Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2000 16:00:33 -0500 From: "gh" <grasshacker@linkfast.net> To: <questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: Atheists Manifesto Message-ID: <003501bfaa42$4e058010$bc69a0d0@gh> References: <004001bfa9c2$5a4e6560$5a5d0418@vista1.sdca.home.com>
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If the author of this document is subscribed to this list, I would like to speak to you. Please contact me at grasshacker@linkfast.net Note: I have been meaning to write something like this for a while. Thanks for taking the initiative. Dan | | We live in a world full of Gods. Many different cultures have many | different Gods. There are two classes of Gods. The Gods of the past, which | usually come in groups, which were generally used to explain things that the | people did not understand. From the roaming patterns of buffalo, to | lightning and echos, people have made up stories to explain things they did | not understand, because ignorance of a subject leads to fear of it. Lack of | knowlege can be frightening. Still, the people of today look back at these | anchient religions and call them "myths". They chuckle when they think of | the ignorance required to believe that the sun is a God's Chariot. | | This brings us to the Gods of the present. Today's religions are commonly | Monotheistic, relying on the belief of a single all powerful God. Today's | Gods usually provide us with two messages. One is a social code which lays | out a model of society for people to abide by. The other is a explination | of the fundamental questions which people tend to ask. "Where did we come | from ?" "Why are we here ?" and "What happens when we die ?". None of | these questions can be answered to anyone's true satisfaction. Ignorance | creates insecurity, therefore the people need to find a way to fill in this | gap in their knowlege. The most common religion in the world today is | Christianity and it's derivitives (Catholicism, Mormon, Islam, etc). | Christianity provides the social code, and it also fills in the gaps in our | knowlege, explaining the answers to these questions via the written and | translated stories of people who lived 2000 years ago. | | What kind of people existed 2000 years ago ? By our standards today, they | were ignorant, violent, socially obtuse, and worse. They treated women as | objects, and slavery for both sex and labor was common. The people of this | era were far less advanced than the Greeks, who's beliefs we laugh at today. | And yet, some how, the words, stories, and beliefs of these people are taken | as absolute fact by millions of people all over the world today. | Christianity speaks of Jesus of Nazerith, the Christ, the son of God, who | was born of a virgin, and walked about the people of the time and performed | miracles and preached the word of God. Because of the historical impact of | the man referred to, one can hardly deny that a man named Jesus of Nazerith | exists, however, in order to believe the rest of his tale, you must take the | word of ignorant people of the past as fact with no proof, evidence, or | other information. This is commonly referred to as "blind faith". | | Millions of people choose to dedicate hours, days, and years of their life | worshipping this Christian God. They are so certain that these people of | the past, whom they probably aren't even decended from, are speaking the | truth, that they are willing to devote their entire lives to this "story". | They believe in a God, who in the past performed many many miracles, but for | some reason has decided to discontinue his supernatural behaviors. God no | longer comes to earth and speaks with men, as he did in the past. | | Why is it people are blind to the fact that they are emulating the same | behaviors they criticize the Greeks, American Indians, and others for ? How | can anyone honestly take this 2000 year old story as fact, with no evidence, | and devote thier entire lives to it ? I would like to put forth my theory | on that subject. | | As we've estabished, the people of today have the same types of | insecurities that need "explaining". The fear of death has made men invent | the world of spirituality. The idea that when one dies, that is the end; | that one's bones go into the ground and decompose, is too frightening or | depressing to people. So instead, they have to believe that some part of | them is immortal. That they can always live on in some form or another. I | call this an emotional crutch. It's a way of dealing with one's | insecurities about our lives. It makes us feel important, like we're | something more than a street sweeper, or garbage collector. We're all | immortal souls with a much more glorious future ahead of us. This emotional | crutch helps many people get through the day with a little self esteem and | hope, and I don't begrudge them their crutch. What I do disagree with is | the ignorance, but I would not be one to demand that others give up their | emotional crutches in the name of enlightenment. I believe that enforcing | your beliefs on another person, especially beliefs based solely on blind | faith, to be the highest crime one human can do to another, short of taking | their life. | | So if we, the atheist, are going to allow the street sweeper to believe, | and we're going to choose not to believe, then what is the problem ? What | is the purpose of this manefesto ? I believe that atheists are condemned by | the majority of the population. Those of us who are secure enough in our | own existance, and who feel that the 70 plus or minus 5 years on this earth | is all we have, are treated like unholy fools. Those who will be punished | in the afterlife. Those who are infected with this mental epidemic tend to | react to the atheist in one of several ways. One way is to try to convert | or convince the atheist that the 2000 year old story is true, and that the | atheist needs to change his/her ways, lest they face eternal hellfire. The | second way is to simply exclude and disassociate from the atheist, perhaps | making comments about the "poor" soul to other believers. | | You'll notice I referred to religion as a mental epidemic. Many believers | take this as an insult. I label religion such, because of certain behaviors | that today's "evolved" religions have. | | (1) Questioning the religion's validity, asking for proof, expressing | skepticism, etc, are all considered to be "sins" or crimes under the | religion. In other words, independant, logical, unbiased thought are not | allowed. Back in the earlier times when the followers were a little more | "rabid" people were burned to death for expressing such ideas. | | (2) Religion is taught to children at a VERY young age. Basically, from | kindergarden to adulthood, a believing parent is supposed to enroll the | child in some kind of religous program like Sunday School. The reason for | this is to expose the child to religion at an early age, before rational | logical thought develops. This way, the child grows up with religion, so | that any thoughts, ideas, concepts of atheism or disbelief are completely | alien to them. An analigous example would be Hitler's Youth. Hitler also | knew this concept well. If you wish to spread an idea, and have it safe | from independant or radical thought, ingrain it in the children before they | can reason. Today's religions have it down to a science, with songs, | videos, and activities designed to make the child a believer before they | truly even understand what God is. If people waited until age 13-15 before | introducing religion to their children, so that the children could | rationally decide if this was what they wanted to believe, religion would | not be such a wide spread epidemic. | | (3) Religions instruct their people to attempt to convert (or in some | radical cases, kill) any disbelievers. The kinder, more passive religions | will simply ask their congregation to bring new people into the church every | week. Once a person visits the church once or twice, the church has them | added to their mailing and phone lists. They attempt to get the person to | regularly attend. Then they attempt to get the person to participate in a | ritual, such as baptism or confession. These are relatively benign | activities, and usually can only trap the weak minded. The more "active" | religions send people out to visit your home. They want to come in and talk | to you about god and convince you that the 2000 year old story is true | (because they say it is). They run commercials, and give your free | literature or free copies of the bible. They'll do anything to convert you | to their way. Why ? Because their religion specifies it. | | (4) Religion requires that you disbelieve anything scientific that might | possibly contradict the religion. We've all seen and heard religous people | sit and argue about how the entire sciences of Biology, Genetics, and | Physics are just plain wrong, because the 2000 year old story contradicts | it. | | (5) Religion covers every base. No matter what kind of argument or | evidence you can bring up to attempt to contradict religion, the believer | can always simply make up a little story or "possibility" of how God, using | his supernatural powers, can simply have "made it that way". Take for | instance the Dinosaurs. Either they didn't exist, and the bones "are really | from contemporary animals, which are being fitted together incorrectly to | look like a creature that never existed", or "God put those bones down | there." No one knows why. Or how about how we are all decended from Adam | and Eve ? Adam and Eve must not have truely been human, or mankind would | have died from inbred genetic diseases (insufficeient gene pool), after the | first couple hundred generations. And how did those people in the bible | live for hundreds of years ? Were the laws of physics and the nature of | human biology that different back then ? Religion fields these questions | with ease. "God made it that way". "It's all part of God's plan". | | | Beyond the grievences I have as an atheist living in a belief based | society, I also have grievences as a human being. I have a personal care | and interest in the well-being of my species. I would like to see mankind | reach out into space, establish colonies on other planets and systems. | Become something more than the proverbial 2 day mold on a piece of bread | (before it is thrown out), before conditions in our solar system change and | erase us from existance. Truthfully, everyone should care about mankind's | development. The problem is this. The religions are "anti-science" in many | respects. There are many things, like cloning, which we should not do | because that is God's territory. "Playing God" is not allowed. Add that to | the fact that many of man's best minds, people who could be possible | Einsteins of certain fields, are robbed of their potential because they are | infected with this mental disease. If John Doe grows up believing that | evolution, biology and genetics are in conflict with his religion, he | certainly wouldn't excersize the possibility that maybe he would have become | one of the best Geneticists in the history of the science. Not only that, | but those who don't believe, and wish to advance mankind's knowlege are | restrained by the believers. They are forced to move at a slow enough pace | so that the religions can readjust, reevaluate, and reinterpret the words of | their religion so that they don't reach a point in which they cannot explain | how their religion can be true with science showing the oppisite. Then | there are such fanatics who spend every waking hour worshiping God, to the | point which they're throwing away the most valuable thing they own. Life. | Real life, here on earth. One only has so much time. If one spends all of | that time trying to get ahead on the "next" life, they are throwing this | life away, and not contributing to the society and species as a whole. | Religion is a serious drain on mankind's most important resources, manpower | and time. And no matter how much science proves that the world is 4 billion | years old and not 15,000 years old, and that the universe was formed through | the mixing and spreading of elements, and not by the wave of a magic wand, | and no matter how many times scientists try to show that life on earth was | formed by the interactions of nucleic acids (and it still is every day), | it's absolutely impossible to convince a believer that the simplest answer | is the correct answer. The world is as it seems. There is no second world, | second life, greater power, or magic that makes it all possible. And it's | sad, because we need every one of those believers with us, here on earth, | helping out, not praying in some church or temple in front of some clown in | a suit or fancy religious outfit. | | I am an atheist. I live in a world full of people, blind to their own | ignorance, dedicated to a 2000 year old story written by people who's | intellect doesn't even compare to an 8th grader. I have to live with these | people, respect thier beliefs, and endure their constant attempts to convert | me into one of their ilk. I have to watch as millions of man-years go down | the drain, wasted away in foolishness. I watch as other atheists have to | hide their beliefs, to avoid being condemned by the believers and ostrasized | from society. But as I'm watching, I'm waiting. I see with every | generation, more and more people are simply "going through the motions". | They take part in the process, but they don't really believe in it. They | simply do what is expected of them. Soon, they reach a certain age or time | in their life in which they no longer attend the church, but they "still | believe". They don't pray anymore but they "still believe". They go about | living their real lives, pretending to themselves and others that they | believe. These are a kind of "Casual Christians". This behavior shows the | deterioration of the true believers as a whole. A pattern author Frank | Herbert referred to as "rot at the core". As parents become more and more | lax about their own religious patterns, they begin to spare their children | the foolishness of church and Sunday School. Slowly the religious base of | mankind is deteriorating. People are giving less and less credability to | the 2000 year old story, as they grow up in a world of computers, cloning, | genetic therapy, and microbiology. It's only a matter of time until, | hopefully, enough of us break free of this mental disease and begin to live | life for the here and now and not to please some imaginary God in order to | gain entrance to some fantasy land. I am not alone. Talking privately with | many others of my generation, I know I'm not the only one who thinks | religious people are foolish. While most will tell an adult they believe in | God, it's simply because they don't want to experience the social punishment | of being a disbeliever. So we watch and wait. Wait for the world to wake | up from this 2000 year old dream. Some day people will look back on | Christianity the same way people look back at Zeus and Apollo. They'll ask | how a people who've mastered genetics, computers, atomic physics, etc, can | possibly believe in such childish nonsense. The answer is, most of us | don't, we're just afraid to admit it, because we've seen what kind of | violence the rabid religious can bring forth when their beliefs are | threatened. So rather than rising against religion and preaching against | it, we watch and wait for it to die of apathy. If we're wrong, we'll be | condemned to hell for all eternity. If the religious are wrong, then | they'll have thrown away the single most valuable thing they possess. Their | life. I am an atheist. This is my manifesto. It is the first step in | curing the disease. | | | | | | To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org | with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message | To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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