By Tom Kando
The main reason not to believe in God is that there are better explanations for what happens around us, what happens to us, what happens in the world, what happens in nature. It’s called SCIENCE
Now many of you might say: “But wait a minute, science can’t explain everything.” True. There is an infinite number of things which science cannot explain. But science makes progress. In ancient Rome, just about everything that happened - storms that shipwrecked boats, defeat or victory in battle, the wind, illness, death during child delivery - all these things were attributed to the Gods. We now laugh at this. Similarly, many things which we do not (yet) understand today will be scientifically explainable in the future. At least, most reasonable people today no longer attribute events to the Gods.
You could say that the belief in scientific explanations is a FAITH, too, not unlike the faith of those who believe in God. I suppose you are right.
A funny comedian recently said that atheists reject God’s existence because no one ever SEES God. According to atheists, this comedian said, since you can’t see God, he doesn’t exist. And then he made fun of atheists, saying that he hadn’t yet seen the movie “Twelve Years a Slave,” but that this did not mean that the movie does not exist. Haha. Just because you can’t see something doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist. Okay. I get it.
I’ll grant you that I can’t PROVE that God doesn’t exist. Call me an agnostic, not an atheist.
Another problem with the idea of God: What do you MEAN by God? A bearded old man sitting on a cloud? The all powerful yin-and-yang cosmic force of the universe? The first Cause? Something else?
I don’t have a problem with some of the more abstract versions of God. But I find the Christian biblical God a ridiculous concept.
It also seems that the currently dominant Muslim conception of God is really bad, judging by the violent political extremism to which it leads at this time. However, I know nothing about Islam and the Koran, so I limit my remarks to the Judeo-Christian God.
The ancient testament is replete with primitive fairy tales such as the story of Samson and the parting of the Red Sea. These narratives are cultural treasures, to be sure, no less valuable than Homer’s Iliad. However, belief in their literal veracity is childish. Yet millions of people do believe in their veracity, like children who believe in Santa Claus and Donald Duck. The Ancient Testament has been a trove for Hollywood, because the mental age of the audience to which it caters is that of a child.
And then came Christianity and the new testament. It all began with what appears, historically, to be a gifted, charismatic, brave and moral revolutionary. To be sure, there have been others. Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Albert Schweitzer, Mother Theresa, to name a few.
The enduring power of Christianity is puzzling. After 2,000 years, it continues to control a quarter of humanity.
Yet think about it: No sooner was Jesus dead than things started going downhill, making a mess of his legacy: the four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) were composed many years after Jesus’ death. That is where the nonsense about walking on water, resurrecting the dead and creating loaves and fishes began to sprout. And then things got worse: Roman civilization was followed by a dark theocracy based on superstition, ignorance and corruption. Yet Christianity, which should have disappeared in the dustbin of history, survived the Renaissance and the Age of Reason. Today, it is alive and well, adhered to by hundreds of millions of people, some of whom see Mary’s face on veils and on potato chips. Puzzling indeed.
And then, there is the HARM that organized religions such as Christianity and Islam have caused. If you were to add the number of deaths caused by religious conflict in the world, it would exceed that of any other cause. Have atheists killed many people? I suppose atheistic Communism (in Russia, China, Cambodia and elsewhere) has a very bloody hand. But all in all, the belief in God still ranks as one of the greatest sources of bloodshed in history.
So these are some of the reasons for rejecting religion.
© Tom Kando 2014
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Let's test your thesis - "If you were to add the number of deaths caused by religious conflict in the world, it would exceed that of any other cause. Have atheists killed many people?"
ReplyDeleteI guess Hitler, Mao, Stalin, Lenin, Pol Pot, and a raft of others were all Christians? Their totals dwarf any horrors caused by Christians. The Inquisition perhaps amounted to fewer than 2000 deaths.
The best estimates of the crusades suggest that the total number of deaths among the Christians were considerably higher than the number of deaths they caused - some have estimated by one hundred fold - some higher.
Very insightful, Tom. It speaks, I'm afraid, to the fears of simplistic modern minds.
ReplyDeleteI agree completely except I would take Mother Teresa of that list :) cheers
ReplyDeleteTom, you must have been feeling very frisky to have written this one! No doubt you will be getting lots of indignant, self-righteous comments. And the bias of some people is so obvious -- Jonathan calculates only deaths caused by Christians -- does he feel you are picking on Christians? I'm definitely not an atheist or agnostic, but also not an adherent to ANY organized religion. God to me is much, much bigger than that. And science? just figuring out the beautiful way the creator put everything together and made it work. Guess you'd have to say I'm spiritual, rather than religious, because nothing gets my back up quicker or higher than someone claiming to have "the only true faith" And when someone comes to me to say they're "born again", I just want to run away to avoid smacking them!
ReplyDeleteAs always, conservative critics such as Jonathan cherry pick and distort. Bu I’ll accept his comment and reply to it:
ReplyDeleteI wrote that religion IN GENERAL, including Islam, has been a cause of great violence. This includes, for example, the Muslim conquest of India and other territories by people like Timur, arguably the Armenian genocide, and other cases of massive genocide of one religious group by another religious group.
And it continues. Recent conflicts such as the trouble in Northern Ireland, the Bosnian war, the violence between Shiites and Sunis all over the Middle East, the violence in Nigeria and other parts of Africa, they ALL pit one religion against another.
As to Christianity, Jonathan fails to mention the millions of deaths (estimates range up to 12 million) caused by the religious wars of the Reformation, between Catholics and Protestant groups such as the Huguenots.
Okay, so some religions have killed more than other ones. This post was not meant to argue over which religion killed the most. I never said that Christians were the most violent, but neither are they exempt.
I also wrote that atheistic doctrines have equally bloody hands, so what is there to quibble about?
My favorite part of Christianity is the story of how a teenage "virgin" gave birth to a son who thought he was God. In other words, a girl who had sex outside of marriage thought she would use the prophecy from her religion as a way to hide it and then gave birth to a narcissistic schizophrenic son who ended up being a homeless nomad.
ReplyDeleteHa!
ReplyDeleteAren't you a bit harsh with Jesus?
I brought up the Christian numbers because they are the easiest to procure. Even if you add in religious political wars like the many that happened in Europe - the numbers of horrors for the non-believers is much higher and infinitely more cruel. Christians are not exempt from using their religious expression to trample on the beliefs of others. But even if you take the numbers Tom asserts - which are a bit high according to sources I see - they pale in comparison to the devils on earth like Pol Pot, Hitler and Stalin and Mao.
ReplyDeleteWhat I do not understand is the point of this ramble. Can you honestly say that a society without religious traditions or insights is worse than one without?
The American nation was founded on religious principles. It is fundamental to who we are as a people. It was more tolerant than not. But the basis of the First Amendment went a whole lot deeper than simply allowing religious expression.
Indeed, religious expression is imperfect - but then so again is science. Humans are imperfect. Religious faith gives balance - what I do not understand is what terrifies Tess and others about those of us who believe that religious expression helps to give sense to our lives?
Voltaire said: "If God did not exist, he would have to be invented"
ReplyDeletePeople go out and kill others to convince people to follow them, to conquer and plunder, and a host of other reasons. Often they justify it by religion (Christianity, Islam, or other), often they justify it from some non-religious ideology (socialism, racism, etc.). You can't say one form of justification is better than the other, or that either form of killing is good.
ReplyDeleteHowever, Christianity and the Bible contain some rules about human life (Ten Commandments) and behavioral ideals (turn the other cheek) that evolved to support societies that were more prosperous and sustainable than societies in Hobbes "State of Nature."
It is clear that the Babylonian way of attributing the source of these rules to some transcendent God may have been the way kings used to get people to follow these rules, and that such a mode of justification for following these cultural rules seems silly by modern scientific standards. However, a good case can be made that the UN International Declaration of Human Rights is rooted in Christian cultural values.
However, science doesn't generate such rules. It can only question them. That why I like Popper's idea of "falsification." You don't throw out the baby with the bathwater.
Don't forget Paul and Cosntantine. They took what they said was what Jesus said (actually, no one knows) and created a new religion, and everyone wants a religion because they want to believe in "something".
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with the last two comments. Ty is obviously right.
ReplyDeleteAnd so is Gordon: Religion is sometimes/often (?) the veneer/justification for war.
I tend to be an economic determinist. I believe that much of the violence carried out in the name of some religion (in the Middle East, in Africa, etc.) would not take place if living conditions were not so appalling.
As to the other familiar theme raised by Gordon, Jonathan and Sharon tangentially: Are people, communities and societies “better” (morally, presumably) with or without religion? Religion is said to provide the moral compass. without it, people turn into nihilists, it is said. They surrender to sin, as they did in Sodom and Gomorrah, and on many other occasions in the ancient testament.
Hmm... I’m not so sure. I’ll admit that most religions - Christianity, Judaism, Islam - contain laudable moral prescriptions.
But then, look at the world today: (Western) Europe is now the only continent that is largely non-religious. Call them atheists or agnostics. In Europe, organized religion is dead. At the same time, it can be argued that (Western) Europe is also a place where there is comparatively little “evil” - as measured by rates of murder, rape, violence of all sorts, corruption, theft and other crimes...That continent also spends more on aid to poor countries than anybody else. This would refute Jonathan’s (and the widespread) belief that societies with religion are more moral
The World Giving Index shows that 5 of the top 8 countries in giving are predominantly Anglican or Roman Catholic countries (Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Canada, and the UK).
ReplyDeleteThe fact is that there were countless instances in history in which people were murdered solely because of religion, but there are very few if any cases in which people were murdered solely because they didn't believe in a god. This is the simple fact of history.
ReplyDeleteFor those who believe in God also believes that God created everything, which includes the Laws of Nature, the handwriting of God. Therefore, the Scientific Method is a way to read God’s handwriting. For example, one may see the fingerprint of God in the book: “Scientific Proof of Our Unalienable Rights, a Road to Utopia.”
ReplyDeleteWith all due respect, for those of faith, including preachers and prophets, should be careful when studying man’s scripture about God. We must remember that man is fallible, and those who study such scriptures may misinterpret of what God wants; therefore, God gets—and, in some cases, God help us all.