Fear, Hell, and Pottery

While I was helping some of the art majors with a wood kiln the other night, one of my Christian friends (I think she somehow missed that I am an atheist) was talking to another art major, and mentioned that she looks at the wood kiln and then realized that hell will be infinitely hotter and how she feels sorry for all the non-christians who were going there. A massive wave of sadness and anger instantly washed over me, and I found myself reflecting on the horror of subjecting someone to that kind of brainwashing. How much fear they must have. I began to wonder what kind of trauma she subjects herself to without even knowing it. The idea of once again having that paralyzing fear terrifies me. It terrifies me that she goes through life in fear of doubting, and it motivates me to strive ever harder towards the truth of these matters. I want to illuminate people, and this concept of Hell flies in the face of what I want to achieve.

Trapped

(I started writing this on Monday night and wrote most of it then, but since beginning to write, I have had two more panic attacks while writing. I feel that I need to write this, but it has been difficult. Military School really screwed with my head)

Last weekend has been absolutely crazy. As I write this, I am incredibly sleep deprived. Since Saturday morning, I have gotten a grand total of 10 hours of sleep. Saturday night, I was finishing up some homework assignments (6000 words of text over the last few days! I counted) when my roommate brought his girlfriend into the room at 1 in the morning (I’m certain that we will be getting a call from security with in the next few days because of that). She was having some serious medical issues, but long story short, we ended up spending the rest of the night at the emergency room.  By the time we got out, it was 10 in the morning on Sunday. I decided to try to just stay up for the next few hours and just go to bed really early that night. Unfortunately, I ended up crashing around 2, and I slept for the next 5 hours. I quickly realized that I wasn’t going to be able to sleep well that night, and since I only had one 9:00 class on Monday and I still had a ton to write, I decided to pull another all-nighter. This was working fairly well until I decided to take a break at 3:00am. I was reading a thread on Reddit about a Christian re-education camp (http://www.reddit.com/r/atheism/comments/q6is0/) that brought back a flood of memories, many of which I had unconsciously suppressed, of a Christian military school that I attended when I was in 7th grade. Combined with lack of sleep and being somewhat high off caffeine, one of the top comments triggered a panic attack, which kept me up the rest of the night. That school did quite a number on me, and I had no idea how bad until these last few days when it all started coming back, particularly certain things that I had unknowingly repressed.

When I was younger I wanted to join the military. Because of this, my parents decided to look for a military academy because my parents and I (being the naive people we were, at least when it came to this sort of thing) thought that it would be a good experience. In our search, we found a military school that was advertised as a place to send your children to learn discipline and responsibility while having lots of fun doing military-esque activities (paintball, marksmanship training, etc.) and to prepare them for West Point. In reality, although we did play paintball one weekend, life is hell there. Of the 200+ cadets there, only one of them was actually planning to go to a military college. There were two others who were there just to try it out like me, and the rest were juvie rejects.

One fun thing that they have is in-school suspension (ISS). There are about 70 acres of woodland behind the school where they send you if you seriously misbehave. While you are out there, they force you to do back-breaking labor for 3-4 days with almost no food or water. This is enough to break many adults, and most of the cadets were in 7-9th grade. This only one example of the screwed up stuff they would do.

While I was at school, I sent 9-10 letters to my parents. Only 2 of them actually got to them. During lunch, they would go through all of the letters and read them in front of us. If they found anything that they found even remotely objectionable (ie. if we said ANYTHING negative about the school), they would make us sprint nearly a mile to the road and back. If they really didn’t like what we wrote they would send us to PT or to the Porch (more on that later)

They made my parents pay a ridiculous amount of money (which is part of why I didn’t stay. It was just too expensive) for food and lodging that rivaled that of our best interment camps. With bare bones dormitories with a thin, ripped up mattress to sleep on (if you look at the website, you will find that they don’t allow visitors in the actual student dorms. I wonder why?) and food that was so cheap and ill prepared that even though you were starving, you still didn’t want to eat it, all of this just added to the hell hole that was this school. At night they would lock down the rooms, and the TAC Officers would patrol the halls and outside the buildings to make sure we didn’t make any noise or try to escape. 

Cleanliness was also an issue. While I was there, several of the cadets got staph infections and one kid my age was sent to the emergency room and nearly lost his leg. This sort of stuff is why they would never let visitors anywhere near the dorms. Most of them were built in the early 1900′s and probably had not been thoroughly cleaned in years. Sure, we would clean them every week, but with nothing more than brooms. I doubt they had been sanitized in a while.

There were two types of cadets there. There were the juvie rejects, who made up most of the student population, and there were the other cadets who, like myself, were sent there in an attempt to make us better men. Most of the latter group, myself included, and a good bit of the former group ended up breaking in some way. Often, the other cadets were actively involved in this process through bullying. Occasionally, one of the cadets would make a break for it, and he would get chased down by a few of the TAC Officers, who would then beat him half to death before bringing him back. The one time a cadet did get away, he managed to steal a change of clothes and hitchhike to a nearby town before he got caught. The school actually got the police involved and he ended up getting tased and spending a night in jail before they brought him back. Needless to say, he ended up spending every evening for the rest of the semester in PT.

If there was any minor misbehavior, we would either be sent to PT, or to the Porch. The Porch was what everyone called the Commandant’s office. At the school, the staff were allowed to use corporal punishment. If you were told to go to the Porch, you were to wait outside until the Commandant called you in. When he did, you would go in, and he would give you a lecture before spanking you. When you think of spanking, what do you think of? A few swats with a switch or small rod, right? Not a there. There, you would get the shit beat out of you with a cricket bat. It was horrible, enough to terrify anyone of any age, but especially someone of my age. Fortunately, the one time I ended up on the Porch, my offense was fairly minor, and he eventually let me off with a warning, but he spent a good 10 minutes lecturing me, while threatening to hit me with the bat by swinging it dangerously close to my head. I think he might have been getting off on it.

PT, affectionately called “Physical Torture”, was the other punishment for misbehaving cadets, or cadets that somehow pissed off one of the staff. On their website, they claim that PT isn’t related to their punishment system, but that’s a line of bull. PT consisted of several hours of intense physical exercise designed to make you drop from utter exhaustion. If you didn’t perform at the same level as everyone else or better you were beat and yelled at until you began performing better. I only got sent to PT once, but that is what completely broke me. While I was at the school, I actually developed a type of Stockholm Syndrome which manifested itself after PT when I actually thanked the TAC Officer for putting me through that hell. It makes me sick just thinking about it now, but at the time, it seemed quite logical.

This is not to say that it was all negative. I became more resilient after coming home, and I learned how to deal with tough situations, but that’s not really a fair trade off, especially in light of the last few days. There are two bills being considered by Congress right now (https://www.popvox.com/bills/us/112/s1667) I would greatly encourage you to call or write to your Congressman and tell him to support these bills in order to stop this kind of stuff from happening to other kids.

Think!

Those who have the capacity to think for themselves, yet refuse to do so, whether it’s because of religion, politics, or allegiance to a military or state, are wasting their minds. If you are not willing to question everything, including yourself, and the paradigm you live in, you are not truly thinking, you are following. You aren’t going to learn anything truly useful until you can get into this mindset.

From my studies, I have come to the conclusion that the assertion that God is clearly revealed is much like the assertion that the Emperor really is wearing clothes. It is a false assertion designed to use our fear of looking stupid and ignorant to bring us into line. The fact is, that if a god actually did choose to reveal himself through the Bible (or nature for that matter), he had a very odd way of going about it. It’s almost like he was trying to make us think that it was a book written by men for political ends, what with the pseudepigrapha and later editing out of details (The Hebrews were originally polytheistic and Jehovah was a synthesis of two different gods from two different Canaanite pantheon, for example) that would mess with the narrative that they were promoting. He also seems to have gone to a lot of trouble to cover up his role in nature. To paraphrase Sam Harris, I would challenge anyone to think of a question that we once had a scientific answer for, however inadequate, but that the best answer is now a religious one. Things that religion explains are just things that we don’t understand through science yet, but it doesn’t work the other way around. We used to be afraid of thunder, and we thought it was something supernatural, now we don’t anymore.

My whole journey to atheism started because I wanted to be a better Christian. I was making sure that I was ready to give a defense to anyone who asked, like in 1 Peter. As I studied more about the Bible, its history, and its theology (all from Christian sources, I might add), I realized that I was keeping myself in a box. A thought box. There were certain places that my mind had been trained not to go. As a Christian, you can explore different theological ideas (within boundaries), but you can never truly allow yourself to look at the possibility that Christianity itself might be wrong. The core theology underlying the different creeds may not be questioned. The only way that these ideas may be examined is for the purpose of building up the bulwarks around them. When I hit this wall, I realized that there was something wrong. These ideas should be able to hold up to the weight of scrutiny, and the burden of evidence. If not, why should I believe them?

Once I realized this, and started truly examining these tenants, I quickly realized that they did not meet their burden. Once this occurred, it wasn’t too long before I finally rejected it. I stand by this decision, and I would assert that faith’s purpose is to keep you satisfied with not knowing. Why would you seek out the real answers to the big questions (eg: Why are we here?) if you have faith in an “infallible” book that already gives you those answers? Why would you trust what science has to say if it contradicts your preconceived notions?

Let me just close with a quote by Marcus Aurelius, “Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.”

This is how I want to live my life. Not cowering in fear of hellfire as some do. Not limiting my thoughts to a box of topics as set by religious beliefs. I refuse to be satisfied with not knowing. I will not give up my mind for the uncertain promise of a reward in the hereafter. I don’t know if the conversations about what is True, what is Just, and what is Beautiful and Noble will continue after I die, but those are the conversations I want to be having while I am still here, and I want others to desire these things as well. If I am not doing these things  now, while I am still alive, then I should not expect to do them once I die, if that is even a possibility. I would hope that you would join me in this journey of discovery, wherever you might be now.

The Atheist Agenda

I have been hearing quite a bit about the so-called “Atheist Agenda” around campus lately. I’m not quite sure where they get this idea, but it seems to revolve around committing crimes, imprisoning Christians, and forcefully removing God from any corner from the nation, with a some baby eating thrown in for good measure. I have yet to meet another atheist with an agenda quite that ambitious At least for me, my agenda looks something like this:

• Get out of bed
• Stumble to the bathroom
• Take a shower
• Actually wake up
• Get dressed
• Go to class
• Alternately learn stuff, and doze off (depending on the amount of sleep I got the night before)
• Eat Lunch
• Go to more classes
• Attempt to spark debates in class
• Get out of class
• Do homework
• Eat Dinner
• Go to one of the common areas to hang out
• Have interesting conversations with awesome people
• End up on a monologue about a random scientific discovery
• Debate about the ethics of said discovery
• Go back to dorm
• Do more homework
• Write about my life so far (for that upcoming blog series)
• Debate theists online
• Stay up far too late watching Family Guy with my roommate
• Hit the sack around 2am (like I said, far too late)

That’s my average day in a nutshell. I’m not really sure what they are on about. I suppose my sleep patterns might be a bit criminal, but why are they so worried about my sleep? It’s a bit creepy if you ask me. After all, it’s not that different from any other college student. If you have any information on why this might be a problem, please let me know as I would be very interested in hearing it. After all, I wouldn’t want to end up destroying the country by not sleeping enough.

Well, that’s all for now. Live long and prosper!

New things on the horizon

For those of you who are wondering where I have been over the last few days, I have been in the process of moving back to college. Now that I am back at college, I will be posting slightly less often, but I intend to keep the quality of my work high. In order to do this, I have determined that I need to give some direction to my blog. For the next few weeks/months, I will be embarking on two main projects in addition to my posts about things that catch my eye in my daily life.

I was inspired to do the first project while packing for school. During this process, I came across some Answers in Genesis literature that my mother had bought in order to indoctrinate my younger siblings against critical thinking and science. I will be going through several of these in order to expose their flaws and fallacies.The second project will be a series of posts on my journey to atheism. In this series, I will be analyzing the influences that led me to my current situation, and examining them to help me, and hopefully you, my readers, in our respective journeys. The first post will be examining my life as a Christian, and my subsequent posts will deal with the different factors that led to my loss of faith. I hope to give the concepts of Christianity the respect that they deserve as ideas. I want to be clear about what exactly led me away from the faith without coming across as flippant, as that is not my intention.

Stay tuned for more on these fronts.

Why I Love Christians, but Hate Christianity.

Free your Mind!

As I reviewed my recent posts, I realized that my Christian readers might be turned off to some of what I have said. Indeed, I freely admit that my writing usually presents a scathing indictment of Christianity. Therefore, in an attempt to give some background, I would like to present my view of both Christians and Christianity. I am currently planning a series on the different events that led me to these conclusions, and away from the faith that will also shine some light on why I think this way. For now,  just let me point out the things that make Christianity a problem. First off, let me say, I love Christians. A large majority of my friends are Christians, and I can confidently say that they are some of the most wonderful people who I know. Of my inner circle of friends from home, four of the five of them are Christians. Christians have been responsible for many great works of art and music throughout the ages, and this continues, albeit to a lesser extent, today.That said, I hate Christianity. I believe that it and the other Abrahamic religious are responsible for or have contributed to many of the social ills that we face today. Christianity imprisons minds and strips people of their empathy. It manipulates people and destroys any concept of self-reliance and critical thinking through guilt, shame, and fear. It enables dictators and psychopaths of all sorts to justify their evils and easily coerce people into following them unquestioningly. I am of the opinion that these qualities are inherent to the religion due to the values that it promotes. Faith. Submission. Fear.

In this post, I would like to explore each of these in-depth and show why they all harm believers, and why, in my desire to rid the world of Christianity (through reason, argument, and cultural influence, not through legislation, btw), I am not hating Christians, but rather showing concern for their well-being. Also, if you are a Christian who is reading this, I am critiquing your doctrine, not you. Try to understand the difference. My purpose is to show how ridiculous and unfounded many of the assertions that Christianity makes really are. I do however, greatly disdain when people teach Christian doctrine as fact to other, impressionable people.  Please understand that I harbor no malice towards Christian people, but rather towards the doctrines they teach.

Faith

The Bible defines Faith as “The substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1) Essentially, faith is a promise of things to come using hope for proof instead of evidence. It is, on the surface, a wonderful thing. Christianity offers a palace made of gold, stones, and precious jewels. It offers the company of a loving God who will help you and stand by you in times of trouble. It offers fulfillment and meaning in a world that is so confusing at times. For those without foresight, it seems like the perfect deal. Just follow these rules, and the people I set over you, and obey them without question, and you will be rewarded with a helper in times of trouble and bliss for all eternity. It sounds so reasonable and wonderful when you look at it. I mean, who wouldn’t want that? I certainly would. All you have to do is have Faith.

But what is faith really? According to the dictionary, faith is “Strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof.” Does this fit with the vision of Christian faith as seen in the Bible? Absolutely. Throughout the Bible, there exist many stories of things which grossly contradict what we find in biology, math, psychology, anatomy, etc. and there is no real, conclusive evidence that God exists. So what is a good Christian to do? Well, he could reject the Bible, but then he couldn’t consider himself a Christian any longer. He could take it metaphorically, but then none of it would have any real meaning beyond use as a self-help book. He could cherry pick, but then he would run into the same problems as before. Or… He could take the entire thing on faith, because as we have seen, faith provides evidence for things which are not seen or understood by us yet. This seems innocent enough. I mean, what does it matter if someone decides to believe these things? It’s not like they are hurting anyone, right? They aren’t hurting themselves, right? They’re just believing stuff. What does it matter to me? It’s not like the are forcing me to believe things without evidence, right? Let’s follow our hypothetical Christian and find out.

Submission

What’s next? One of the key themes in scripture is obedience to a higher power who essentially owns you. This concept is played out all throughout the Bible from the Garden of Eden to Jesus telling his disciples “If you love me, obey my commandments”. This is all well and good. Of course we have to obey a higher power. We all obey the government, our boss, etc. Why wouldn’t we obey God and those he appoints over us? He did create us after all. The problem I see here at this point is the idea of one person having to submit to another. With a free government and our boss, we are essentially under a voluntary contractual agreement (ie: I will obey the laws, and the government will protect my freedoms from people who would take them away). The difference between these and the models set up in the Bible , is that in the case of the government or boss, these contracts are based on the idea of self-ownership. Self-ownership is the idea that we are responsible for our own lives, and that we have certain freedoms that should not be involuntarily taken away. This is not found anywhere in Scripture. Quite the contrary, The Bible is very clear that there is a hierarchy of submission that should never be broken and that it is perfectly acceptable to own people as property. This is the basis for the patriarchy of Judaism and Christianity, the tacit endorsements of slavery, the command for rape victims to marry their rapists, and the list goes on and on. According to the Bible, women are considered second-class citizens. This stance has softened up in recent days, but it is still present in many churches today, including my own. To the naysayers who will claim that this is not in the Bible, just read 1Corinthians 11:9 “Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man.” This makes the situation very clear. Women are to desire to serve men, and the men are to rule over them (kudos to anyone who just caught the Biblical paraphrase there).

While we are on the topic of discrimination, receiving even worse treatment are homosexuals. “If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall be put to death; their blood is upon them.” (Lev. 18:22) Gays, according to the Bible, should be viewed as sub-human. Lest anyone claim that things had changed after the old law passed, let me just note that this attitude even extends to the New Testament. “for even their females exchanged the natural use for that which is contrary to nature, and likewise also the males, having left the natural use of the female, were inflamed by their lust for one another, males with males, committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the recompense which was fitting for their error.” (Romans 1:26-27. Note the use of the phrase ‘natural use of the female’ there as well) While I myself am not gay, I can sympathize with their plight. In America, passages such as these provide ample opportunities for atrocities such as this. Because of the huge emphasis on obedience and submission, Christians are expected biblically to treat homosexuals as abominations, making things such as this in direct opposition to Biblical teaching.

This emphasis on unconditional submission and discouragement from independent decision-making takes a toll on Christians’ self-worth and self-reliance. This, combined with the simultaneous insistence on faith, creates a situation in which it is very easy for an unscrupulous person to come along and take advantage of people by claiming divine authority. This happens all the time, from televangelists to cults. These two factors by themselves, while harmful, are not enough to create real enslavement because most people are intelligent enough to recognize situations such as these, and get out. However, there is one ingredient that completes this enslaving and deadly mix.

Fear

Fear and guilt are the two most powerful weapons in Christianity’s arsenal. With these tools under his belt, an intelligent leader can control thousands, even millions of people. This has been seen in every totalitarian regime in history, from Pol Pot and Mao, to Hitler and Stalin. All of these leaders had an incredible grasp on what it takes to control the masses. These techniques are used on a smaller scale every day of a Christian’s life. Christianity sets up impossible and unrealistic moral standards with the express purpose of causing Christians to fail. A perfect example of this is the biblical idea that sex is undesirable except in one specific context, that is, marriage between one man, and one woman. In any other context, sex, even lust, is to be denied. In effect, Christians are to be asexual. In fact, asexuality is the ideal state for a christian; marriage is an outlet for those who cannot control themselves, which is just about everyone. Paul said this himself in 1 Corinthians 7 “To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is good for them to remain single as I am. But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion.” Once the Christian fails to live up to these standards, he is left with a feeling of guilt and shame. The insidious thing about this, is that in order to absolve himself of the guilt, he must return to the very thing that gave him these issues in the first place, thus perpetuating the cycle. Fear is the glue that holds the machine together. When faith fails, the Christian is ordered to submit. When the Christian refuses to submit without evidence, he is shamed until he changes his mind. The moment even one of these measures fail, Fear is brought into the equation. Fear of rejection. Fear of Hell. Fear of offending Almighty God. Fear is powerful. Fear enslaves minds. Fear suspends reason, and perpetuates bondage to these ideas. A Christian fears to question, fears to demand evidence, fears to challenge the ideas that enslaved him in the first place. This is the danger of Christianity.

Conclusion

After examining these ideas, it is clear that they each contribute to an oppressive system designed to subject people to the will of a central leader or government. Faith is used to justify otherwise unjustifiable beliefs. Submission is demanded because it strips people of their self-worth and enslaves them, both intellectually, and physically. Guilt is used to further enslave people psychologically, and Fear subjugates people when any of these other methods fail. In opposing Christianity, I am demonstrating that I care about people, not that I hate them. I love people, and I hate the system that they are enslaved to. If you are a Christian, or a theist of any stripe (these criticisms apply to almost all religions, not just Christianity.), I would encourage you to examine your beliefs. Are you being controlled and enslaved? Be honest, there’s no one judging you. If you are, you can free yourself. All it takes is an open mind, and the ability to think critically. Don’t give credence to any dogma or doctrine that requires you to relinquish your self-worth and your independence. Why waste your only life serving a religion that you have no guarantee is true? I think Christopher Hitchens said it best.

I’d urge you to look at those who tell you, those people who tell you at your age, that you are dead until you believe as they do. What a terrible thing to be telling to children. …and that you can only live by accepting an absolute authority. Don’t think of that as a gift. Think of it as a poisoned chalice. Push it aside however tempting it is. Take the risk of thinking for yourself. Much more happiness, truth, beauty and wisdom will come to you that way.

Please don’t let religion enslave you. Consider it carefully. Is it really in your best interests to give up your whole life for the promise of an afterlife which you cannot be certain of? That cannot be shown to be true? It’s a farce. Have the courage to look behind the curtain and unmask the wizard. You will never regret it. I guarantee it.

Related articles

• Cognitive Dissonance and Christian Definitions (thinkingenigma.wordpress.com)
• The True Meaning of Faith (dead-logic.blogspot.com)

Cognitive Dissonance and Christian Definitions

There seems to be a flaw in this logic

I know that I normally only post on Sunday afternoons, but I was going thought my twitter feed last night, and I came across this website, tweeted by Martin Pribble (www.martinspribble.com), andI had to comment on it. This is a Christian look at “New Atheism“. As you might be able to guess, it is a mess of misinformation, and self-righteous judgement of a worldview that the author knows almost nothing about. It almost seems as if he just googled the term, read the Wikipedia article,then scurried off to his theology books to try to refute what he thinks that their arguments will be. It’s no wonder the author didn’t sign his name to it. It’s frankly an embarrassment. If you happen to be reading this, and you are the person who wrote the original post, I am talking to you. Take some pride in your work and try to get the facts straight before you spout off and condemn a group of people you hardly know anything about!

The early 21st century has seen secularism and atheism promoted throughout the Western world with an ever-increasing vigor and militancy. This has led to the emergence of the “new atheists,” notable members of which include best-selling authors such as Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, Richard Dawkins, and Christopher Hitchens.

First of all, militancy? Really? I know we have all heard the term “militant atheist”, but can any of the so-called “Four Horsemen”, or the large majority of atheists for that matter, really be called militant? Look at militancy in religion. You have people like Al-Qaida and its leaders, heading to war, raping and killing as they go, all in an attempt to further “Allah’s Will”. Then you have militant Christians who bomb abortion clinics, or form independent militias and advocate the killing of police. Yet you want to call Richard Dawkins militant? It’s laughable. It’s absurd. Are they passionate? Yes. Are they adamant about their positions? Yes. Are they militant? Absolutely not! By your definition, the large majority of pastors and theologians are militant. Just because someone does not agree with you, does not mean that you can attempt to slander them and begin fear-mongering. Where do you get this idea that you are somehow superior to others, and can throw out labels like this?

The contention of the new atheists is, obviously, that there is no God. Adherents to the philosophy of new atheism believe that blind, natural forces are responsible for all of reality which we perceive. The new atheists do not restrict themselves to a passive disbelief. Rather, they are actively engaged in admonishing others to follow suit, to declare their non-belief in God, and to take the necessary steps to rid the world of religious belief and practice. As outspoken atheist Richard Dawkins puts it in The God Delusion, “I do everything in my power to warn people against faith itself.”

I want to know why this is a bad thing. We are throwing out the superstitions of our ancestors which have restricted our technological, scientific, and moral progress for thousands of years. So-called “Biblical Morality” is one of the most immoral set of rules ever devised. The Bible promotes slavery, homophobia, slut-shaming, misogyny, racism, xenophobia, child abuse, cruel and unusual punishment, and genocide, just to name a few. The whole book can go to hell as far as I’m concerned (no pun intended). As for your implied assertion that there is something beyond the blind natural forces of nature, prove it! Until you can provide adequate evidence for the existence of God, you have no ground to stand on. Right now, all evidence points towards the uncaring, impersonal forces of nature being responsible for all that we see. Until we have evidence to the contrary, you are misleading people with unsubstantiated assertions.

Continuing on…

An ironic feature of the new atheism is its strong faith in the inferiority of having faith. The new atheists erroneously redefine “faith” as an “irrational belief in the absence of evidence.” This misrepresentation of the nature of faith is absurd, for faith is not essentially a strong belief in something, but rather the ground of Christian faith is believing in someone—God. A.W. Tozer said, “Faith rests upon the character of God, not upon the demonstration of laboratory or logic.” When one has faith in the character of a person, e.g. a mother or an aircraft pilot, one no longer needs to be skeptical or require strong evidence in respect to any service that he or she renders.

From the dictionary, “Faith – Strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof”. “Irrational – Not in accordance with reason; utterly illogical”. I don’t know… It sure sounds like faith is irrational. Belief, no, strong belief based on feelings rather than evidence? Sounds pretty unwise to me. *end condescending tone* You are an idiot if you think that it’s a good idea to stop being skeptical. The reason we trust mothers and aircraft pilots is because they have shown themselves to be trustworthy, which is more than we can say about your god. Your god, while supposedly desiring to show himself to all mankind has done a piss-poor job of it, having left no evidence of his existence except an ancient document written mostly by illiterate goat-herders. To paraphrase Darth Vader. “I find your lack of skepticism disturbing.”

When it comes to things, Christians correctly approach the subject looking for strong evidence, while accepting that some matters may be beyond our current understanding. Indeed, many faith-filled scientists have been at the cutting edge of the scientific enterprise and test the evidence using thorough methods and techniques. The new atheists believe that empirical science is the only path to understanding reality. However, this is erroneous, since the very concept of “scientism” (the view that science is the only way to gain knowledge) is not itself subject to any scientific experiment and ultimately distills to a faith. Faith, far from being an “irrational belief in the absence of evidence,” is a decision to reckon as true something that is not visible. Scientism is a metaphysical concept. Thus, the new atheists require faith of some description, even if not in God. Scientism is self-refuting, and thus should not be believed. Scientism could be summed up as the belief that “empirical science is the only way to be sure about anything.” Of course, we might well then ask, “What was the scientific experiment that established that empirical science is the only way to be sure about anything?”

Actually, methodological naturalism (the idea that we should assume that there is a natural explanation for things instead of automatically assuming that godidit) has been shown to be rather accurate throughout history thus far. Your term “scientism” is a blatant attempt to discredit the scientists who make it possible to live in the luxuries that you have today. You seem to think that just by calling something an -ism, you can then claim that it is on the same rational level as your deluded worldview. That, sir, is false. If you want to bury your head in the sand, do it, but don’t claim that it is the proper way to view the world.

In contrast, theism is aligned with the reality of a transcendent God. Biblical theism is based around a set of sensible concepts, one of which is that there is no such thing as an atheist. Clearly the atheists have faith of a sort, if only in their power to influence others to join their atheistic pursuits. But one wonders why, if they truly believe God does not exist, they spend their lives trying to disprove His existence. Does a man spend a lifetime trying to disprove the existence of unicorns or elves? Of course not, because he knows they don’t exist and wouldn’t bother. Even if he knows others believe in unicorns and elves, he doesn’t dedicate his life to trying to debate them out of that belief. Romans 1:19-20 declares plainly that all men do know God exists because God has clearly revealed that knowledge to them through the evidence of creation. Those that deny God are doing so out of the rebellion of a darkened heart (Romans 1:21). Rather than the intellectual the self-described atheist imagines himself to be, God has pronounced, “The fool says in his heart ‘there is no god’” (Psalm 14:1, 53:1).

Your references to unicorns and elves are quite apt. I applaud you for refuting your own argument. In your own words you dismiss these mythical beings out of hand, yet in the same breath you affirm belief in a magical sky daddy who will solve all of your problems after you are dead. Do you not see the irony in your own words? Not only that, but you then go on to attempt to prove God by quoting scripture. That’s like trying to prove that you have inner Thetans by quoting the works by L. Ron Hubbard. It’s lunacy. Also, your assertion that we know in our hearts that there really is a god because we see evidence for him throughout nature is also false. If you had ever met one of us (which you clearly haven’t, or if you have, you are clearly misrepresenting us.), you would know that the vast majority of us have come to our atheism through rational inquiry, not through rebellion. You are the fool, not us. You  are the one who holds irrational, outdated, immoral views. You are the one who believes that there is a magical sky daddy who supposedly loves everyone except for gays, women, blacks, gentiles, transgender people, and anyone who doesn’t believe in him. Your bigotry in this post is outstripped only by your ignorance. Go to the library and check out a book that isn’t written by an apologist. You might actually learn something.

Nothing fails like Prayer, except perhaps misogyny.

courtesy of sxc.hu

Please share so that others can see the sheer idiocy of all this.

 I have a love hate relationship with Sundays. My parents make me go to church, even though they know about my atheism, and that sucks, but my church provides much fodder for my blog posts, that I have managed to write a nine hundred word post in two hours, which is nice. Today, the small group teacher decided to talk about relationships. I guess that I shouldn’t be surprised, but of course, he decided to bring up on one of the most misogynistic passages of the Bible, Ephesians 5:25. “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.” After citing this passage, he then went on to preach about how the man should always be in authority over the woman in a relationship. When I brought this up to him, the backpedaling started, and he started equivocating and saying that the passage actually meant that the man should be the spiritual leader in the relationship. Never mind what he just said a few sentences ago. He then tried to gain back some ground, but I think that I was able to make the situation very clear to some of the other people in the room. Hopefully, I was able to plant some seeds of doubt in the minds of the others. I’m probably too optimistic.

As we continued, he began to propagate cultural stereotypes, such as the idea that women are easier to damage than men because they are weaker than men. Yes, men tend to be physically stronger than women (with some exceptions, of course), but the idea that women are just these fragile things that are broken with just a word, while you can use and abuse men without any ill effects is just wrong. It’s a cultural stereotype that has been debunked a long time ago, but has stuck around due to the influence of religion and ignorant backwater patriarchs.

After that incident, I was hoping for a reprieve, but when I got into the sermon, I quickly figured out that it was going to be a potpourri of bigotry, unjustified assertions and guilt tripping.

Near the beginning, the pastor started his sermon on prayer by talking about choice. To quote, “You have a choice. God doesn’t make you choose eternal life, but he gives you incentives.” Damn straight. Either you kiss my ass, or I’ll throw you into a burning pit of torment for all eternity, all because I love you. That’s incentive for you right there. What a wonderful loving God you serve, pastor. He then continued on to claim that insomnia is God waking you up so that you can pray. I’m not sure how he reconciles that little piece of cognitive dissonance.

Immediately afterward, he started talking about how unless you love God and pray, you can’t love other people. Like hell we can’t. We aren’t the ones who bribe people with food and groceries in order to hit them over the head with a restrictive, enslaving religion. We aren’t the ones who tortured people during the Inquisition. We aren’t the ones who have started whole wars over a few acres of land with religious significance. Never mind that many of the top philanthropists are atheists. Never mind that many atheists hold a philosophy known as secular humanism, which is far more caring and responsible than any sort of religious philosophy. If you don’t love my God, you are a despicable human being. That’s a great philosophy you have there, pastor. Screw those stupid heathens.

Then, in set up for his main point, he started telling us to become like little children that just accept things at face value, and don’t look at whether or not things are true. Why? Because that’s the way God wants to do things. He doesn’t want you to do anything that doesn’t directly benefit God’s Kingdom (read: our church) because as it says in Matthew 6, “Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.” Never mind that it doesn’t say anything about how these needs will be met. No, you are just supposed to serve God, and everything else will take care of itself. Does anyone see a problem here?

Then came the face palm moment. “The Bible says ‘ask and it shall be given unto you’ but if you don’t get what you ask for, it just means that God is too good to give you something that would be bad for you, or if you get something different, then it means that it fits better into the divine plan. So if you don’t get what you want, don’t worry about it, just keep praying”. I gotta hand it to him, that’s a great way to delude yourself into thinking that there’s some sort of higher power out there. To bad that it’s based on false premises and confirmation bias, and will just lead you into thinking that you have actually done something towards a goal when you have done nothing but say words into empty space. A study by the Templeton Foundation found that there is no measurable difference between the outcomes when someone was being prayed for, and when they weren’t. The only difference found at all was when the patients were told that they were being prayed for. The researchers found that those patients, on average, did worse than their uninformed counterparts. So boys and girls, what can we learn from all this? That nothing fails like prayer.  Amen.

Five Minute’s Hate

Image via Wikipedia

Even though my parents are aware of my atheism, they still insist on dragging me to church. Because I will be out of here in a few weeks, I have decided to just put up with it, and not make a fuss. I was sitting here listening to the sermon, and I just had to start writing. My irony meter was about to blow a gasket. First the pastor decided to bash the charismatic denominations (I attend a Southern Baptist mega church) by referring to Biblical “facts”. How quaint and oxymoronic. He then decided to start a long, drawn out tirade about how alcohol is evil, then he followed it up with a comment about how church potlucks are so much better because they have lots of food, but no alcohol (at this point, I was about to fall out of my chair laughing). Following that, he moved on to gay bashing, and how conservative churches are so much better than liberal churches because they disapprove of homosexuality. It almost reminded me of the scene in Orwell’s 1984 where Big Brother led the Ingsoc masses in the “Five Minutes Hate”.

Unfortunately, not everyone is open to new information. This weekend, my uncle came to visit. We had several conversations in which he kept trying to hammer home the point that I was never a Christian, which is patently false. It got to the point where I would use the phrase “When I was a Christian…”, and he would start going off on me about it. It almost seems as if he is so insecure in himself that he fears that if he fails to delegitimize my former faith, he delegitimizes his own. He has internalized the fear that is instilled in him by Christianity to the point that he thinks that he is a monster, and the only thing holding him back is the Hand of God. This is a very common attitude that I keep encountering as I return to my former place of worship. For the last few weeks, I have had an ongoing conversation with my youth pastor about this very subject. Even though I have pointed out to him how manipulative his use of guilt is, even including specific examples, and providing alternative ways to present his views that do not rely as much on guilt and self deprecation, but he doesn’t see the damage he is causing.

The fact that I was once an avid apologetic for these awful practices sickens me. At the same time, I feel a sense of relief that I am now free of the groupthink. I have resolved to never fall back into that trap, and to help free others from the same. If you know people who are still in the grasp of religion, don’t shy away from the tough questions. Don’t let them settle for weak answers. Don’t teach them what to think, teach them how to think. Get them to ask questions, to dig, to search for answers, no matter where they lead.

This is a message that needs to be shared. Don’t just read this a

nd forget about it. Tell people. Show them how religion is preventing them from living a life without guilt and shame. Show them that a better life awaits them.

Note: To those who know who I am, feel free to share my blog, but please refrain from including information that would reveal who I am. I am posting under a pseudonym because I do not want to be identified. This is the same reason I have not mentioned the name of my church or the school I attend. I don’t want to bring unnecessary attention to these details because of the possible repercussions. I don’t want to unintentionally slander the university, or my old church. So please, share my blog, retweet my posts, but please don’t identify me, the university, or the church.

Holidays, Hawking, and Holistic Conversation

It has been quite a while since I posted last. I plan to post more regularly from now on. Much has happened in the intervening weeks since my last post.

After all this time, I thought it would be an easier adjustment. Even though I have left Christianity behind for good, I am still having hangups related to my previous belief system. The guilt that the system heaps upon you is hard to overcome. Every time I see a pretty girl I still feel the need to avert my eyes as if it is wrong to even notice her. I struggle to put the words down because there really is no way to adequately describe how I feel. The shame that I feel has been very difficult to shake. I am finally beginning to work through it, but it will be quite a long road.  The Living After Faith podcast (http://livingafterfaith.blogspot.com/) has been a helpful guide through this process.

On the bright side, I had my first holiday as a skeptic. To my surprise, it was not the ordeal that I thought it would be. I have had quite the number of lively conversations about my atheism with family and friends. I did have one conversation with my uncle that became a source of much angst for a week or two, but I believe that we have resolved the issue. I think it was just a matter of getting him to understand that it wasn’t just an overnight decision, and that I had thought it through to a great extent. However, he is visiting us this weekend, so I expect it to come up again.

While on Winter Break, I had been feeling more and more isolated. Finally, I decided to search for a freethinking group. After a bit of googling, I found a group called Ockham’s Cafe in Memphis, TN (http://www.meetup.com/Ockhams-Cafe/). This has been quite therapeutic for me, as I have been able to vent and express my ideas to multiple people without backlash.  In the rest of my life I am surrounded by fundamentalist Christians. It is such a relief to have a  group that is willing to listen and give constructive feedback without the judgement inherent in most other discussion platforms. Because of this, I wanted to provide a similar place for other skeptics and freethinkers in the town where I attend university. In pursuit of this goal, I have been talking to Jason, the leader of the Memphis group, as well as Andy Cheadle, a Campus Organizer for the Secular Student Alliance, about starting a chapter in my town. It is well on its way to fruition. If all goes well, I hope to hold the first official meeting in the first week of February.

In other news, Stephen Hawking  turned 70 this week. In honor of his birthday, I would like to give you an episode from his Discovery series, Curiosity. This video is probably one of the best presentations of the naturalistic explanation for the origin of the universe that I have ever seen. It has some gaps that need to be filled, but anyone with half a brain can fill the last logical steps needed to complete the picture.