Sunday 26 April 2015

Scarlet the Atheist - Irritating Questions

Scarlet is an atheist.  Scarlet doesn't talk about it all that much on a day to day basis but it seems that faith plays a big part in the lives of people across the world.  Just to clarify when Scarlet says 'faith' he means the belief which a person has in a supernatural entity which is in someway 'in control' of the universe.  I could well go further and explain what I mean with all the other words I say but I just thought it was worth making sure you readers know where I am when I say I have no 'faith'.

I would also like to address what I mean by 'atheist' before moving on to the main purpose of today's post as this could well lead to further confusion later on.  When I say I am an atheist I say that I do not believe that there is 'a god', I am not saying that there is no god, simply that I do not believe in what most people call 'a god'.  I do not believe in god because I do not believe that there is a reason to do so.

So today I'd like to explain my position through answering a series of questions which I and many atheists have been asked loads of times, many many times:

Why do you hate God?

We reach a bit of an issue here because you are immediately not understanding my position if you ask me this question.  I don't believe that god exists therefore I cannot openly profess to like/dislike this individual.  Scarlet doesn't hate god, Scarlet doesn't believe in God.

If Scarlet did believe in God would Scarlet love god?  No, if Scarlet believed in god he would not be very happy for a few reasons:
- Why does this God demand humanity believe yet place doubt it their mind?
- Why does this God leave behind so many inaccurate descriptions of his will?  if the God of the Qu'ran exists then the Bible is wrong etc.
- Why does God not interfere and stop the evil?  If I was in a position to cure AIDS, I would do it with absolutely no hesitation whatsoever.  The same goes with cancer and every single thing which brings pain to human beings or indeed everything which feels it.  If God existed it would be sitting watching all this, doing nothing about it.  So no, I don't hate god, but I would be very concerned about his motives if I did believe.

Isn't it a bigger leap of faith to be an Atheist?

The problem with this one is that I think people tend to misunderstand my position on the central point here.  A lot of believers think that 'if you are an atheist then something must have come from nothing', you are not listening to what I write.  (Can anyone listen to words, surely I mean read?)  I DON'T KNOW, I simply do not know where the universe came from, and that is my attitude towards loads of things and it is what feeds me to learn more.  When Darwin looked at the variety of life he thought 'I DON'T KNOW HOW THIS HAPPENED', the same goes for Newton and the Apple.  If we immediately subscribe to the premise of 'I DON'T UNDERSTAND THIS, THEREFORE IT WAS GOD' we start on a slippery slope.

If you tell me that there is a god you make a claim, when you tell me you believe this with no reason other than 'because you do'  you are making a leap of faith, I do not do this, tell me if I do.

Where do you get your morality from?

 From my life experiences and from humanist ideals.  I get my morality from the warm feeling I get when I make someone smile, from the pain I feel when I see someone suffering.  Many ideas in religious texts are not what many reasonably minded people would call moral, at least not in the Western World in any case.  Atheists and secular people ground their morality each individually just like everyone but we don't use obscure passages of text to justify evil and we don't believe in a 'cosmic justice'.


  Ok I get it, your an Atheist why do you bother going on about it?

This one really does leave a sour taste in Scarlet's mouth.  What if we turn the question around and ask a deeply religious person why they wear a cross around their neck or a turban on their head?

I abhor so many elements of religion and should this post be popular I may just spend a few posts ranting about it but my main purpose here is to spread the word of positive atheism.  To think that someone may read this post and feel more comfortable with how they feel, it would be incredible to see that. 

To Thine Ownself Be True.

Be yourself and love your life, it is (probably!) the only one you are going to get.

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