Logical arguments
June 10th 2004: Euthyphro's dilemma
June 9th 2004: Pascal's Wager
June 8th 2004: The inconsistent notion of God
June 7th 2004: The ontological argument
June 6th 2004: The argument from autonomy
June 4th 2004: The Teleological argument
June 3rd 2004: The problem of evil
June 2nd 2004: The Cosmological Argument
Moral, empirical and other arguments
September 21st 2004: The nature of faith
June 13th 2004: The guide to life
June 11th 2004: The problem of hell
I'm an atheist. An atheist is a person that does not hold any theistic beliefs - beliefs to do with Gods.
Most atheists, like myself, look down upon myth and superstition, things that prevent the impoverished and the less fortunate from improving their lives. Very often, a lot of evils that we suffer from today are caused by ignorance. The best way to beat ignorance is simply to dispel it, through education, knowledge and reason.
Obviously, we respect anyone that does hold religious beliefs, whatever they may be, because that's what freedom of religion is all about. And an atheist really doesn't have a problem with that, as oftentimes religions are simply another means of promoting good to a population that might not be in a circumstance to fully understand the notions of morality and ethics. They are also an integral part of our history and heritage, and provides much-needed spirituality to a world that is becoming more and more materialistic. Therefore, although we don't agree with their beliefs, there is no reason for us to make a point about it either.
However, history also speaks of some religions that contain rather dangerous beliefs, some of which are unfortunately still carried today, and are becoming more widespread than ever. Often, they promote beliefs and ideas that run contrary to simple morality and plain old common sense, and are often abused in horrible ways. As morality and reason are extremely important to an atheist, we also become very bitter towards those that run directly contrary to such humanistic values. Such traits are most evident amongst the monotheistic religions. Mono means one, and theism means the belief of Gods, so monotheism means the belief that there is only one God. That of course implies that only their beliefs are right, that others are ultimately wrong, that they must do something about it. And they did - from the bloody conquests of the Umayyad dynasty, to the crusades, the witch hunts, and now the terrorism in the name of Jihad, and the not-so-obvious terrorism of Israel against the Palestinians. What's more, a war that is fought for territorial gains or other conflict of interests can often be resolved by negotiation. However, a war fought in the name of religion, and especially a monotheistic religion, leaves no space for compromise. For these religions, there *are* reasons to fuss over it.
For hundreds of years they preached conflicting and problematic moral values and provided the means for authorities to pursue personal well-being at the expense of the ignorant masses. What is more deplorable is their use of psychological coercion on the uneducated masses, and "reasoned" arguments that attempt to cover their erroneous beliefs through the use of circular arguments and other logical fallacies (and if that doesn't work, there's always heresy). There's nothing wrong with faith: we all have faith in our family & friends, our lives, and our future. But guiding others to hold immoral beliefs and commit unethical acts, and blocking out reason through blind faith, is unforgivable. I will really hate myself if I don't do anything about it.
Anyhow, doesn't it surprise you when you look at history, and discover how much moral values change throughout history? Religions rise and fall, trade and war between cultures influence each other, and just when people think that they discovered the ultimate truth at last, they find out that they're wrong. Castles were thought of as the ultimate defensive structure, and then comes the gunpowder. Physics was thought to be dead, and then quantum theory and relativity changed all that. And even with overwhelming evidence, some ideas still refuse to die away, an example being a round Earth. The Greek philosopher Aristotle already knew that the Earth was round from the shadows during a lunar eclipse, and looking at how some stars are visible only at various locations of the Earth. Eratosthenes even managed a reasonable approximation of the circumference. But even today, there are still people (guess who?) that believe in a flat Earth!
Seriously, instead of trying to justify a book as the ultimate truth from a supreme being, even when it's so hard to believe even without evidence, and later discovered to be wholly contradictory to reason, how hard is it to believe that a couple of dudes around the Middle East regions approximately 3500 years ago got together, wrote some passages in Hebrew, and created the Canaanite warrior-deity Yhwh, just like each civilization had their own Gods and deities that keeps changing through time?