100 ‘Damned’ Good Reasons to Be An Atheist, Part 9
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.
81. Let’s Talk Peyote… — Take it as an insult if you like, but there’s nothing intellectually dishonest about holding marginalized minority groups to the same standards of evidence as anyone else. Yes, the various Indigenous Peoples of the Americas have a right to hold on to the customs which Colonialists tried to strip from them in their attempts at cultural (and often literal) genocide. That, however, doesn’t excuse certain native Peoples from claiming that a substance like Peyote helps you commune with a spirit world for which there is no evidence what so ever. If it helps you feel good and lead a more relaxing life, go for it. Don’t make claims, however, that can’t be backed up with evidence.
82. Another Day Older — New Age means 35 instead of 34. It’s not a valid excuse to craft novel religious narratives, SUPPOSEDLY based on historical records, which facilitate your need to separate yourself into a competing tribe merely because you find the dominant religious tribe (meaning christians) distasteful. Religion is religion is religion and self-righteous indignation is no less repugnant in the worship of nature than it is in the worship of an all-seeing, all-knowing, all-powerful, all-good, all-encompassing (Is there a thesaurus in the house…? I’ve developed a descriptor deficiency…) fictitious sky daddy who dictates morality from on high.
83. Star signs say ‘This Way to Hollywood’ and nothing else — Let’s give it a rest on all this Zodiac nonsense. There’s no evidence what so ever the the positions of the planets in relation to the stars on the day you were born has any bearing on the trajectory of your life, the manner in which you will develop as a person. If you become an ill-tempered, violent, misogynist bastard, it’s more than likely you became an ill-tempered, violent, misogynist bastard because your father was one and passed his damage down to you through his malformed spermatozoa and never took the time to realize his ability to change his prevailing narrative, despite the poor genetic hand he was dealt, so that his children didn’t become ill-tempered, violent, misogynist bastards.
84. Jesus…Nice Guy from Mexico… — …but definitely not the son of a jealous, petty, vengeful god. Jesus is a hard worker. He likes to siesta in the afternoon and have drinks with his friends in the evening. He spends quality time with his kids on weekends teaching them about fishing or birds or how to make delicious tacos. He is definitely not into thorny crowns, being nailed to crosses or having people lie about him and say he walked on water, turned well water into quality vino, raised the dead or fed thousands of people with what amounts to a meager budget platter at any corner deli in any given major U.S. city.
85. No Crappy Historical Fiction — Ever read the one about the guy who discovers a cryptic clue in a museum and then runs all over hell’s half acre trying to find the answers to a religious historical puzzle about speculative holy bloodlines, only to realize that he had been where he needed to be in the first place at the beginning of the story…? You’ll never find a Dan Brown novel about Atheists because Atheist history isn’t given to myth and wholesale exaggeration…unlike religious history…
86. No Churches (for the most part) — Ever hear the one about the town that mandated in it’s charter that a church must be present on every street corner (Yes, they do exist)…? There have been a few ‘Atheist’ churches popping up in recent years but it’s not as if we are establishing them in order to dominate the culture with our message. Atheists crave community and seek it where they can find it. Religionists crave cultural hegemony and try to impose it where they will. I leave it to you to decide which the better way.
87. The Wall of Separation is Non-negotiable — Religion has been allowed to infect politics so pervasively that it is now a given that anyone seeking high office must occasionally pander to even the most repugnant of organized religious communities in order be admitted into the Federal Church of the Holy Constitution. Atheists understand the value of the Enlightenment principles upon which the U.S. was founded, values which inform that the prior application of religious law led to vast corruption and grave inequity when it was allowed to take precedence over civil law. Hence, we are quite vociferous in our adherence to a firm line of separation between politics and religion.
88. Evolution…It’s a Matter of Fact, Jack — Science has demonstrated conclusively that Evolution is a real thing and can be demonstrated conclusively in laboratory conditions. Feel free to check the peer reviewed science texts freely available at your local library…if your town actually has one…and you can actually read… It is, therefore, quite reasonable to conclude that humans are close cousins with other primates and that we, all of us hominids (what the kids like to call Great Apes), did indeed involve from common ancestors. The hypothesis that religion perpetuates, that we descended from ONLY two people without having suffered any serious genetic defects, despite what science has to say about the benefits of a diverse gene-pool…maybe there are some ideas we should leave to the historical trash bin…
89. There is No Meaning… — …but that which we create. There is no divine plan sitting around on some heavenly drafting board, being executed by some benevolent sky daddy with (supposedly) unlimited power and knowledge. On a cosmic timescale, humans are irrelevant. We are not without our compensations, however, owing to the beauty of the saying given to us by the late, great Carl Sagan — “The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself.”
90. We Could Be Wrong — What’s more, we’re willing to admit it. We understand the value in recognizing and admitting the weaknesses in our assumptions. The many worlds interpretation of reality makes it possible, however unlikely, that in some universe a Jehovah-like deity was spawned from the collective beliefs of many human beings and that this deity then went on a temporal odyssey and shaped all of the realities in the multiverse. However, without concrete evidence, this hypothesis is just as weak as claiming a savior died on a cross as a redemption for human sinfulness.
Concluded in Part 10.
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.
