atheism

That Angry God

January 17, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Every now and again when I talk to someone who believes there is a god above (or below) I am surprised to discover that even though the believers do readily admit that god can be very angry at times (but for all the right reasons, he punishes those who deserve punishment, he kill young people because they are not part of his grand plan etc) they do not think that he will be ever angry at them.

The idea of god, as ridiculous as some atheists find it, is appealing to some people, but its almost always on their terms, this god can be really bad news to some people, bringing death and disease and natural catastrophes all over the place, but he needs to be loving and caring and attentive to them – always.

It is not rare to hear elderly women or men say “I have always talked to god about this… and he always listens” however even they must agree that every now and again good and true believers such as themselves get viciously attacked by disease or accidents, to find themselves in a very sad condition, only to turn again to that same god that seems to be punishing them (for whatever it might be) and talk to him about it, sometimes he makes things right.

But if just by talking to god you can make him reverse bad news, undo punishments and reconsider unleashing pain and misery upon you, why don’t everyone do it? well, most of the people do, when faced with serious problems, turn to something and ask for help – “make it go away” kind of thing, and as we know, most do not get any answer.

Next time someone tells you that god is helping him in every way, ask if he acknowledges the fact that he does the exact opposite to someone else at the same time, and that he might do the same to this poor believer in a day or two. Because if there was a god he/she/it would need to be a really sadistical and cruel being, watching all this terrible things from above, actually initiating them, and doing nothing to stop it.

The Israeli Atheist Wave

October 11, 2011 by 3 Comments

The news out of Israel should be very encouraging for any atheist out there, the writer Yoram Kaniuk has finally got his religion status removed from the nation registry, meaning he is no longer identified as “Jewish” in the governmental files. There should be no mistake here, this particular person is very much an Israeli, he had fight for this country and sacrificed much for it, however he is against the ever lasting embrace Israel has with the Jewish religion.

The author told journalists that “Personally, I have always been an atheist. I belong to the Jewish nation; I have never belonged to the Jewish religion”, which is fair enough, to be of the Jewish nation but not to participate or to support the main ideas of the religion is exactly what atheists need. Since we can not, or should want, to break away from our personal heritage we need to separate the religious condition into which we were born and the actual idea of that same religion.

Following the move to register Kaniuk as “without a religion” hundreds (some say thousands) of now “Jewish” Israelis are now asking to have the same done to their status in the registry, which just shows you that if only given the chance atheism could be the the fastest growing non religion of our time.

Religion Should Stay at Home

September 5, 2011 by Leave a Comment

To be an atheist does not mean to be rude or arrogant when it comes to religion, atheism should walk hand in hand with tolerance and acceptance of others and what they believe in, however this does not mean that anyone can force his or her opinion and set of beliefs on anyone else. This leaves us at a rather confusing point, if an atheist should not actively try and get people out of religion and stand against it at all time how should he regard religious people?

The answer is pretty clear, religion is absurd (at best) and plain evil (at worst), religion could personally offend many of us who do not believe, there are many topics to choose from, slavery, homosexuality, human rights, women rights etc., however we should hold the principles of modren civilization close to our hearts and keep an open minded and democratic view.

So here is the magic solution, whatever believers do they should do it in their homes, without forcing anyone else to do the same and they should also leave us out of it, meaning no more pathetic attempts to convert the atheists among us, keep the streets clean – that’s one way of looking at it.

If someone would like to demonstrate the existence of god he or she will need to do it at a proper place and at a proper time, to an audience that is willing to participate in this debate. As far as the allocation of tax money to any religious institute atheists should have zero tolerance and let the government know that it is not acceptable that any government would invest its honest people’s hard earned money into the non-sense that is religion, no matter which and of what form it is.

Bottom line, believers should keep their religion to themselves, should not hurt or force anyone in the process of practicing it and should not try to convince anyone of its truthfulness. Just as believers should keep religion at home they should invest, themselves, in their places of worship, freeing some much needed funds for research and culture, which are the true building stones of civilization today.

ipo1 — Tax money can go here, God had enough of it

Stepping Forward With Atheism

September 1, 2011 by Leave a Comment

There must have been a moment there, when Constantine the great converted the Roman empire into Christianity, that some of the Roman citizens and many around the ancient world were still pagan and seriously into worshiping multiple deities of many kinds.

At that moment some of the Romans needed to decide if they are joining in on the latest craze and going Christian or staying with the tradition of their ancestors by conserving their relationship with the other gods. The ones that broke from Paganism must have had a hard time, many daily rituals needed to stop (at least in public) and many old habits needed to disappear, however it seems that many of them moved forward and joined the monotheistic religion that marched all the way from Jerusalem.

1,700 years later many still praise the move from multiple deity religion to the one god religion, as if this was an improvement. The great Richard Dawkins has been known to say that Atheists just take one more step and let go of the idea of Gods altogether, and it makes perfect sense.

The blindness of those who are religious is much more evident when they talk about Paganism, it seems to them so crazy and ridiculous that anyone would think that there are many gods that they do not stop to think and consider why think there is even one god. Just take one step forward, it is clear that there are no multiple gods and it is clear that reducing them into one general god does not work either.

What Would an Atheist Do?

August 1, 2011 by Leave a Comment

It looks like since the deranged attacks of Oslo took place that many in the media have been more than happy to blame everything that is not left-liberal or far left socialists for some responsibility for the actions of a crazy and clearly extremely violent man. And it so happens that some also point a finger at the so called “new” atheists for advocating their views on religions and especially the dangers of totalitarian Islam in the West in particular and in the world in general, this type of blacklisting is very easy and comfortable for them to do since the murderer wrote a manifesto of some 1,500 pages in which he had sufficient space to mention almost any other name in atheism or the anti Islamic movement, as well as the oppressors of multiculturalism in Europe and in the world.

It is a grave sign when journalists just run a search on a 1,500 pages document to find names that they want to slur and then use the twisted demented mind of a murderer as a weapon against thinkers and activists of peaceful and democratic movements, and because it seems that right now anything but a liberal multi-cultural minds are accepted in Europe it is only fair that we try and present the real atheist mind, and the idea behind it.

Just to get the obvious out of the way, Atheism has nothing to do with violence, it has nothing to do with social or cultural tolerance, it is simply the opposition to the idea of god or gods, out of this main idea there is the growing criticism of the way theocracies run themselves and how they destroy the lives of the people living in them, as well as the never ending task of reminding the world how religions acted when they were more powerful.

An Atheist should not have any problem with someone practicing faith in their homes, without forcing anyone to do so and without hurting anyone in the process of practicing. There is nothing wrong with anyone wanting to believe anything and doing so privately, however it does become a problem when the ideas of religion find their way out and are being forced or obsessiveness introduced to a non-believer population. So for someone to eat Kosher meat in their homes is perfectly normal to have a whole city with exclusively kosher butchers and kosher supermarket meat is not acceptable.

For anyone to pray five times a day at home on his or her own time is not a problem, but when the believers gather in the streets and block access to the road, create a public disturbance and terrorize other habitats is not acceptable. An atheist should not fight the individual right for worship but the totalitarianism of religion and the way it constantly tries to sneak up behind everyone else.

If you are an atheist try and focus on objecting to the idea of a god, or gods, it is no small task, unfortunate. It is not an objection to the person worshiping but the idea that the person needs to worship anything or anyone to begin with that is the real essence of atheism.