I very recently put up a post on Facebook declaring why I, in my own way, am openly secular. It was on openly secular day, and I thought I should do my part. There are, actually, quite a lot of secular people out there, and far too often they are ignored in this country. I’m on board with the idea that secularism should not accept being swept under the rug because it is far too important.
Our country was founded on the idea of having a secular government that would protect the freedom of religion by having it stay separate from the state. The importance of this idea cannot be overstated, and it established a new kind of country that the world had not seen.
The attraction I have to secularism can be summed up in one sentence. As a secularist, I do not start off with an answer. Every other type of person that I know of, does. This isn’t meant as an insult. Just the very reason that I am secular.
Allow me to explain about “EVERYONE ELSE” in greater detail.
- of or relating to worldly things or to things that are not regarded as religious, spiritual, or sacred; temporal:
- concerned with nonreligious subjects.
The “everyone else” whom I refer to are simply anyone who cannot be defined by these definitions. I’d say I probably cover 98% of the “everyone else” by identifying them as either religious or mystic. I really don’t know what the other 2% would be, but I’m leaving it there because you never know.
The religious all begin with one big fat answer. A god or gods exist. This is a positive claim. That is very important to remember. All positive claims require evidence, otherwise, anyone can make any claim and should be believed.
So, the next time you tell an atheist, skeptic, agnostic, freethinker, etc. that they can’t prove that a god doesn’t exist, just remember, no one can prove that two-headed pink unicorns don’t live on the surface of the sun either.
Accepting the negative before the positive can be proven is not predetermining an answer. It’s simply following the rules of logic. To break that down further - by not believing in two-headed pink unicorns that live on the surface of the sun, you are not starting off with an answer. You are rejecting a positive claim based on a lack of evidence.
Doing this - and everyone does it - is vital. Otherwise, you would believe an innumerable amount of conflicting assertions. Being an atheist is really the most honest and courageous form of this.
There is no god because there is no evidence that one, or more than one, exist. This means if evidence can be provided, there could be one or more gods. But without evidence, why believe it?
Atheists are simpletons at heart. We reject all presumption. We reject all indoctrination. We reject all predetermined answers.
Is that really so wrong? Is that such a horrible thing? To only believe what there is evidence to believe?
Everywhere I go, I get bombarded with “faith” as if it is a positive thing. Movies, TV shows, political candidates, news anchors, journalist reports, and on and on and on. Has anyone ever asked WHY is faith a good thing?
Faith is a nice word to have when you don’t know something but believe it anyway. If you have faith that a 1/4 of a million people were annihilated from a tsunami for a reason - somehow that’s a good thing?
Let me answer that. It’s not a good thing. There is no reason good enough to kill 1/4 of million people. And having a magic word like FAITH to use when these tragedies happen may comfort you from the cold reality of life, but it doesn’t do anything real no matter how hard you believe it.
I don’t believe in a personal god or gods because it is as ludicrous as believing in Fairies, the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus, and Vulcans.
A great step down from that, you have the concept of Deism. The idea that a god/super intelligence exists, and that he/she/it is somehow responsible for the existence of the universe but is not involved any more than that.
This is a more logical model of thought, but I still find it highly unsatisfying. When I was in the very beginning stages of losing my religion, I thought I might be able to be a deist. It would be a softer blow to me and others if I could have a deistic mindset rather than an atheistic one.
It really only took one argument to bring me about to the reality that deism is just theism holding desperately onto the argument from incredulity. The one reason I would have been a deist is that I couldn’t figure how the universe could just pop into existence without the interference of a super intelligence of some sort.
But the rebuttal to that is simple. Explaining the complexity of the universe by implying something even more complex answers nothing. If it’s so hard to believe that the universe at one time may not have existed, at least as we know it, how is it not just as hard to believe that an infinite god exists?
For me, I knew that was it. It answered all my questions on who I was. That’s all it took for me to stop believing a god existed.
Creationists and believers of all sort balk at the idea that the universe could come into existence from some unknown natural processes, yet they readily believe in a supreme being who is infinite and all-powerful without any explanation to that being’s origin or rules of existence.
I can’t think of any argument more hypocritical. How can you lobby for the incredulity of a universe born by natural causes but believe a SUPREME BEING without any explanation? Implying that the universe arose from natural causes follows the pattern of answers that all of our other scientific inquiries have found. Every mystery answered was always answered by natural, explainable causes. This god that’s being lobbied for has never been the answer to any of life’s mysteries.
NOT ONE SINGLE TIME.
I realized it was the same tired “god of the gaps” argument. Lightning and the ensuing thunder were divine until explanatory power of science got a hold of it. The tides were divine until science realized how they worked.
(Yes, Bill O’Reilly, the tides are explainable.)
FAITH gives you something that science and reason can’t. It gives you a fake answer. Because human beings are afraid of the unknown. Having faith assuages that fear by giving you a made up reason to believe that you do know or that some supreme being knows for you.
That’s why the “best arguments for god” are always in the mysteries that science has yet to unravel. Consciousness, the origin of the universe, and on and on and on. As we have advanced, we have knocked down the fake answers with the real ones, all thanks to the power of our own brains.
I have hope in our species. We are pattern recognizing life-forms. And more and more people are beginning to see the pattern in the the god of the gaps argument. A pattern that can be pieced together with a little research into the past, present, and future. The fastest growing group in the U.S. are those who have no religious beliefs.
And all of us who have escaped religion’s iron fist of fear look back at those still stuck there and wonder, “How could I have ever thought that was ok?”
How could I have thought the concept of hell had any justification? How could I have thought gay people had a choice in who they were attracted to? How could I have thought the universe was created in a literal six days?
The freedom that unadulterated skepticism offers is that it demands evidence of beliefs. People say that’s not how beliefs work, but I say that’s BULLSHIT.
If people of faith didn’t want evidence, they wouldn’t search for miracles. They wouldn’t see religious shapes in clouds, rejoice at the “miraculous” recovery of family member with cancer, thank god for everything good that’s ever happened. People of faith are like any other people. They need evidence, and they use all of the positives in life as proof that their faith is legitimate. They ignore the negatives.
WHY IS IT SO IMPORTANT TO TEAR DOWN FAITH?
Because faith can really be dangerous. Jehovah Witnesses don’t let their children get life-saving blood transfusions because of faith. Evangelical Christians want to deny the right of homosexuals to marry because of faith. Muslims treat women deplorably because of faith.
Maybe some faith offers positives. I find them hard to see. I had faith once, and now that I’ve lost it, I’m much happier for it. I’m more free. More independent, more confidant, more inspired, more responsible, and more obligated to make this life worth living.
Faith is cowardice. It’s an excuse to dismiss reality. The sooner we come to realize that, the sooner our society improves.
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