A post titled “A Godless Concept” on the Congregation For Religious Tolerance site at blogspot got me to thinking. To me, the poster’s difficulty in understanding an “atheist’s” self-reliance over a “believer’s” benign loving “god” taking care of you is just childish — I’m sorry, I can find no other word for it. Regardless of what you call this universal power, it is perceived by believers as a living aware, sentient entity, usually anthropomorphized into human form, endowed with many super powers (omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience) as well as many human weaknesses (jealousy, anger, pride, ego, regret, wrath). The poster posits that “Faith” is required to accept this concept, and “religion” wraps it all into a neat palatable package.
The author displays confusion about “atheists” in general, as well as scientific principles. In his discussion of “notions of good and evil” for instance, stating that “An atheist might argue that God was the driving force…” is laughable. An “atheist” does not believe in any “god”, to take credit or blame. The same goes for “satan” as a personification of evil. An atheist does not believe, or have faith, in any imaginary beings. The “atheist” may say: ‘According to bible story, God was the driving force’ or ‘According to bible story, Satan was/did/said’ whatever.
The same applies in his discussion of science and scientists (which didn’t even have that moniker until the 1830s). Prior “natural philosophers” such as Ibn al-Haytham (c. 1000CE, who invented the pinhole camera and studied natural phenomena such as light refraction and rainbows), to Copernicus, Galileo, and Isaac Newton were limited by their own religious beliefs and/or persecuted by the church for heretical discoveries and writings. Some of Newton’s papers were not published until over 200 years after his death, partly for fear of being labeled a heretic ( Wired article here and The New Atlantis article here ). To say “science believed the sun circled the earth” or “science believed the earth was flat” is simply wrong. These “beliefs” come straight from scripture, enforced by “the church” for over 1,700 years.
Has the blogspot writer actually read the bible lately — the sun stood still in the sky! Numerous apologetics’ opinion sites on this Joshua chapter, one here. The stars will (or did) fall from the sky! Mark 13, Revelation, maybe others. To even say or write this shows you don’t know what these things are — explain that omnipotent, omniscient “god’s word” to me again?
The blogspot author asks “Without this faith in something more, what’s the point, of anything… like aliens, or peace on earth?”. This just seems sad to me. We have one life to cherish, to enjoy, to love and be loved, to explore and learn. Peace on earth — humans finally stop dividing ourselves by geography, religion, politics, culture, skin color… when we all recognize we are all the same — then we will have peace on earth (and the aliens may be willing to say hello). In a universe of such vastness, to think we’re the only sentient life form is humans’ ultimate pomposity. That knowledge does not require faith, only common sense (which granted, ain’t that common). This common sense is the same “faith” that says of course the falling tree makes noise whether one of us hears it or not; of course the sun ‘will rise’ in the east tomorrow morning; of course my house will stay standing, barring external forces; of course spring will follow winter.
While I can agree that we are surrounded by immense universal power, I find it completely natural in form and origin. Scientists are now calling it dark energy and/or dark matter. Those words are used as placeholders, not the actual “name” of the thing, because scientists do not yet understand it. One noted astrophysicist says scientists would be better off calling these mysteries “Fred” and “Barney” because it would be less confusing to the layman (us common folk).
That power is also within each of us, probably within all life forms on our wonderful planet, in this magnificent universe. Whether we recognize this power within, whether we can become aware enough to occasionally tap into its source, whether we can actually become one with, achieve a sense of understanding of… there lies our ultimate peace and enlightenment, in life not in death.
Death is merely another step in life — either into the scattering of our atoms to join the rest of the universe (maybe even into “another great adventure”) or to be as we were before we were born. Fear of death is the driving force behind religions’ “afterlife” stories, and believers’ fear of death. No one wants to die, but to fear it is to live this one glorious life in constant terror of final judgement to an eternal torture. This is what faces those of “faith”, those who calls themselves “believers”.
The driving force behind ‘religion’ itself is greed; greed for money, power, prestige. Too many of us have ceded our own intelligence and power to “authorities” on interpretation of the scriptures. Why must anyone interpret what is supposedly the inerrant “word of God”? If such a being existed, if such a being could create the entire universe and our tiny, insignificant solar system with only one planet specifically designed to meet our exact needs, if such a being cared one tiny whit about what you eat or who you love… wouldn’t such a being be capable of writing a clear narrative of how things occurred and what was expected of you? Of course s/he/it would! S/he/it created you, knows your limitations, knows your needs and weaknesses, knows how to speak clearly for your limited intellectual ability. Why do you need an interpreter? Why do you need an intermediary? Even according to the bible story: “Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.” Luke 17:21 (KJV). Seek the power within.
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