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Why We Hate God: A Sample of Freethought
17 years ago
General
A Sample of Freethought
We don't hate God (or gods). We don't even believe he/they exist/s. Neither do we "hate" Santa Claus or Mother Goose or leprechauns or unicorns or demons. We wonder why adults believe in the creatures of their own imaginations, especially when such beliefs have disastrous effects on society. Humans accept a wide range of paranormal and fantastical beliefs, but the most common is a belief in a higher power or god.
Freethought is about basing one's beliefs in reality, and reality is what we can observe and test with our five senses. Are there things in reality that cannot be observed with our five senses, like gravity? Believers will often argue that "gravity exists but cannot be seen or felt--just like God."
But gravity, or the theory of universal gravitation, like all scientific theories, is testable and supported by evidence. If you drop something repeatedly, the same thing will happen every time. This is gravity, and it happens to everyone, not just the ones who have faith in it. It even happens to animals, inanimate objects, and clumsy drunks. Unlike God, it can be seen and felt at all times. Its related theories can predict future occurences of the same kind.
Look at pictures of planets, taken by telescopes or satellites, and you will see they are spherical and have orbits. The effects of gravitation can be directly observed. We can see it.
Isn't this beautiful?
Science is beautiful.
If something is an objective and verifiable observation, it is a fact. If observations pass repeated tests, especially tests done by people who have dedicated their lives to studying and understanding science, it has a good chance of being true. If it was a fantastic miracle that a goatherd saw thousands of years ago, and which leaves behind no concrete evidence, we can safely conclude it never really happened. God does not pass any thorough tests at all, ever--especially repeated ones.
The fact that the universe exists and is complex is not proof of an intelligent designer, just like how the existence of wind is not proof that magical creatures in the sky are blowing down on us. Complex structures come from reactions between elements, and evolution helps eliminate most structures that don't work. There is no real difference between microevolution and macroevolution. Lots and lots of microevolution simply leads up to macroevolution, and the scientific community does not acknowledge any fundamental difference between the two. The fact that the human brain has enzymes perfectly suited for cleaning neural waste does not mean the brain was intelligently designed. It only means that people born without the ability to produce this enzyme were unable to function and died off before reproducing.
In the face of all their failed arguments, believers will sometimes claim that atheists only want a cold, loveless, robotic society where only the fittest survive and the disadvantaged are thrown mercilessly into the gutters, and that we want to be just like Hitler.
Why would we want that? Unbelief is not synonymous with selfishness and cruelty. Why would we want to live in a world of suffering, death, and destruction? Think about it. We're humans too, and only want the same basic things as anyone else--safety, food, shelter, and good relations with our fellow humans. Renowned atheist Richard Dawkins says it best: "As a scientist I am a passionate Darwinian. But as a citizen and a human being, I want to construct a society which is about as un-Darwinian as we can make it."
Regardless, in his famous book, Mein Kampf, Hitler stated quite clearly that he was doing God's work, and Nazi belt buckles were inscribed with the motto "God With Us" (in German, Gott Mit Uns).
In addition to evolutionary theory, Hitler also apparently accepted the theory of universal gravitation. Because the Nazis "believed in" gravity, does that make it any less true? Does that make it responsible for human evil? Hardly. It doesn't matter whether or not Hitler was an atheist or a theist--what he did with his beliefs does not disprove scientific fact or established theory. Keep in mind also that scientific theory is not a "hunch" or "opinion." It is a provable, testable interpretation of facts and evidence, and can be modified and retested upon discovery of new evidence. It's the highest one can get in science.
While most religious teachings have been used for control and power, others claim to lead to spiritual enlightenment. But even these "enlightened" paths generally refuse to acknowledge reality, because reality hurts the human ego. The truth is that we are not the center of the universe, we are not God's favorite pets, we are not here on earth for any divine purpose, and we are not going anywhere after we die. Spirits, angels, devils, gods, and miracles are fun to believe in, but they are not real and we must accept this. Living an honest, truthful life means letting go of our imaginary friends and finding that warm fuzzy feeling in something real.
For example, we know that human fertilization is the result of an egg being penetrated by a sperm. We know about amniotic fluid, mitochondria, and mitosis. Do this knowledge make a baby any less cute? No. We can pursue science and still appreciate the cuteness of babies. For another example, to the best of our knowledge, stars are balls of fusing elements with limited lifespans, and not the spirits of our ancestors, but we can still enjoy the beauty of a brilliant night sky. Science does not remove pleasure from everyday life. Our personal attitude does.
There is no need for faith supplements. It is enough to be human, to experience joy and creativity, to be productive, to laugh and tell jokes, spend time with friends and family, help our neighbors, enjoy a delicious meal, travel, make love, pursue interesting hobbies, comfort the sick, have a home and career, and to volunteer for issues we're passionate about. In fact, since we are accustomed to running our lives on critical thinking, logic, and common sense, we also tend to avoid scams that others easily fall for, both economic and psychological. There have been no real Freethinker or atheist "cults," because we aren't susceptible to being swayed by preachers of nonsense. Logic is a virtue. Science can and will explain everything someday. And just because we don't have all the facts yet, doesn't mean that the ones we do have now are untrue.
Even though we're not here for any discernible reason, life is still not pointless. We can accept responsibility for ourselves and give deliberate meaning and purpose to our lives based on moral principles. Freethinkers with a Humanist bent believe that as mature and developed humans, we are qualified to make our own moral decisions, and if we trust ourselves to choose good, and acknowledge that goodness simply makes sense in terms of survival, we will choose it.
The idea that one cannot possibly act morally without religion is deeply ingrained within American culture. It is, however, a fallacy. Morality, which refers to principles of right and wrong, is not a divine invention but a human one, and is entirely subjective. If morality came from God, then all believers would have the exact same moral code, and they would all interpret scriptures the exact same way and there would be no denominations. The real, natural universe is neutral, from bar spiral galaxies to mammals to subatomic components. It simply exists--there is no right or wrong, and there is no justice. Humans, partly due to their ability to not only feel pain but to also analyze and remember it, invented justice, ethics, and the concept of morality in an effort to avoid pain in advance. Morality and ethics have never been constant. They differ from culture to culture, generation to generation, and even from family to family or person to person within the same culture or generation. Morality must also be taught; it does not come naturally, because it is not natural. It is manmade and has existed since human brains developed cortexes. So, since morality does not come from gods or religion, but from humans, anyone can practice it, even those who reject or flat out deny religion and the existence of gods.
Though godless people adhere to widely varying ideologies regarding morality, moral actions are basically those that alleviate the suffering of other beings. Being kind and good is rational and just makes sense. Helping others, in small ways and large, promotes the species, promotes survival, and promotes comfort and joy. Violence and hatred are irrational and do not make sense. They do not promote anything except suffering, which begets more suffering, and on and on.
But what difference does it make? Isn't it harmless to have supernatural beliefs? No. Faith is harmful to individuals and to society as a whole. Faith is detrimental to critical thinking. There have been many high-profile cases of cults, polygamist sects, and tales of murderers claiming devils or gods made them kill, as well as many smaller, lesser-known incidents of people using their religious delusions to justify their crimes. There are too many to list here, but type "religious violence" into any search engine and you'll see the undeniable results.
There are some religious people who do kind things and are upstanding citizens, but it's likely that they would have been good people whether they were religious or not. If goodness came from religion only, one could say that all believers are good people, and that is definitely not the case (David Koresh, anyone?). Believers do not have a monopoly on kindness--kindness is found in all types of people, no matter what they believe.
Some Freethinkers hold that if real, scientific, concrete proof was shown to them that gods exist, they would start believing. While that is a possibility, we shouldn't hold our breath. Humans have been walking the earth for thousands and thousands of years, and still there is no direct, scientific proof that any gods ever existed at any time. There is no reason to believe that suddenly the evidence will appear. So we will go on living our lives with common sense, empty of trivial guilt and fear, and full of goodwill and peace.
The fact that we don't yet have all the facts about everything also does not prove the existence of gods. It only proves that we have a lot of researching left to do. Faith will never provide any answers, and the sooner we rid ourselves of our delusions, the sooner we can embrace the facts and get comfortable with reality. And the reality is that the universe is only a display of how matter, gravity, and energy behave and interact.
But our lives are not empty. We have each other, and that is enough.
We don't hate God (or gods). We don't even believe he/they exist/s. Neither do we "hate" Santa Claus or Mother Goose or leprechauns or unicorns or demons. We wonder why adults believe in the creatures of their own imaginations, especially when such beliefs have disastrous effects on society. Humans accept a wide range of paranormal and fantastical beliefs, but the most common is a belief in a higher power or god.
Freethought is about basing one's beliefs in reality, and reality is what we can observe and test with our five senses. Are there things in reality that cannot be observed with our five senses, like gravity? Believers will often argue that "gravity exists but cannot be seen or felt--just like God."
But gravity, or the theory of universal gravitation, like all scientific theories, is testable and supported by evidence. If you drop something repeatedly, the same thing will happen every time. This is gravity, and it happens to everyone, not just the ones who have faith in it. It even happens to animals, inanimate objects, and clumsy drunks. Unlike God, it can be seen and felt at all times. Its related theories can predict future occurences of the same kind.
Look at pictures of planets, taken by telescopes or satellites, and you will see they are spherical and have orbits. The effects of gravitation can be directly observed. We can see it.
Isn't this beautiful?
Science is beautiful.
If something is an objective and verifiable observation, it is a fact. If observations pass repeated tests, especially tests done by people who have dedicated their lives to studying and understanding science, it has a good chance of being true. If it was a fantastic miracle that a goatherd saw thousands of years ago, and which leaves behind no concrete evidence, we can safely conclude it never really happened. God does not pass any thorough tests at all, ever--especially repeated ones.
The fact that the universe exists and is complex is not proof of an intelligent designer, just like how the existence of wind is not proof that magical creatures in the sky are blowing down on us. Complex structures come from reactions between elements, and evolution helps eliminate most structures that don't work. There is no real difference between microevolution and macroevolution. Lots and lots of microevolution simply leads up to macroevolution, and the scientific community does not acknowledge any fundamental difference between the two. The fact that the human brain has enzymes perfectly suited for cleaning neural waste does not mean the brain was intelligently designed. It only means that people born without the ability to produce this enzyme were unable to function and died off before reproducing.
In the face of all their failed arguments, believers will sometimes claim that atheists only want a cold, loveless, robotic society where only the fittest survive and the disadvantaged are thrown mercilessly into the gutters, and that we want to be just like Hitler.
Why would we want that? Unbelief is not synonymous with selfishness and cruelty. Why would we want to live in a world of suffering, death, and destruction? Think about it. We're humans too, and only want the same basic things as anyone else--safety, food, shelter, and good relations with our fellow humans. Renowned atheist Richard Dawkins says it best: "As a scientist I am a passionate Darwinian. But as a citizen and a human being, I want to construct a society which is about as un-Darwinian as we can make it."
Regardless, in his famous book, Mein Kampf, Hitler stated quite clearly that he was doing God's work, and Nazi belt buckles were inscribed with the motto "God With Us" (in German, Gott Mit Uns).
In addition to evolutionary theory, Hitler also apparently accepted the theory of universal gravitation. Because the Nazis "believed in" gravity, does that make it any less true? Does that make it responsible for human evil? Hardly. It doesn't matter whether or not Hitler was an atheist or a theist--what he did with his beliefs does not disprove scientific fact or established theory. Keep in mind also that scientific theory is not a "hunch" or "opinion." It is a provable, testable interpretation of facts and evidence, and can be modified and retested upon discovery of new evidence. It's the highest one can get in science.
While most religious teachings have been used for control and power, others claim to lead to spiritual enlightenment. But even these "enlightened" paths generally refuse to acknowledge reality, because reality hurts the human ego. The truth is that we are not the center of the universe, we are not God's favorite pets, we are not here on earth for any divine purpose, and we are not going anywhere after we die. Spirits, angels, devils, gods, and miracles are fun to believe in, but they are not real and we must accept this. Living an honest, truthful life means letting go of our imaginary friends and finding that warm fuzzy feeling in something real.
For example, we know that human fertilization is the result of an egg being penetrated by a sperm. We know about amniotic fluid, mitochondria, and mitosis. Do this knowledge make a baby any less cute? No. We can pursue science and still appreciate the cuteness of babies. For another example, to the best of our knowledge, stars are balls of fusing elements with limited lifespans, and not the spirits of our ancestors, but we can still enjoy the beauty of a brilliant night sky. Science does not remove pleasure from everyday life. Our personal attitude does.
There is no need for faith supplements. It is enough to be human, to experience joy and creativity, to be productive, to laugh and tell jokes, spend time with friends and family, help our neighbors, enjoy a delicious meal, travel, make love, pursue interesting hobbies, comfort the sick, have a home and career, and to volunteer for issues we're passionate about. In fact, since we are accustomed to running our lives on critical thinking, logic, and common sense, we also tend to avoid scams that others easily fall for, both economic and psychological. There have been no real Freethinker or atheist "cults," because we aren't susceptible to being swayed by preachers of nonsense. Logic is a virtue. Science can and will explain everything someday. And just because we don't have all the facts yet, doesn't mean that the ones we do have now are untrue.
Even though we're not here for any discernible reason, life is still not pointless. We can accept responsibility for ourselves and give deliberate meaning and purpose to our lives based on moral principles. Freethinkers with a Humanist bent believe that as mature and developed humans, we are qualified to make our own moral decisions, and if we trust ourselves to choose good, and acknowledge that goodness simply makes sense in terms of survival, we will choose it.
The idea that one cannot possibly act morally without religion is deeply ingrained within American culture. It is, however, a fallacy. Morality, which refers to principles of right and wrong, is not a divine invention but a human one, and is entirely subjective. If morality came from God, then all believers would have the exact same moral code, and they would all interpret scriptures the exact same way and there would be no denominations. The real, natural universe is neutral, from bar spiral galaxies to mammals to subatomic components. It simply exists--there is no right or wrong, and there is no justice. Humans, partly due to their ability to not only feel pain but to also analyze and remember it, invented justice, ethics, and the concept of morality in an effort to avoid pain in advance. Morality and ethics have never been constant. They differ from culture to culture, generation to generation, and even from family to family or person to person within the same culture or generation. Morality must also be taught; it does not come naturally, because it is not natural. It is manmade and has existed since human brains developed cortexes. So, since morality does not come from gods or religion, but from humans, anyone can practice it, even those who reject or flat out deny religion and the existence of gods.
Though godless people adhere to widely varying ideologies regarding morality, moral actions are basically those that alleviate the suffering of other beings. Being kind and good is rational and just makes sense. Helping others, in small ways and large, promotes the species, promotes survival, and promotes comfort and joy. Violence and hatred are irrational and do not make sense. They do not promote anything except suffering, which begets more suffering, and on and on.
But what difference does it make? Isn't it harmless to have supernatural beliefs? No. Faith is harmful to individuals and to society as a whole. Faith is detrimental to critical thinking. There have been many high-profile cases of cults, polygamist sects, and tales of murderers claiming devils or gods made them kill, as well as many smaller, lesser-known incidents of people using their religious delusions to justify their crimes. There are too many to list here, but type "religious violence" into any search engine and you'll see the undeniable results.
There are some religious people who do kind things and are upstanding citizens, but it's likely that they would have been good people whether they were religious or not. If goodness came from religion only, one could say that all believers are good people, and that is definitely not the case (David Koresh, anyone?). Believers do not have a monopoly on kindness--kindness is found in all types of people, no matter what they believe.
Some Freethinkers hold that if real, scientific, concrete proof was shown to them that gods exist, they would start believing. While that is a possibility, we shouldn't hold our breath. Humans have been walking the earth for thousands and thousands of years, and still there is no direct, scientific proof that any gods ever existed at any time. There is no reason to believe that suddenly the evidence will appear. So we will go on living our lives with common sense, empty of trivial guilt and fear, and full of goodwill and peace.
The fact that we don't yet have all the facts about everything also does not prove the existence of gods. It only proves that we have a lot of researching left to do. Faith will never provide any answers, and the sooner we rid ourselves of our delusions, the sooner we can embrace the facts and get comfortable with reality. And the reality is that the universe is only a display of how matter, gravity, and energy behave and interact.
But our lives are not empty. We have each other, and that is enough.
