“Do you think you’re helping? Nothing good comes out of atheism. No morals or no nothing. Your acting holier than thou but really your just in a RELIGION of your own that does nothing good.”

….We’ll look past the grammar and look at the real things being said here:

1. Nothing good has ever come out of atheism
2. Atheists have no moral ground
3. Atheism is a religion

Ready?

What good has come out of atheism?

Inquiry and exploration of science, philosophy, the mind

It’s not easy to deem yourself an atheist. In fact, it’s pretty hard, at least I found it was pretty hard for me. At times I consider going back to agnostic, but I just don’t know where else I can actively search for god, or for proof of some sort of higher being. Evolution has shown me that we logically came about after a miraculous stroke of luck and improbability.

After I denounced religion I had a flood of questions! So I had to explore them. I read books, websites, forums and magazines. I joined groups, listened to debates, took religion classes and when to conferences. Meeting so many like minded students was by far the sealing of the deal for me. Never in my life had I heard and been involved in so many intelligent conversations as I was at the Center For Inquiry Student Leadership Conference. We talked a lot about moral philosophy, science and a lot of religion. At the conference that I went to with christians we talked about how to be passive, how to kneel, what god had given us and why so many scientists got it wrong.

Just because “the bible says so” no longer means it’s true. I need to get facts and reasoning to back up my claims. In atheism, man is meant to understand everything, and the greatest part about being man, with no god, is freethought and being able to look for the answer to the question of life, the universe and everything.

No god to guilt

If I were gay, I wouldn’t feel guilty about it. If I were straight, I wouldn’t feel guilty about having sex with a guy before we were married. If I were curious, I wouldn’t feel guilty about masturbating. If I were to accidentally say “oh my god”, I wouldn’t need to pray for forgiveness. I don’t need to think other religions are wrong. I don’t need to feel guilty if my children grow up to be buddhist, islamic, atheist or christian. If I don’t go to church and stay home and watch football instead, I don’t feel bad or like I’m going to hell. If I give my money to an orphanage instead of the church, I can feel good about it.

I’m not living for an organization. Im living for humanism, and I don’t feel guilty about this. I don’t repress sexual urges. I live as who I am, not as what a book tells me I should be. My parents raised me well, I know what hurts other people - if I do this, I feel guilty. Not because god says I should, but because I have morals that don’t allow me to feel good about negatively affecting other people. My moral code is based on reason and love - it also happens to over lap eamensly with Christian morals.

Pride and responsibility

If I win a grammy, I’m not going to thank god for giving me the talent and will power to get me to that point in life. I am going to take pride in my accomplishment and thank my mom for raising me to have will power.

If I fuck up, I’m not going to say that the devil had his hands on me, nor will I allow other people to give this excuse for me. I will buck up and say that I messed up, because I wasn’t thinking, or because I was being selfish. No larger evil pushes me to do wrong, I consciously am aware of the wrong I am doing, and do it anway.

I can take pride in my life. And have the ability and reason to take responsibility of my actions.

I don’t do good deeds to get into heaven later, I do good deeds because it feels good, because it makes other people feel better and because I want to make this ONE LIFE that we have, a great one.

Wider understanding and view of the world

When I was a christian I really understood christianity, and where christianity was spread through the world, how it got to be where it is today and what sort of doctrines there are - and of course why these doctrines are good. As an atheist I was able to look beyond this. I got to see other religions, got to see the bad things behind christian doctrine. I developed a strong sense of wonder.

Why are there rainbows? There is no way it’s a promise from god. Why is there thunder? Why does it storm? Where do butterflies come from? I found that finding the scientific answers behind things gave them even more beauty. Finding out their long struggle through evolution was much more satisfying than attributing their existence to intelligent design or a god.

I now see the beauty behind nature so much more clearly. A tree is so incredibly complex. It doesn’t live because god has given it life, it lives because of a complex life cycle depending on geography, temperature, soils and whatever else. I feel so incredibly lucky to be able to get out of bed every morning and look at a world that defied probability and grew into such a beautiful specimen.

Patients (sorry, as Jack Rivall so kindly pointed out “patience”…I’ve never claimed to be a great speller. Ever.)

No, seriously. Sometimes, I crack. I go a little nuts, or get mad, or storm away, or send someone a “SHUT THE FUCK UP” sort of e-mail. But being an atheist and having really opposite views than most people I know has made me extremely patient.

Atheists need to be patient. People don’t get our points right away. They think we’re crazy. They think we have no morals, no values, nothing worth waking up for and that we eat babies. There are so many negative stigmatas surrounding atheism, that to not be patient would literally drive you insane. Of course, you can always just block everyone out, but I’ve found that usually atheists are atheists because they DON’T block things out. They talk to people and look for answers. … And in returned we get questioned a lot.

Patience. Key.

We don’t argue from ignorance

When I was a christian, I knew a lot of muslims because my school was extremely multi-cultural. When I met another christian, or when I was talking religion with my muslims friends it was easy to accept their beliefs. I already somewhat had an understanding of religions, and just figured “same shit, different pile” but when I met an atheist - I asked them to tell my why the were an atheist. I told them to prove to me that there was no god. Theists do not understand atheism. They just don’t. (Well, most of the ones I’ve met, anyway.) They think that something horrible happened to us so we ran away from god. Or they think that we are a religion because we have “faith” that there is no god.

No… We have no proof of a god, and thus - we don’t believe in one. There is no scientific evidence of there being a god. So many religions fall into the same line as mythology that after you read a lot of myths, it’s hard to distinguish them from different religions.

So before you are an atheist you have to understand what you’re not believing as not to argue from ignorance. Theists are allowed to argue from ignorance “I feel god with me” “I have faith that god is there” “I believe the bible to be true” … These are not facts, these are not arguments that have any sort of sound base.

It is not in the hands of the non-believe to prove that your god does not exist. It is in the hands of the believer to prove to us that it does exist. When I went upstairs to tell my mom that I had just seen a fairy jumping on my bed, and she came down and it was not there - it was not her responsibility to prove to me why the fairy didn’t exist - it was my responsibility to prove to her why it did exist. It was my claim, so it was my chore.

Yes, religion is still good…

Religion is fine. A lot of good things have come out of religion. (Just a question… how many people has atheism killed? … How about Christianity? … I’m just sayin’… There are good people, and there are bad people… in all faiths and beliefs and views on life) I think people who are lonely benefit from religion. People who need something to fill a hole in their life. Ministers need religion pretty badly. Some leaders need religion to keep countries peaceful. Religions keep a lot of people moral and “in line” so to speak. It gives people hope for another life, and gives them support after a terrible loss… Different reasons make religion a good thing. I just want people to see that good comes out of being an atheist too.

Personally

Atheism released me into a whole new world of inquiry, friends and a new out look on the world its self. I didn’t become an atheist because I had an atheist boyfriend and I wanted him to like me more. I didn’t slip away from religion because I thought it was “uncool”… I didn’t leave the church because my step-dad is a minister (For some reason I get “oh your step father is a minister? it is understandable that you’re an atheist then…). It’s true, I am exposed to religion far more often than most people, I’m sure of it. We have christian books all over the house, and we discuss religion at dinner right after we pray every single night. I abide by their house rules and hold their hands and pray every night with them. (Well, not really, but I at least appease them.) There is nothing about being a ministers daughter that pushed me to atheism (except for maybe all the hypocrisy that I saw… but that’s a whole other story.) … What pushed me to atheism was the lack of answers. The lack of searching and my friends inability to accept any religion but their own.

I definitely feel more open, opinionated, educated and free having left my religious roots. I guess that’s what atheism did for me.

I cut my own hair! aah. The girls last weekend said it looked like I had actually got it done. So. I’m never paying for a hair cut again. It is REALLY short tho. Like, crazy short. But I’m a fan!

I like my pointless me posts… Not gonna lie. They’re more fun to write than the other ones. And I had defending my opinions. At least in these posts I have no obligation to defend myself in e-mails or whatever - because this is my life. *shrugs*

New favorite bands: CunninnLynguists, Jedi Mind Tricks (props to my bro! yo!), India Arie and my love for K’Naan has been reaffirmed. I was totally into him in first year, I never stopped loving him or anything, I just stopped listening to him as much. Still every hip hop show I’d do on air, he’d be in there. Anyway, I’m in love again and listen to my fair share of the dusty foot philosopher.

Tomorrow is my step brother’s birthday - so even though he doesn’t read this - Happy Birthday Steve-oh. It was my dad’s birthday a week ago… and grandma’s. We’re celebrating her birthday on the 26th… Even though she told my sister and I that she didn’t want a party. They are surprising her anyway.

I’m super excited and will keep you updated on this - I should be back on air within a month! Wooooo! Seriously, I can barely breath I’m so excited.

Anyway, I really just wanted to show off my new hair (it’s actually been like this for about a week now, but … whatever). My mom got her hair chopped too, it’s just as short. Only she got it done by this like super famous american hair dresser.

On the way; Trying to get where I’d like to say; I’m always feeling steered away; By someone trying to tell me; What to say and do

No, this isn’t a post examining the validity and wonderfulness that is the song “The Meaning of Life” by the Offspring. It is a post explaining where I find meaning in my life, with out a god. At least 3 of the messages that I got during my tiff with the muslims asked me “how would you understand, you have no meaning in your life as an atheist” or something along these lines. Each time I tried to explain that you didn’t have to have god in order to live, laugh and love. Each time I was told that I was wrong. *shrugs* fair enough.

I will admit they did peg me on a couple things. I do think life was a freak accident - just like I think the possibility of life on other planets - if true - is a freak accident. So no, I don’t think we are here for any larger purpose, and I often wonder what right we have to consider ourselves special? But that doesn’t mean I’m going to go off myself now because my life doesn’t have any larger religious meaning.

We are here once. Nothing before, nothing after, no continuous circle of being or reincarnation. Just this one time. With these thoughts about life, what is wrong with my meaning of life to be - just live it. Embrace the possibilities that have developed in my brain and use them. Enjoy summer days. Jump into clay pits and get a little dirty. Hug my best friend with all my energy. Try and help others have a better life - not with prayer or helping them find god… but with time, energy and love.

In this brief span of awareness there is so much that I want to see, and grasp, and understand. And sure, it probably won’t matter after I die, but it matters right now. It’s like saying “why put up a real christmas tree?” or “why build a snowman?” or “why make a snow angel?” or “why watch the sunset?” They are all temporary, they all melt or die. But it is the fun and joy of the moment that makes it worth the time.

Now, the thing I often get back from this is “so what is stopping you from taking your fun to the level of killing people, stealing or breaking the law because there is clearly no after life to worry about being moral for…” Atheist /= immoral. I can’t stress that enough. I don’t want to hurt people. I don’t want to kill even the most horrible of people. Even if I was guaranteed that no one would find out about, and someone gave me a gun and said “kill the person you think is the most deserving”… I wouldn’t do it. It doesn’t take religion to be moral. It takes good parenting and a conscious not to want to hurt people, take from people or whatever.

So my meaning in life? Live to be happy, help others along the way and fill that brain with as much information as possible. Make meaning through my actions and relationships with other people.

Why is this such a bad thing?

It’s going to be crazy awesome! If you’re in the Toronto area and you want to see a really exciting speaker (and it ends at 9, so don’t give me that “yeah, but its a friday night!” bs.)… Come to this event!

SCIENCE IN AN AGE OF ENDARKENMENT:

scientific fraud, quackery, religion and university politics

When alternative medicine and academia collide… Featuring a major
public symposium with David Colquhoun

Friday, January 25th at 7:00 pm
MacLeod Auditorium, Medical Sciences Building, University of Toronto
(1 King’s College Circle, Toronto)

Should complimentary and alternative medicine be considered alongside
evidence-based medicine? What role does it play in today’s society?
Should unscientific medicine be taught in universities? David
Colquhoun tackles these issues and more.

Eminent UK scientist and noted skeptic David Colquhoun, Fellow of the
Royal Society, is a professor of Pharmacology at University College
London, fellow of the Royal Society, and blogger (Improbable Science).
He was recently the centre of controversy surrounding his popular
blog, dedicated to critiquing alternative medicine and
pseudoscientific claims, after criticizing a herbal medicine
practitioner about her questionable practices. This herbalist
threatened legal action and Prof. Colquhoun was forced to remove his
site from the UCL server. After much backlash from the scientific
community, his website was revived. A leader in the skeptical
community, Prof. Colquhoun will be speaking on issues surrounding
alternative medicine, academia, and the intersection between the two.

Dr. Colquhoun’s website: http://www.dcscience.net

Open to the public.  $7 general, $4 for students (special discounts
available- ask us for details)  FREE for Friends of the Centre for
Inquiry.

A reception with Prof. Colquhoun will take place immediately before
the main event from 5pm-6:30pm at the Centre for Inquiry Ontario (216
Beverley St), exclusively for friends of the centre.  Contact us at
toronto@centerforinquiry.net to join CFI today.

Hosted by the University of Toronto Secular Alliance. Co-sponsored by
the Centre for Inquiry Ontario, in partnership with Skeptics Canada.

You can register as well with the facebook event
http://utoronto.facebook.com/event.php?eid=9985092941

GO TO IT! 

Change is based on the people, the culture and the processes. All three of these things are being altered as a new generation of skeptics and questioners enter into the world - if religion doesn’t accommodate, where will it end up?

It’s no secret that I’m not religious. I don’t hide it, and am usually actually quite loud about it. My mom says that one day “You’ll Learn” and I’ll change my mind and ideas about it all - and honestly… I’m trying. I’m not an atheist because I have actively decided to talk out against religion or whatever god there may or may not be. It’s because I’ve looked, and haven’t found.

Believe me, I gave christianity a good run for it’s money. I did the whole church-every-week thing (being a minister’s daughter, I didn’t have a lot of options) and then even as a teenager, when my parents gave me a choice, I stuck with it. I went to Acquire The Fire, fell to my knees, threw my hands in the air and gave myself to whatever power was taking over me. And it was fantastic. I was happy. I had friends surrounding me, I had a god that loved me and I had something to turn to when I was scared or lonely. I never lost any friends while being a Christian.

Not only have I lost friends over being an atheist - I’ve lost jobs, been told I can’t listen to some musicians because they’re “Godly” and I’m not, and most recently been pushed off Facebook. (I’m back kicking strong, but keeping a lower profile.) One of the things I was trying to tell people on Facebook during this little escapade was that Islam HAS to change, or it’s going to die.

I’ve recently read the book “Why Christianity Must Change Or Die” by John Spong. The title (and the majority of the book its self) fits in really well with what I’ve spent the last week arguing with people about. There are two different ideas that I’m going to dive into here - the first is that Christianity does need to change - it has before, but it needs to again… and the point that I actually want to get across is that Islam has to change too (at least once).

Christianity went through a bit split, as did Judaism in the 18th century. During the enlightenment and post-enlightenment both religions had to make room for secularist thought and progressive behaviors in the religions.  And just like the pressure and denial that we hear from Islamist extremists today, you would hear from the Catholics and Orthodox Jews then. The Christianity that the protestants were claiming was not Christianity in the eyes of the Catholics. It maintained the core and fundamental beliefs (say - the 10 commandments…) and applied them to a much more progressive and modern religion. But it wasn’t (and sometimes still isn’t) recognized by the Catholics.

Christianity had to change. It has to change again now, to a different extent. (This is what the book I was reading looked at.) I talk about this sort of change with my step dad quite often (who is often sort of shunned at church for taking this view…) - Churches are killing themselves. They don’t appeal to the younger generation. Even if I wanted to go to church - there isn’t one that I would go to. They are either full of old, out dated traditions and hymns that put me to sleep or corny rock and roll that I can’t relate to on any level. There is no church that allows you to come in and ask questions, while maintaining that you’re christian.  I remember in my Sunday School class when I went to Sheridan United Church in Mississauga I asked my teacher “But how are we certain that there is a god, and that we are in the right religion?” His answer was “Because the bible says so…”

What kind of answer is that to give to a 14 year old questioning youth? I have yet to find a church that allows for this type of discussion, and that actually caters to youth and more importantly 20 - 40 year olds. At a university I went to there was an Inter-Faith Chapel. Every sunday they gathered, and it was for all faiths. Islam - Christianity - Buddhism - Baha’i - all of them. They would use the first 40 minutes to do a type of service that was more or less inclusive. There was no minister or leader, each week someone else led the service in a way that felt right and spiritual to them. Following the service there was a discussion - you could ask what ever you wanted, and there would be open discussion about it.

People who firmly believed in god would sit there and humor you while you discussed the possibility of there not being one. I went every week… It was interesting, and if I were to become a Christian, that is the “church” that I would want to worship in. (There were “regular” worship services on sunday nights too…)

Islam needs to make BOTH of these changes. It needs to accept, just as christians and jews accepted that not everyone in their religion is going to be a fundamentalist and follow every single word that has been written in that little book. They all need to grow up and see that worshiping a god - is worshiping a god. You don’t have to stone homosexuals to be the best muslim. You don’t have to stay the hell away from a beer to show god that you are a true follower.

Kenya is in a horrible position right now because the yonger generations want a new leader, where as the old fuds want to stay in power - so there is violence breaking out. It needs to change.

Islam extremists are living in a world that existed a thousand years ago. It needs to change.

People who sit and say religion is a waste of time, and throw slander at religious people need to realize that not everyone in this world thinks the same. It needs to change.

I’m sick of everyone bickering back and forth about who is right and who is wrong.  More than that I’m sick of all the liberals out there who say they are progressive and for all kinds of religion. … Because it’s always “all religions except that one… and that one… and that one…” because they’re too ‘extreme’ or don’t follow their western liberalized values. It’s like saying you’re all for freedom of speech! And then wanting someone to take down an anti-abortion ad. … That’s saying you’re all for your OWN freedom of speech, not anyone else’s.

Let adults be religious. Educate everyone. Don’t be an extreme jerk that for some reasons feels more holier than thou to tell other muslims that they’re “not muslim enough” or not “doing a good enough job”. Worry about yourself.

If you don’t change, then you’re not going to last. We are living in a new world that is only going to get more and more different as the years go by. Islam might be growing, but so are the number of people who think for themselves, not straight out of a book. If you’re not going to start accommodating people who want to talk, and question - then there is going to be less and less room for that religion in the future.