From Larry Wohlgemuth…
I love to take shots at fundies because of their big-headed belief in their omniscience. It’s so unbecoming. Now atheists are giving fundies a run for the number one spot on my list. Their increasingly vocal claims that ‘there is no God’ comes across just as dogmatically as the fundie that predicts eternity in hell unless we follow their prescribed plan for salvation. Polar opposite twins.
I’m not sure where these militant atheists who demand I believe as they do are coming from, but I welcome anything that provides me more material. I can mock the self-proclaimed all-knowing no matter what their beliefs. However it begs the question, what’s happening to atheists and why are they becoming increasingly outspoken?
For any who may not know my position, you can worship mountain oysters as your God if you wish, I really don’t care what you believe. I understand my beliefs are what they are; beliefs and nothing more. While I try to live by them I’ll likely pull the big kackaroo only to learn the extent of my fallibility. Maybe there will be some tiny part that I got right, however my shortcomings don’t scare me nor do I anticipate an eternity of torment for my error; it’s just another lesson.
However I have to speak up about something I’ve observed recently that’s happening in atheism, mostly made up of people that once seemed extremely comfortable in their own skins. I noted in an online discussion the other day another indication of the increasingly fundamentalist atheist meme that more than implied the rest of us should change for our own good.
A woman stated that all who held religious viewpoints were insane and that science was the only true answer. Did she mean the science that bled us with leeches to cure disease, or that refused to believe in things unseen, causing countless deaths due to postsurgical infections because physicians wouldn’t wash their hands? Maybe she referred to the research grant whores who’ve propped up industries like tobacco in return for large sums of money, or the thousands of scientists who wrongly predicted a global cooling disaster and impending Ice Age in the 1970s. I’ll give more credence to science when they can at least replicate the feat of building the Great Pyramid of Giza.
Another guy was arguing in favor of the Golden Rule. Did he understand its origin was religiously based, with the first documented instance being 5000 years ago?
“This is the sum of duty. Do not unto others that which would cause you pain if done to you.”
– Mahabharata 5:1517, from the Vedic tradition of India,
circa 3000 BC.
A woman interjected the possibility that the way you want to be treated is not the way I would like to be treated. Taking her valid retort a step further, what if I want to be treated merely as a faceless cog in a society-driven machine, then wouldn’t the Golden Rule demand I labor to ensure that you are treated similarly? It would be a recipe for disaster for a society that applied it literally, but this man was just as intent on forcing his belief on me as any fundie I’ve encountered.
Maybe a good place to start would be with the definition of atheism:
a•the•ism –noun
1. the doctrine or belief that there is no god.
2. disbelief in the existence of a supreme being or beings.
This definition is from Dictionary.com, but several others were the same; each using the word belief, disbelief or both in their characterizations, and isn’t that the crux of the matter? When you come down to it, when all is said and done, atheism is simply a belief. Now maybe I’m wrong and they have some proof, so I’ll give them an opportunity to present it here.
Waiting.
Still waiting.
That’s what I thought. They can’t prove their position any more than the fundies can prove theirs, or I can prove mine, ergo the word belief. The only time beliefs become dangerous is when one group tries to foist theirs onto others, which inevitably results in violence. I see that possibility in both religious fundamentalism and the growing militancy in atheism. Maybe we should all take a breath.
In case anyone is interested, or even cares, this is how far I’ve gotten. If I see a chocolate cake sitting on the counter then I know a baker is somewhere to be found; I don’t have to see her to know she exists. The fact of creation demands that there be a creator in my thinking. Beyond that I’ve taken various religious, philosophical and metaphysical concepts and cobbled them into a sustaining faith, but I don’t have a clue if it’s right. However when I look at images sent back from the Hubble telescope I rest comfortably in the understanding that it’s something impossible for me to know while I’m on the physical plane.
So please, spare us your proclamations of omniscience and enjoy the ride, because we think you’re just as full of shit as the rest of us.
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