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So I've opted to do away with the definitions and all that jazz. I've managed to make it to my childhood ect. This second part is my personal dealing with religion. Yes it is attacking Christianity, because that's what I grew up with. I don't have personal experience with many other religions the same way I have with the Christian Faith. I apologize in advance to those who get offended. These are my thoughts on the subject.
My Take on Religion: This one will be more "reader friendly" perhaps. It seems using vulgar language in context with religion may offend some people. So I opted to delete my old Political / Religious rant and transform it into more of an essay-esque blog post. I can't promise that there won't be any "bad" words involved in this post, but I promise to keep them to a bare minimum.
*************INCOMING LONG ESSAY************
We'll just start with where my religious beliefs fall or rather my lack of religious beliefs. I am an Atheist and I pretty much find the idea of any type of deity involved in the universe as, well quite honestly, a reach.
"They tricked me once with Santa Claus, I'm not going to let my heart get broken like that ever again" - Daniel Lykins
That should be the end of this whole post, since it should sum up everything, yet people misinterpret atheism. Atheists seem to be looked upon as the modern day devils of society. Religious followers point to historic leaders like Stalin as a prime example of what atheists become, seemingly forgetting all the massacres and mistreatment caused by religion of all shapes and sizes.
Most people who read this will assume I'm attacking the Christian faith. I have more animosity towards the Christian faith sure, but I'm really talking about all religion that are driven by the idea of god / gods having some part to play in our world. Let me make a list so I can make sure to cover most of them and people won't feel left out.
Abrahamic Religions : Babism; Baha'i; Christianity; Gnosticism; Islam; Sunni; Shi'a; Judaism; Rastafarianism; Sabians; Samaritanism; Mormonism
Dharmic / Indian Religions : Ayyavazhi; Buddhism; Hinduism; Jainism; Sikhism
Iranic Religions : Neo-Manichaeism; Zoroastrianism
I'm going to conclude the list there, hoping that you got the idea of why I opted to list all of these religions. I didn't even touch African / Taoic / Far Eastern / East Asian / Indigenous / Native American Religions. Now I'd like someone to logically explain to me how they know their religion is the correct path to follow. Faith is not a valid explanation either. You wouldn't accept me saying "I have faith there is no god.", so why should I accept you saying "I have faith in my God." ? Faith is such a vague word, it can be used in so many contexts that it loses value.
Now that I got all that nonsense out of the way I can now start talking about my personal outlook on the subject. Obviously I'm not a great philosopher/scientist whatever, and I'm not writing this to sway anyone to my point of view. I'm simply writing it for those of you who feel the need to ask me why I am an Atheist. After I'm done with this I will be able to reference people to this blog and say "Read that and if you have anymore questions...read it again".
I grew up in a "overly" Christian household, but it wasn't your typical family. My parents had gone from a life of drugs, alcohol, and all those sorts of things, into a life with Jesus. What did this mean for me? Well it meant going to church three times a week til I could drive. I went to bible school and church camps, all the typical Christian social outings. I was pretty much not allowed to watch anything with any sorts of "witchcraft", cursing, violence, sex, ect ect ect. This list included TMNT, Scooby Doo, and various other saturday morning cartoons. That cycle broke when Lord of the Rings came out, which apparently made witchcraft and sorcery acceptable for Christians.
With a combination of all those things, I guess you could call me a sheltered child. Unfortunately (I use that for my parents, not for me) I managed to start thinking for myself around the age of 13. I think the exact moment I realized I had no belief in god was when my church was trying to baptize me in the "Holy Spirit". That would be the whole speaking in tongues thing people talk about for all of you non-Christians. My church (Word of Life for all you in St. Joe) was laying their hands on my head and babbling out pig latin and various other bull shit (ah sorry I slipped).
Let's try to paint a picture here :
Red headed child about the age of 13 in a room full of other 12 - 17 year olds and some various adults. Everyone in the room is speaking this nonsense that is supposedly "communication to God that the devil can't understand". There I am having 5 or 6 people all laying their hands on my face and yelling in this made up language, with the intermittent "JESUS BLESS THIS CHILD AND GIVE HIM THE POWER OF YOUR TONGUE!". Then suddenly at the age of 13, I had my first epiphany! All of the sudden I realized I was surrounded by religious zealots who are basically brainwashing me at my tender age in hopes that as I grow up, I won't be able to think for myself. Unfortunately they didn't seem to want to give up on me and the power of god, so much like women have been faking orgasms for centuries to make men feel better about themselves, I faked the power of tongues. I started to ramble off bullshit "Ama lakka shakka boom boom chicka chicka see saw comma shabang boomshakalaka (pretty much any commentary from the SNES game NBA JAM)" and magicly they started praising Jesus for my new blessing of tongues (apparently Jesus doesn't send memos back that warn them about fakers).
I know many of you who read that are going to assume that I'm this bitter kid who grew up in an overly christian household and was deprived of things he wishes he wasn't and so on and so forth. In reality, I'm not bitter at all. Do I think my parents could have loosened up and allowed things like trick or treating? Yes. Would I prefer a family of alcoholics and drug addicts? Obviously not. My parents seem to need Christianity to "stay the course" so to speak. From my experience most Christians are either born into it, or they are finding a way to escape a troubled life. Churches play to both of these groupings of people like a very fine orchestra.
For example, the alter call usually sounds something like:
"Everyone bow their head. I want everyone to know that Jesus died for you and your sins. He wants you to come lay them in front of him and confess your them. Some of you here today have been living with the devil on your side. You could be struggling with drugs, alcohol, pornography, and/or sexual addictions (starting to sound like a new medical drugs infomercial?). Today is your chance to get your life back on track with the Lord. Don't let this slip by, you never know when your life will end. Then there are some of you who have turned your back on God. I want you to know that he still loves you and is ready for you to come back to him. (Insert typical scripture ie. Jesus said that if you confess him in front of others he will confess you in front of the Father, or something similar to that) so right now here today, I want you to raise your hand right now. Do it. Right now. This is your chance to get your life right with God. Thank you brother for your courage, God sees you. Well alright, now I'd like everyone to stand to their feet. Those of you that raised your hands, please start making your way down to the front. If you think someone next to you wanted to raise their hand, talk to them, tell them you'll come down here with them (seriously, what the hell, I thought it was our decision. Please stop telling other people to "help" us down the aisle. They use the term peer pressure for drugs/alcohol/sex yet they seem to use it pretty well). You sir (points at random person walking down the aisle) I saw you in the lobby and I knew God was going to move in you today (What about the other 20 people? God doesn't seem to put a post it on everyones forehead for the pastor...just one or two)."
I think you get my point.
  
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Kudos to you for being a thinking individual and questioning as deeply as you do. That is very important! A lot of what you are talking about is very familiar to me, as I was raised very hardcore Christian (I actually attended Jimmy Swaggarts church a few times.) I began questioning at the age of 13 or 14, also, and finally threw off the religious indoctrination. It's also cool that you are taking on this essay for a magazine.
I have criticism, of course, but everything can be criticized. A lot of my criticism will reflect my personal opinion on these matters, and may not be at all what you want to say, or may not be within the scope of your project.
I don't like how you talk about having "animosity" towards Christianity. It seems to me that animosity is precisely the thing we need to be minimizing, whether we are Christians or atheists. I never liked it when Christians displayed animosity towards me. But Christians that are peaceful and respectful are no problem to me - some of them are my close friends. If you write this article as an attack on Christians (which you really haven't... but...) then you aren't going to help anyone understand you, you'll just make them defensive. Don't live with hate! Live with compassion and understanding, and perhaps Christians will see your clear thinking and good intentions and begin the same deep questioning you took up for yourself.
As for religious massacres... I realize that so many people have died in the name of God... or one god or another, anyway. This is true. But it is important not to make mass murder and intolerance into a problem of religion. Historically that may have been the case, but historically many more people were religious. Don't forget that secular nations have commited horrible atrocities. Think of the 60 million some deaths attributed to communism. Think of the hundreds of thousands of people killed at Hiroshima and Nagasaki because mis-used science. Are tragedies a result of secular or religious thinking, or just extremely misguided people?
Simplify. No need to list all the religions you are opposed to. Most of those aren't relevant to your audience anyway. You can easily explain what you don't agree with just by explaining what you are - an atheist. A = without theism = god belief. You can go on to easily explain why you don't believe in gods or magic or what have you. My recommendation is to do this from a position of extreme humility and compassion, not arrogance or elitism as so many atheists do. Being an atheist isn't a point of pride... it's just you being honest with yourself and doing the best you can.
Details: fix your ect's. Ect is incorrect. You mean to say etcetera, which is abbreviated as "etc." This is a personal style thing, but for an actual article or essay, I would not use slashes, as in Taoism/Buddhism/Christianity. Just doesn't seem formal.
There are a handful of small errors and awkward passages in your essay. Most of them will be fixed if you read your essay out loud to yourself.
Best of luck, sureshot.
Also, I'd be happy to discuss these topics with you. Peace!
Nick
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I have a close friend who is 62 years old as of tomorrow. He was a minister until his mid-twenties. He is now a very openly gay atheist (he prefers to be called agnostic, as it sounds more humble, but agnosticism is a sub-group of atheism.) Anyway, he wrote an article about religion and his own agnosticism. It took up maybe 4 paragraphs. His thinking amounts to this:" I began questioning whether I really knew if there was a God or not, and I realized I didn't. I realized I didn't know whether or not there is a heaven or hell. I don't know whether I will see my loved ones in the after-life. So much of what people preach and believe seems to me like it could easily be simple wishful thinking. I would love to see my loved ones again after I die, but just because I want it to be so doesn't make it so. That is what I know.
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In response to Inky's comment - in particular his 61 years and 364 days old friend. Let us assume all religion is arbitrary - how does that affect the existence of God? Let us take that a step further and allow ourselves to believe science rules supreme over all knowledge. Again, I reiterate the same question. To deny God, I feel is irrational. That is not to say one should accept God - but to believe a person is able to fathom Infinity is to say he, himself, is God. Basically what I'm trying to say, in reference to that very last sentence, is: nigga please.
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Pirate Cod, neither I nor my friend "deny" God. Essentially, our position is one of ignorance. Is there an afterlife? A god? Perhaps! But the only thing I am sure of is that I don't KNOW there is a god or afterlife. I think you may have mis-understood what I or my friend said.
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He is now a very openly gay atheist (he prefers to be called agnostic, as it sounds more humble, but agnosticism is a sub-group of atheism.)
I assumed everything quite literally, sorry for the misunderstanding.
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Pirate Cod, I would also like to point something else out, just for the sake of consideration. Most atheists or agnostics tend to embrace science, but not all do. I am critical and skeptical of scientific thinking. Do I think science is automatically wrong? No. But I don't have the faith in it that so many do. As to religion, I am often skeptical and critical of it as well. Is it always wrong? Probably not. Does it have good in it? Sure.
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Pirate Cod (yet again, hehehe): Atheism broadly means "without God belief." That is, it is a statement of absence, rather than a statement of belief. It is like this: A = without. Theism = God belief. Without belief in god. Not denial of god, just lack of belief in God. To be sure, there are atheists who deny the possibility of God, but they are really rare, as their position hinges on faith just as much as any religious person's beliefs. Most atheists could be called agnostics. Agnostic means "without knowledge." Specifically, it means without knowledge of God. So most atheists don't think God is an impossibility, they just don't see a reason to actively believe in a God. Sort of like there could be aliens in UFO's, and elves and fairies, but I've never seen any, so I don't actively believe in them.
Nick
PS, my analogy to UFO's and fairies is not meant to be offensive at all!
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I agree with nA.Inky. The worst thing you could possibly do is make your audience feel like they are under attack. Be very careful about the tone of your words, and show them why athiests have reasons to hold the beliefs they have.
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foo magoo and a handful of moo, shoo said blue though the oo's do not show, it rhymes!!! it rhymes!!!
but but let us dissect this even more! he is an athiest, yes yes! but he prefers to be called agnostic, why why? because it sounds more humble, oh my! so does that mean he's agnostic? not to I. the end, i call it the beggining. ugh38h honda civic peace
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On November 20 2007 06:04 nA.Inky wrote:
I have a close friend who is 62 years old as of tomorrow. He was a minister until his mid-twenties. He is now a very openly gay atheist (he prefers to be called agnostic, as it sounds more humble, but agnosticism is a sub-group of atheism.)
atheist = doesnt believe in god, afterlife, anything period. agnostic is just saying there's a maybe. pretty sure that's a big difference =p
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Hawk, that is a common misconception. Actually, though, either way it boils down to semantics. To be more flexible and recognize the nuances of the situation, though, I'll say this: if you listen to atheist discussions and read atheist literature/websites, you'll see the definitions as I wrote them here. If you look at Christian discussion and Christian writings, you'll see the definition you gave. Atheists typically define themselves as WITHOUT belief in god, not in a position of denying the existence of anything.
Semantics.
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On November 20 2007 05:00 suresh0t wrote:
Religious followers point to historic leaders like Stalin as a prime example of what atheists become, seemingly forgetting all the massacres and mistreatment caused by religion of all shapes and sizes.
That's a valid point, but obviously (and you probably know this) to blame religion for massacres etc. would be falling into the same trap of debating illogically. Judge Christianity by Christ and the Bible, not by what people make of it (eg. your example of altar calls and speaking in tongues - 1 Corinthians 13 pretty much sums up Christianity as love, and ends by saying that speaking in tongues is merely a subset of the religious culture - religious practices will come to an end, but love will not end). Also note that speaking in tongues in Acts was rather the apostles being able to speak in the language of the people in that country, not so much the random blabbering you hear in Pentecostal Churches, which seems to be your experience.
As for altar calls, you can say all sorts of things but the main thing is to confess that Jesus is the Lord of your life - which means you want to follow Him (eg. follow His commandments to love God and love your neighbours). It's not about how some people respond and therefore the others aren't eligible - it's about whoever wants to respond, so if everybody wanted to respond that would be fine too - nothing wrong with that.
Strawmen suck, because just because some religious followers may do the things you listed doesn't represent the religion. It would be the equivalent of, for example, if a self-proclaimed atheist took a gun to school and killed people, and then religious people used that as an example of why atheism is wrong. Attack religion by its book, not by what people do with it. So if you want to attack Christianity, don't attack the Church and its people version - unless you were attacking Western culture rather than the religion itself, but rather take bits out of the Bible and attack that. Quote scripture and talk about how absurd it is, but to use religious people as examples is just silly. Like your quote, it would be like Christians using atheists who kill people as examples rather than attacking the ideology of atheism itself.
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JesusCruxRH - It is something I'll consider more, but I don't think I agree with you. I don't think it is wrong to critique communism as it has been implemented. What good does it do to talk about how wonderful communism (or capitalism, for that matter) looks on paper, when the result was, in reality, brutal and awful? What good does it do to talk about how wonderful the bible is when so many followers of Christianity (the outspoken ones anyway) are judgemental and hateful?
By the same token, I do invite criticism of atheists and scientists and so on.
Isn't there some bit in the bible about how "you'll know them by their works?"
No group is above criticism, it's just that if we are to be critical, we should be critical in a way that is positive and constructive, rather than hateful and destructive. I think Christians and atheists both are entirely capable of being hateful and intolerant, and that is what is really unfortunate.
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JesusCruxRH - Still, it is worth acknowledging that much of what Jesus spoke of was really wonderful, and the world would be better if people lived more in line with that wisdom.
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mental masturbation getting you nowhere.
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EPT
