It was just a few days before the Rapture (which, incidentally, did occur) when I found myself with an hour or so to kill. I decided to go to Bryant Park and just chill, literally do nothing, which I hadn’t had the luxury of doing for several weeks. It wasn’t long before I found my game of Angry Birds being interrupted by two youths. They described themselves as interns for a youth ministry in New York City and they were just innocently walking around asking people about their views on life, the universe, and everything. They handed me a post card with an invitation attached to Learning Center @ Lovin’ Life Ministries.
In case you were wondering, because it’s not particularly explicit on their website, they are primarily Christian, albeit a rather wishy washy version. They won’t just make you believe in Jesus. They’ll invite you to their community center (respectfully located 60 blocks from Ground Zero) and hope to lull you into a sense of ease and then hit you with original sin and the need for a demigod savior type.
I looked at my phone, I looked at them. Yes. I did have some time to talk. I pulled up two chairs and sat them down. They were ever so pleased. I’m not quite sure what they were expecting but it certainly wasn’t me.
I explained to them my position.
I am an atheist.
I call myself an atheist because right now this is how is best to describe myself, much to Sam Harris’ chagrin. I could use non-religious but it doesn’t come close to hinting at the fact that I do not believe in a god or gods. Also, the word atheist is deliberately provocative. I think it’s better to call myself an atheist and take on all of the negative connotations heaped onto the term by religionists and then prove them wrong. Which is quite easy to do. I imagine the only reason the average religious person thinks so ill of atheists is because they’ve never really encountered an open one in their daily lives.
It’s pretty easy to understand why I’m an atheist. Everyone has their reasons. Mine is simple enough:
God has not bothered to empirically demonstrate His existence to a large group of people. This is the Scientific Method applied to the supernatural in a nutshell. Modern miracles are rare and non-repeatable and non-testable and therefore unfalsifiable. The idea that faith ought to play a role in the belief in God is absurd.
In fact, after my explanation as to why I’m an atheist, the interns asked me essentially this question: What if I knew beyond a doubt why I was here? Well, I would have change my life, I’d say. As surely as a knowledge that I was about to be run over by a bus would cause me to change course I would either have to accept my fate or alter my course. But this is a rhetorical question really leads to nowhere. The implied answer is that God/Christ/The Bible has the answer to that question. As if there aren’t so many different religions out there that earnestly promise the exact same thing with no hint of irony.
The real answer is, of course, we don’t know why we are here. And what is wrong with that? It might be an uncomfortable feeling to have, uncertainty, but uncertainty has never spend $140,000 on Judgement Day ads all over New York City, has never shot a doctor in the face, and uncertainty has never flown a plane into a building. Certainty has done all of those things and more. Certainty keeps two people who are in love from marrying because they are the same gender, certainty converts entire continents on pain of death, certainty beheads children for slights, certainty hangs women for being the victims of rape, certainty forces blacks to pick cotton and drink from a separate fountain. Can you imagine what the world would be like if the perpetrators of those despicable crimes had even a moment of doubt, a moment of uncertainty about the road they were taking?
I’m going to leave you with that thought for the evening.
I want to watch Arrested Development on Netflix.
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Hi Levi,
I think that you make some very sound logical points here. If I may, I would like to participate with you in this discussion without intent to invalidate your ideas or convert you to any particular way of thought. I want to preface my discussion with this, as the typed word can be misinterpreted if not worded exactly right. I will do my best to avoid this. I do feel compelled to share my thoughts and ideas with you in the hopes of enriching your life and perhaps opening your understanding to the actions and good intentioned people with religious belief. To simplify, I will also use the term Higher Power when I can because in the same way that you use Atheist to be provocative I will seek to use words that are not loaded with the preconceived notions of a people.
To begin with, I agree with you that there are many people who have done heinous acts in the name of a god or God. Many of these acts are entirely unacceptable. This being said, I think that it is a false correlation to associate these certain individual’s acts with the intent of, or a belief in God, gods or Higher Power. It is true that these people say that they have acted for this reason but it is my belief that the intention of the Higher Power is misinterpreted, misunderstood, or construed by man. Additionally, evil intentioned people do exist in this world that will convince you and lead you to believe that a god or God would wish you to destroy and hate that which they disagree. Now, don’t get me wrong, there are certain things that should be destroyed and hated. For example, an unstable building should be destroyed and abusing a child should be hated. These, I believe, are correct reactions.
I have always had a hard time believing in any one particular religion because it was always hard for me to agree 100% with the beliefs or doctrines of any one religion. I believe that religion should be based on your own personal understanding of what that religion is. You can listen to what other people have to say about it but, you cannot base your opinion of a religion solely on the beliefs or actions of the people of that religion. You must adjudicate it based on what the writings of the religion actually say, again, taking in to consideration that to be written, they must have been written by man. I have often been confused by religion because growing up I always felt that what religion meant was so good, but somehow the people seemed mean or insincere. This, I have come to discover is the fault of man and not the fault of a Higher Power or of a religion.
-“God has not bothered to empirically demonstrate His existence to a large group of people. This is the Scientific Method applied to the supernatural in a nutshell. Modern miracles are rare and non-repeatable and non-testable and therefore unfalsifiable. The idea that faith ought to play a role in the belief in God is absurd.”
In response to the above statement, I believe that if a Higher Power does exist, demonstrations of existence and the creation of miracles are an unnecessary proof. I think that these are the requirements of a scientifically driven society, but we must not assume that since it cannot be proven physically means that it does not exist. Perhaps it would be more correct to assume that since it cannot be proven physically then it does not exist in our particular universe. I am going to assume, for the sake of example, that you love your wife. Now you know that you love your wife. Love is not something which can be measured or quantified or even seen and yet you know that it exists. Perhaps it can be physically recorded in synapses or chemical changes in the body, but these examples cannot begin to explain the feelings, the attraction, or the care that is associated with love. You could buy her flowers, cook her dinner or give her a massage, and yet none of these actions are necessary or truly define what it is to love. I believe that this is a quality that a Higher Power would possess. How can one quantify love, understanding, sympathy or empathy? And how would these things be measured? And yet, I believe, they exist.
Someone spending a lot of money on billboards proclaiming the end of the world is ridiculous, but it is good news and entertainment and society sucks it up like a sponge. And since it is so highly publicized, we are lead to believe that it is the belief of many. It is the belief of a minority few that has been made to be important by the mass media outlets. It is “news” that sells papers. It is the same as the guy who burned the Quran. Imagine how unimportant he would have been if no one would have paid attention to him. But guess what, the media publicized it and made it a huge issue so it would result in more Muslims hating the U.S and fight and complain and…create more “news.” But alas, I think I have gone astray here.
Throughout my time writing this I have been thinking about what my point is here and why I felt compelled to respond to you. Personally, I do believe in a Higher Power and I feel that this belief enriches my life. The irony of you being atheist is that, knowing you, I believe that you embody the essence of what a religious person seeks. I believe that you are a caring, loving and understanding individual and that although the thought of a Higher Power has been tainted by your view of the people and the certainty by which they perform foolish acts, you, of all people, understand what it is to be a spiritual being and understand what the intentions of a Higher Power are.
Sorry I’m at work, and don’t have the time to read the entirety of your comment, but i did read the first couple paragraphs, and i have would like to address one thing:
Is a God truly worthy of being worshiped if he is so easily misconstrued, misinterpreted, and misunderstood? Is the God worthy of being worshiped if he allows over millennia for this to continue without intervening or clarifying or doing anything but idly watching? You speak of evil people doing evil things in God’s name, yet how must we judge the God who sits by and allows this to happen? How could the God who created the world in such a way where empiricism and science allows us humans the ability to comprehend and (largely) understand the way our universe works – refuse to actively participate in this universe he created, especially when, as you point out, billions of people easily misuse his existence to cause great harm to this world?
Hey Andy, thanks for the kind words! I like to think I do my best. I feel the same about you in my own secular sort of way.
We certainly ought not attribute heinous acts to any god, gods, or higher power. But neither should we attribute acts that we find acceptable or even good. It is surprising to me that good acts ought to be attributable to some Higher Power while evil acts ought to be attributable to human failings or, more absurdly, a diametrically opposing Higher Power. On the former, it shows a cynical view of humanity similar to those who believe that all modern high technology is attributable to alien contact (Yes! I’ve met people who believe this!). It makes more sense that humans are able to do good deeds and bad deeds.
This fits neatly into my thesis that any particular god has not bothered to manifest himself in an objective way. Witness all of the subjective interpretations of Holy Writ, each one able to justify the most sublime acts of courage and goodness, each one similarly able to justify the most horrendous acts of malice. Without any demonstrable and objective notice from a Higher Power who is to say what is the standard for behavior? A person who believes Gay Marriage should be allowed is considered evil by some while a doctor killer is may be doing the good works of God. Similarly, helping the poor is either good or evil depending on your interpretation of Holy Writ.
You may believe in a Higher Power but I think it would be safer to say that there may exist a Higher Purpose. Even then, who is to say what that might be? And the answer is ever tainted by the certainty of Holy Writ.
Does atheism contribute to heinous acts? Let’s see what a serial killer had to say in relation to this…
‘If a person doesn’t think there is a God to be accountable to, then—then what’s the point of trying to modify your behaviour to keep it within acceptable ranges? That’s how I thought anyway. I always believed the theory of evolution as truth, that we all just came from the slime. When we, when we died, you know, that was it, there is nothing…’
Jeffrey Dahmer, in an interview with Stone Phillips, Dateline NBC, Nov. 29, 1994.
“Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius.” – Arnaud Amalric, Albigensian Crusade, 1209 AD