Identity of Atheism

Identity of Atheism

            America today has an identity issue of which there is seemingly no end, the belief that Atheism is somehow beneath Religion or organized Religion. There is a thought amongst some that without a Creator, there wouldn’t be any creation to be had. The religious hold the belief that no person can or would have morals if not laid out in front of us by a creator. The idea that none of us could take care of each other without mandates from religious books stating we must do so, and the belief there is an entity, a being above our knowledge who operates just outside the realm of the known universe who can control and does demand control of people, events and governments in their name. Roughly 60% of America’s population identify as Christian, leaving a paltry 12-15% Muslim, 5-7% Jew, 5% or less Hindu Sikh and coming in with a tie with Muslims is “not prescribing to anything” which may not necessarily be Atheist, but the statistics shows more people are thinking outside America’s faiths. (Hitchens – Dawkins) People who identify as Atheists in America and all over the world face daunting challenges when confronted with the issue of religion versus the Atheist stance there is nothing of substance on which to base a religion and even less evidence of a need to create Gods. Atheists, Agnostics and Humanists want to know what the world they see, feel, touch and hear has to offer and try to investigate those realities in total by way of scientific processes of investigation. Atheists, Agnostics and Humanists want things to be as good here on this planet as possible, because their prevailing thought process is; this is all we have, so you better do your best while here in this imperfect shell. Does one identify with logic, science and observable facts, or does one’s personal identity come from mysticism, fantasy and unfounded “truths”? The pages ahead shall touch on a few of these ideals and some of the arguments between those who identify as religious believers and those who do not.

            One of the first ideas put forth by those who identify as “religious” or “believers” amongst us is that the Universe in all of its spectacular glory can’t be a thing of “just random events and happenstance” (Hitchens - Turek) but must have had a creator. The argument of the watchmaker put forth by William Paley in 1802 was somewhat shot down by Charles Darwin’s evolutionary studies in “On the Origin of Species”. Paley believed, as even Sir Isaac Newton believed; that a thing of precision and beauty such as human kind had to have a maker. There had to be a designer, if you will, with the intent and volition to design something special. A known scholar who identifies as Christian, Frank Turek, tries over and over again to make this point, however as Christopher Hitchens puts it, “that is the God of the gaps”. (Turek - Hitchens) At each phase of human learning, there has been a similar God. Gilgamesh was the first known creation myth in Mesopotamia. Most of that creation myth was stolen by the Jews for their creation story of Adam and Eve later in the Torah. Even the Quran uses the same or near same myth in their holy books. Most who identify as religious believers in America do not believe in a Big Bang, however those who do not identify mostly understand mathematically and scientifically the beginning has been figured out. During a discussion with the Pope, where the Pope said he hoped Stephen wasn’t trying to disprove God, Steven Hawking himself said that if God had anything to do with the Big Bang it was only to light the match. (Hitchen - Dawkins) God of the Gaps is a normal progression of the human experience and limits of knowledge at that time. Most of history shows famous thinkers, inventors and others figuring out vast parts of problems, however when they run out of ideas, they credit God for controlling what they cannot figure out. (Hitchens Dawkins) This “gap” has been closing more and more over time. When man was afraid to sail out of sight of the mainland, it was because unseen Gods and Devils resided in the ocean’s depths and were waiting for sailors to fall off the earth into their realm, an early example of the God of the Gaps. Ancient Greeks and Romans who were generally not zealots of their worship had fears of the unknown and would blame the Gods for mishaps and problems facing the greater good. Even one of the most enlightened minds of his time, Sir Isaac Newton, once he created Calculus to show the evolution of planetary movement, space time and gravity, attributed the parts he was not able to figure out to a God who just must have a hand in everything. (Hitchens) Unfortunately as Evolutionary Biologist Richard Dawkins, who identifies as an Atheist points out there is no more mystery about from where humans came, but it is now a Scientific conclusion that humans, through DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid), came to be with mutations and additions in the genetic code. That all life on this planet shares a single set of DNA basics no matter how much those of religion want to “believe” otherwise. Humans share brain DNA and neurotransmitters with Mollusks in the Ocean. (Dawkins) We naturally identify with the smallest and least developed life forms on the planet. How is that for a design? Was it a design performed on the cheap, meaning whatever was lying around the shop was used in the next design as a cost savings measure? No, more than likely, we share these DNA because we evolved from creatures much like those simple creatures are now. This sometimes leads people who define their identity as Christians in America as Creationists to ask “so, if we evolved from Monkeys, how come there are still Monkeys?” Unfortunately, a few pages of Darwin, Dawkins or Hitchens and a person may quickly note that we didn’t “evolve from Monkeys” but we had a “common ancestor” with those same monkeys, thus the reason we share 99% of the same DNA as a Chimp. (Dawkins - Hitchens) Both Hitchens and Dawkins note in their respective books the chant from Creationists about the eye and how wonderful a creation it is and how hard or impossible it would have been to get one created or formed randomly. They say this because even Darwin himself called the eye a problem of design as it is intricate and would leave that to future science. They took his statement as meaning a God of gaps again. In reality though, Darwin was right and “future science” as he called it has figured out through DNA studies and creation of the photo cell that all eyes evolved in the same way and specialized for purposes used by that particular animal. (Dawkins - Hitchens) Even the “eye” that Creationists love to point at is a failed design by the creator if it indeed is such. The eye developed millions of years ago in single celled organisms as photo lenses, or optic sensors. They could tell if light was hitting them in case they needed to hide and not get burned by the sun or eaten by predators. (Dawkins- Hitchens) In the last 50 or so years we have found that human eyes miss about 85% of the light spectrum, we can’t see in Gama Rays or any type of radiation and have a very limited spectral range on the visible prism. The best we can see is the change in heat from hot asphalt to the air with waves because our detectible light spectrum has been “bent” by heat. We can’t see the UV rays creating the hot asphalt. This idea is the same with the ear, if this design was so perfect, why can humans not hear in the same frequencies as dogs? Why can we only hear in about the same range as a Bullfrog, but a Cow can hear things far above and below our auditory spectrum? Did the Creator not foresee the need for all animals to hear equally? Why can a Tuna or Whale hear almost 100 times the frequencies of a human? Because the creator didn’t take into account design flaws, evolution or needs of future animals? The designs are wrong, so the designer should be fired. These are questions those who identify with science have mostly answered, but for some odd reason remain mysteries to most who identify as Christians, Muslims and some Jews, or Theists in general. However a person who would identify as Atheist would hopefully understand these things occurred because each evolved to have what was needed for their specific lives on this planet and what would be best for their survival, but not all animals on whole. This idea brings a more profound personal feeling of wonderment at the Universe and our place within: Humans will forever be part of life on this planet through genetic codes and hand downs to new species. Whatever species watches our sun die in four to six billion years will be just as different from us as we are from the amoeba from which we came four to six billion years ago. (Hitchens Wolpe) Science has proven human genes will be there as genes from lost species are within humans; they just may not be contained within the human shell currently housing our species when that sun burns out.

            The next problem believers’ face is when confronting nonbelievers with this seemingly innocuous “question”; from where would we get our morals if not for a God of the Bible or some other higher power in our lives? First I will quote Mr. Hitchens from “God Is Not Great”, “Don’t tell me we made it all the way to the Sinai before we learned it was wrong to rape and kill in mass or we never would have made it there as a species.” Next I will quote Richard Dawkins from “The God Delusion”, “If you suddenly knew there was no God, would you start committing murder, rape and theft that minute?” Both obviously are making the logical point that those people would be psychopaths and ostracized from normal tribes who worked together and most likely were left to die of exposure, loneliness and or starvation without the rest of the tribes’ assistance. Religions like to point out they give charitable benefits to the sick and poor, when in reality they use their power to get that money from the poor to begin with and only spend a pittance to help those in need. They spend more on spreading false ideologies like “condoms are sinful” leaving many Africans who identify as Christians to die from Aids. Or spend on making headways into world politics with very little help for the sick and dying. Even genital mutilation occurs just as often in African nations who identify as Christian as they do anywhere else in the world. As Christopher Hitchens points out to Bill Donohue even Mother Teresa who totally identified as Christian didn’t understand or really like religion, and had major questions about it in total, but being a poor girl from Albania, she liked the spot light the Catholic Church could provide and her celebrity within the church. (Hitchens - Donohue) She worked in death clinics, some called hospitals she helped set up in India. People think of this as a wonderful thing, but they are really places for the poor to be scooped up off the street, kept out of sight, given no medical attention and left to die the good death of a poor person while suffering through agony in the name of God and Jesus. (Hitchens - Donohue) She spent more time in photo ops with Princes Di who identified as Christian, or any other would be savior or contributor like Charles Keating who also identified as Catholic, of the Savings and Loan scandal fame than she did actually comforting the sick and dying for which she received so much credit. Mother Teresa didn’t question the fact Mr. Keating had stolen from the poor and those of meager means in life to support the church with pilfered funds. She gladly accepted them and took her photo with him so he could feel like a proud “giver” to the poor. She accepted money from Princess Diana’s foundations. This money was given by large donors or by tax payers who support the royal family. In England you must pay tax to The Church of England. The Churches, Synagogues and or Mosques collect money on the ideal that the poor should give to help others or lose their souls to damnation. None of those places are taxed in this nation leaving billions of uncollected property taxes each year in the name of religion which could actually be used to feed the poor and take care of the sick. This should seem like an odd dichotomy indeed. Some Mosques do good works for strictly Muslim peoples, then turn around and have groups behind them like Hezbollah who hand out things to the poor, while bombing people who have different beliefs on the side. (Hitchens) How is it that the God of Christendom can’t work with or create his own money if he needs it to be so? It doesn’t make logical sense to be an all-powerful deity who can command the sun, moon and stars yet not able to handle money or create places of worship where “they” indeed want them. Isn’t it much more awe inspiring to know we understood we needed the tribe to help us live, thrive and move forward as a species? Much like Ant colonies, we live for the greater good. We naturally moved toward agrarianism. This emotion was in us as animals 100,000 years ago, and not bestowed upon us by burning bush, or by Muhammad riding his horses to heaven.  It has even been observed these same processes of caring go on in almost all species on this planet. (Dawkins - Hitchens) It doesn’t seem plausible that a species lived for roughly 100,000 years on the low end of evolution or 250,000 on the high end, then suddenly God appeared to an illiterate desert people who identified as religious and had them of all people’s pass down the stories of creation, being and morality. When the Old Testament is full of killing in mass of men, women and children some do not see it is a true book of morality from which to draw any life lesson beyond how NOT to treat your neighbor. Why did God not visit the Chinese who had writing, language and Science at the time? Why not the Indus Valley where several great civilizations had already come and passed? Because it is a false narrative propagated to control men. Those who do not identify as religious don’t understand why they must live under these beliefs or be shunned by those who identify as religious.

People who identify as Christian in this nation persecute any other religion which rears its “ugly” head. America had issue with the Irish, they were Catholics and would ruin the nation by the amount of babies they had. Italians were dirty and Catholic and also not to be trusted because of their voodoo church ways. We stopped Jews from entering America in the late 1930’s and early 1940’s knowing they were going back to Nazi Germany for the slaughter if we refused them. The Catholic Church turned a blind eye to Hitler because he funneled stolen Jewish Gold to the Catholic Church. People have tried to blame secularism for the rise of the Nazis, however all Nazi servicemen who had state issued belts had the words “GOTT MIT UNS” (God is with us), kind of shooting down the secular idea of Nazis in total. (Hitchens- Turek – Donohue - Hitchens) Even the Soviet Union was called Atheist, and in fact was not. The Greek Orthodox Church resides there after running from the Ottoman takeover of the Byzantine Empire. (Hitchens) In Fact Stalin created a cult of personality. No God before him or the government. The same idea lies with North Korea today. Now in America those who identify as religious would deny passage of people who need help due to religious persecution in their home land, because fear of a new identity scares those with the current and accepted practice of Christianity.

            This brings the subject of free choice as those with religious identity in this nation describe it to be. You are born sick, but commanded to get well. You are born in the world with sin you didn’t create or bring upon yourself, and by no fault of your own you are told you have to get right with a God or suffer eternal consequences of damnation and hellfire, or the Jewish hell which is darkness and being kept out of the light of God’s sight. (Hitchens - Dawkins) This equates to having children with severe mental issues, and demanding they get fixed in some way even if they don’t understand what is wrong, or how to go about fixing the issue they don’t understand. Who as a parent would make a child as the God of the Bible did, and then command him to go as a “lamb” to be sacrificed for others? Why is this God so “scared” of competition if he indeed is the right choice for all the people who identify with those ideals? Many who do not identify as Christian would like to know why it was accepted for nearly 1,000 years that limbo is where babies who were not baptized before death went, and then suddenly there was no more limbo. What was the need for the religious leaders of those who identify in the same manner to make believers feel such shame for their children who they couldn’t will to live longer than they did and make it to a church for Baptism? It makes those who do not identify question. Eight of the Ten Commandments are about things God wants personally. Not things to make life better for those who share this identity, but things like no God’s before him, and no graven images. If not for coveting other’s things, we would not work in a Capitalist world. Would a loving God really command Abraham as a test to bind his son and kill him, then as if it were a game suddenly say, “No, I was kidding, you can go now… this was just a test.” all just to verify his religious identity? (Hitchens - Dawkins) Visit these ideals again as they are important to the identity of those who want to be servant versus those who do not. Does anyone enjoy the thought of living in a perpetual North Korea? Waking each day to give love to the blessed ruler who provides all food, clothing, housing and life to you, giving thanks for the mercy your family has been given by being able to eat and survive. You can’t have an ill thought or show it in any way toward the leader or “God” or you will be punished. At least North Koreans can look at death as a way out of this hell created on earth of perpetual servitude. They truly do not have to identify as anything but can take that way out and be done. If your identity is of faith based anything, oh no, death is when the real fun begins. You get to go in front of a judge after going through the transition of death and having no idea what might meet you on the other side. By judgment you could be sent to an eternal damnation if you didn’t find it within yourself during life to succumb to all wants and needs of an unseen, unknown deity who prescribes an odd set of rules. Those who identify as religious seem to get some solace in this idea of feeling as if they know something or are going somewhere no one else is going. (Hitchens - Turek - Hitchens – Wolpe) The problem to psychological professionals and those who do not identify as believers is that those who do identify seem to have an extreme psychosis. There seems to be a need to be better than their brother or sister in humanity. To have an inside track if you will to a better place only a select few may be invited to enjoy. Unfortunately the nation that is a secular beacon to the world, The United States even appears to have developed a litmus test that is against the law to vet a Presidential candidate, or any candidate for that matter and it makes those who do not identify angry.

            For those who identify as religious in this nation to declare there is any war on any religion by those who do not classify themselves as followers is preposterous at best, and in its worst farcical and childish. There is an endless inundation of Christmas from September to January. There are Nativity scenes, trees, lights and Merry Christmas is everywhere. For the most part those who do not identify as believers do not complain unless it is on a secular Government property. Those who do not identify would like a bit more respect given to Science. After all if not for Science people would still be living in huts and going to the bathroom right outside of their door. People who do not believe do not care that others do believe, but also do not want to be held to believers’ standards in the least. Keep religion in the home where it belongs, no matter which one it may be. Stop the bigotry and xenophobia perpetrated by those who identify as religious that would allow the United States to deny more religious refugees a home. People can live together and if the greater good is the predominant thought process then those who do identify can get along wonderfully with those who do not. If there is a continued pointing of fingers at those who do not identify the numbers will continue to grow. 15 years ago, 5% of people were non-believers or didn’t closely follow; now it is at least 15%. The number will grow as Science continues to make life easier, prophecies of doom come and go, bigotry is allowed on the airwaves in the name of righteousness and those who identify persecute those who do not. Not identifying as a religious believer in this nation is hard at best and downright scorned as a practice. Hopefully one day those who identify as religious will learn the ways of their teachers and become more accepting of those around them by either becoming more confident in their own beliefs or by letting the stories that could have been switched for Jack and the Bean stalk as children, go by the wayside.

 

 

Works Cited

Hitchens, Christopher. God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. New York: Twelve, 2007. Print.

Dawkins, Richard. The God Delusion. Reprint ed. N.p.: Mariner, (January 16, 2008). Print.

Donohue, Bill, Christopher Hitchens, and John Pericon. "Chesterton Beloc Debates Bill Donohue Debates Christopher Hitchens." YouTube. YouTube, 18 Nov. 2012. Web. 10 Nov. 2015.

Turek, Frank, and Christopher Hitchens. "Does God Exist? (Frank Turek vs Christopher Hitchens)." YouTube. YouTube, 21 July 2015. Web. 10 Nov. 2015.

Hitchens, Christopher, and David Wolpe. "Christopher Hitchens and Rabbi David Wolpe - The Great God Debate." YouTube. YouTube, 6 Aug. 2012. Web. 10 Nov. 2015.