On Atheism.

I’ve actually wanted to write about this for some time, but after writing a few paragraphs abandoned the post altogether because I thought I was too close to the subject, too passionate to write anything more than a vitriolic tirade against religion. I don’t want to do that, and what is more, I don’t need to do it either. Plenty of other people have done it, and they look no different from the assholes and automatons they pretend to be fighting.

To me, they’re about as atheist as Lenin was a Marxist. They want power, and they want to settle some “old scores”. That’s what my gut tells me. My eyes and ears tell me they are no different from any other motherfucker who wanted to seize power to “set things straight.”

Here’s the problem. A lot of atheists want to get rid of religion altogether. It’s just, what do you replace it with? Science? Science is a method for making discoveries and testing theories. That’s it. There’s no moral code. There’s no blueprint for society there at all. People who claim to be free thinkers may be able to construct a moral code that is in relative harmony to the society they find themselves in, but most people aren’t willing to do that much thinking. Not when someone else has done it for them already.

I’ve been an atheist since about the age of 16. Like so many others I “arrived” at atheism after a hell of a lot of exploration and introspection, and I did it all by myself. It was the only idea that made any kind of sense, to me. And, what is more, I feel like my “conversion” (if you will) is pure because no one pressured me, no one “gave me something to read”, and no one was there to poison my thinking with their own bullshit. To me this is really important. Maybe because it’s my path to the truth, as I see it. To me it represents the true path because it is devoid of the kind of dogma and pretence and pedantic nonsense that have lead all other philosophies down the same fucking road. Also, it is because I live in a secular society that affords me the freedoms I enjoy that I am able to write this, and be openly atheist at all. Guess what happens to people like me in Muslim countries? Even in America I can be persecuted. My middle fingers are always ready bitches.

The problem isn’t religion. It’s culture. One can live in a religious country with a tolerant culture, but who could tolerate a religious country with an antagonistic, backwards, bellicose, and ignorant culture? I won’t go as far as to say that I have just described the U.S., but after the last 8 years, we have revealed to the world this very large part of our nations soul. It is there, and it is a threat not only to our country, but to the world as well. But how do you fight it?

Science baby. Science is set up precisely for this. Science can silence. That’s what is so elegant and beautiful about the methodology of science. It does have the power to free us from the shackles of ignorance and of (some species of) fear. Not with empty promises of paradise. Not with sham bullshit answers that are above the realm of rigorous interrogation. Not with antique literature littered with bald faced threats of violence and eternal damnation. But statements of fact, that beg to be questioned, and tested, and doubted, and torn down, or built upon. Science is not without its heated debates, fights, or open hostility mind you. Some of the biggest enemies of science in recent history are the hippies of our parents generation, the worst generation in human history. More on that some other time, and I will rant like Hitler on PCP when I write that particular piece.

Science can free us. But what then? Is science enough to fulfill people? Is the pursuit of knowledge enough of a driving force to guide society? I know some will nod yes, and I am very tempted myself, but I have my doubts, and those doubts lay in humanity. Humanity has some fundamental needs that science alone cannot deliver. I believe science can illuminate for us the root causes of these needs, but something else must deliver them. Take for instance the human need for violence. I think it’s there. We are fascinated by it even as the amount of violence we are exposed to on a day-to-day basis has been in decline for the past few centuries. Maybe it’s because we see less violence now that we crave it in our entertainment? I don’t know, but I bet science could deliver some satisfactory statements about this supposition.

Back to my main point though. I am an atheist, and I am opposed to the idea of fellowship because I am a loner, and atheism, as I “practice” (?) it, is a loners position. I was going to say activity, but then I thought about how I don’t actively think about being an atheist, just like I don’t think about gravity, or the two isotopes of hydrogen. I don’t try to convince people there is/are no god(s). If you can’t figure that out on your own, well, that’s your bad luck, and your welcome to all the ignorance you’ve just doomed yourself to.

Some people go as far as to suggest that being an atheist is tantamount to being a homosexual, and I find that offensive precisely because of it’s scientific ignorance. People who believe in god(s) are also VERY likely to believe that homosexuality is purely a choice people make. People CHOOSE to be atheists, just like people choose to be honest, open, and courageous in the face of overwhelming bigotry. People ARE gay, just like people happen to black, left handed, have a higher IQ, or always do what they’re told without question. The funny thing is, I bet there’s a gay, left-handed, academically accomplished, follower out there at this very moment. He probably lives in a major city, and dreams of creature comforts, JUST LIKE YOU (gasp)!!!!

The point is, no, I am not in the closet. I try to be tasteful and respectful because my dignity is [often] important to me, and this means I don’t [often] go around getting into arguments with people about the existence of god(s). It also means that I am, willing or otherwise, an ambassador for atheism. My words and actions become part of another human beings cumulative concept of what an atheist is. And while I cannot control what or how they think of or about atheists, I can, with just a little tact, control what and how they think of and about me, an atheist. It is the power of example that makes the lasting impression. There are enough assholes out there muddying up the water already.

If the religious start rounding us up though, I will start blowing shit up. Straight the fuck up. I hope this doesn’t put me on some list already because some NSA mainframe can’t establish the context of my hot words, because that would miss the point entirely, which is, shut the fuck up already.