which blur the line between popular entertainment and religious worship, yes…we call it Christian Rock…and it’s not good. That said, one could listen to anything as a part of their ‘dark’ rituals…Hannah Montana…Frank Sinatra…Sesame Street…but it wouldn’t make these things inherently ‘satanic.’
Continued in Part 9.
DISCLAIMER: For those who are curious, I do not allow feedback on posts of this nature due to the fact that religionists have nothing original to say on the matter. They continually trot out the same tired, unqualified arguments for why they are right and I am wrong and I refuse to waste another second of my life re-litigating these issue with people of limited imagination.
