“So what prompted the change to atheism?”
Posted: March 4th, 2010 | Author: John Dill | Filed under: religion, science | Tags: atheism, bible, christianity, critical thinking, god, morality, non-theist, reason, religion, science, young earth creationists | 9 Comments »An old friend recently asked me a question that got me started on this long-winded response. I thought I would post it here. I’ll write more about my Christian childhood later to give this some context.
“So what prompted the change to atheism?” Well, a Christian hurt me, and now I’m mad at God. ….. No, totally just kidding, but that seems to be the most often assumed “cause” that I hear from religious people who haven’t taken the time to listen to a de-conversion story. My mom used to ask who it was that hurt me and what happened to me. I really have no serious issue directly with any individual Christian that I’ve met personally. I think Christians are simply overwhelmed by systematic religious fear. “Love God or else!” It’s not really their fault. This is a tangent to answering the question directly, but I just want to be clear that my decisions on faith and the supernatural are not out of rebellion or a vendetta or as a reaction to some non-related personal offense.
Why the change? The short answer is that I see no rational reason to choose to believe in a faith-based worldview. Below is a somewhat disjointed summary of my views on both Christianity and religion in general. Consider it a draft from a non-writer. ; )
The usual reasons offered for being religious can be summarized as either the promise of eternal life / punishment or religious life is happier / more moral / good for humanity. I don’t include the statement “I just know in my heart that X is true.” as a reason, because that is only a statement about how strongly the belief is held and not actually any kind of argument.
In response to the promise of eternal life or death, historical records show that the various afterlife stories have been continually made up or modernized to fit ongoing changes in culture. They are just stories from human imagination which are used to influence people. They are pretty entertaining to listen to, especially in succession.
In response to statements that suggest that religion improves our everyday life, consider religious wars, hindrances to science, and countless inhumane actions perpetrated by religious institutions. Humanity is, overall, worse off for being religious. Of course, most any religious person would respond to that with, “Yes, all those religions other than my own cause great harm to the world.” … but you can see the inherent problem in that kind of thinking. If you’re not convinced, take a look at some religious perspectives other than the ones with which you are most familiar. It is natural to think only of the positive effects of one’s own religious affiliation and to disbelieve the negative.
The concept of morality across cultures and time has been pretty much standard. Some religions claim to be the source of morality (a moral compass), but then why do the basics of common morality, ideas like be nice, don’t murder or steal, care for children, make sense to a rational person in the absence of religion? Those ideas are common among humans simply because they make good sense for the health and continuance of humans. An individual who acts for his own benefit at the expense of others in his community (i.e. raping children) has to then deal with the consequences directly from the community. It works itself out even without divinely inspired fear or love. Good and bad have been defined over time through natural human development.
I guess there is another pro-religion reason I have heard somewhat often. “We are here in a universe, therefore something must have created it.” That doesn’t make sense to me. What we do know is that we are here and that the universe exists, but that is all we really can observe. That a “god” entity created us in order to have pets or to be loved is simply an imaginative idea to consider, not at all an observation.
I have found it important to make a distinction between truth and opinion when considering religion. There are methodical, empirical ways to test the truth of an idea, but simply saying “The belief of a certain idea makes one happier” gives no weight to the authenticity of that idea. Some people say they are happier with a relationship with Jesus than without. I am sure they feel that and honestly believe that to be true. I believed it honestly as well. Since then, my own experience has been that the occasional feelings of religious ecstasy are self-induced. I can have similar experiences from many other sources. My happiness now is more genuine than I previously knew it could be. I don’t have to put aside those annoying questions anymore. Doubt is good. Faith is merely choosing to reject reason and go along with some other person’s ideas.
What about the in-errancy of the Bible (or other religious book)? Listen to a less-biased historical perspective. Those that claim Biblical in-errancy will blindy defend it. The chaotic formation of that collection of writings is well documented from reputable and verifiable research. It is not the singular or profound “Word of God” its followers claim it to be. It was gathered with many revisions over time, mostly due to political motivations.
“Why not just be like Jesus who taught love and forgiveness?” Apart from the absence of that character in historical record, why get your morality from a social mentor who supported slavery? Why would he slaughter a bunch of pigs for no reason? Why tell his disciples to steal a donkey? If it is wrong now, it was wrong then. Defenders of the Bible, especially the Old Testament, are defending moral relativism according to cultural norms of the time. If God actually frequently commanded genocide including children and animals, as well as rape and child sacrifice, then the God of today would still be responsible for that hateful behavior. The statement “God is love” requires that “love” be severely redefined. It is comforting to me that there isn’t actually anything I have seen that indicates that such a terrible, jealous, genocidal, emotionally irrational entity exists.
One more point, due to the supposed “unchanging nature of God”, a Christian is often prevented from admitting to being wrong, even in the face of new information. Christian ideas are often in conflict with reality as clearly seen when creationists try to debate with science. Science is a method that definitively requires ongoing correction through cycles of theory and testing. It also uses the process of expert peer review to confirm or deny new research. “Creation Science” is truly an oxymoron since its defenders will not and cannot change their views when the continual flood of evidence supports an ancient universe and Darwinian evolution.
So, why am I becoming more vocal and active about religion? Brad Pitt says it succinctly here. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/15/brad-pitt-religion-doesnt_n_260398.html I don’t want to block anyone in their own search for truth, but I do speak out when a concept of faith begins to interfere with public policy or causes the mis-education of our future generations.
So… that’s enough for the summary. These are the views that I have found through a very honest, personal search. I don’t think there is much chance of there being a supernatural being like we humans have imagined in the past, but… I am quite willing to be open to rational discussion and new observations. Please let me know what you think or if you have a question.
Related:
http://notetoself.net/2010/03/08/a-personal-introspection-for-my-christian-friends/
http://notetoself.net/2010/03/05/reflecting-on-my-dad-the-minister/
Thanks for making the switch!
Unique helpful truthful thoughts must win.
Z.
Well said! I think I’m inspired to write my own thesis on the same!
I might add that learning about the details of evolution has been among the most awe-inspiring, mind blowing, ecstatic natural neatness I have ever dedicated myself to learning, all indirectly thanks to you
Since you are very young, part of your education is “God is out there!” It is given to you as a fact rather than assumption. A fact a strong as “The sun is shining in the morning”, “if you walk in the rain you get wet” and “vegetables are healthy” (which can also be argued, but let’s leave it for now?).
Most people will later have hard time separating and questioning these facts. So, vegetables are healthy, Jesus loves me, I love him back, we’re one happy family who love vegetables!
Anyway, I never was very religious, and throughout the years, I gradually turned over to complete Atheism. I still like celebrating the various holidays with my family, because this tradition is fun, but that’s all there’s to it.
With respect to all religions, my personal opinion is that various religious books are some sort of diverted history books which aim at one objective – Group People Together. Group = Control. It is supposedly much easier to control your population by fear. Many people don’t use their common sense and could go out of hand without being ‘restrained’ by religious rules.
Again, that’s my opinion. I do respect other opinions as well and generally go by “Live and let live”.
One last thing – if you haven’t seen the movie “The invention of lying” watch it now! beautiful message behind “yet another” comedy.
Cheers
Very well written John. I think it is also important to mention that when not relying on a fictional being for help in life, we become more responsible for our own lives. More importantly though, we realize that if something has to get done, we humans have to do it. Be it helping needy people (like in Haiti) or helping the environment, action not prayer is what will save the day. Reliance on ourselves and personal responsibility is what will change the world for the better, which religion does not support.
Oooooh, I so proud! I has such a strong thinking fambly!
I have been reading a lot about the philosophy of science I can tell you have been too. Great post John, well said.
Quote: “‘So what prompted the change to atheism?’ Well, a Christian hurt me, and now I’m mad at God. ….. No, totally just kidding, but that seems to be the most often assumed ’cause’ that I hear from religious people who haven’t taken the time to listen to a de-conversion story. My mom used to ask who it was that hurt me and what happened to me. I really have no serious issue directly with any individual Christian that I’ve met personally. I think Christians are simply overwhelmed by systematic religious fear.”
Just to challenge you–in saying “I think Christians are simply overwhelmed by systematic religious fear,” aren’t you making the same kind of assumption about them as you complain they make about you? Is systematic fear an element of most/all stories of conversion to Christianity?
This is probably one of the more succint and apt arguments against religion that I’ve heard (and as the “non-writer” that you say you are, you’re selling yourself short). I have been fortunate in my life to have never had religion (and to live in a region, metroplitan Boston, where religion is just NOT a topic for discussion in polite company); my atheism goes back to a conscious decision I made in childhood–in 4th grade, to be exact. I grew up in a non-religious household; talk of God was considered distasteful–a “personal” issue, according to my mother (she herself was a disillusioned Catholic who began to question religion when she was told back in the ’50s that she couldn’t be an altar boy because she was a girl. This made no sense to her whatsoever because to her, theology and God were genderless. At that point, she began to question the church. Today she calls the Catholic church “an evil and manipulative” organization that has nothing to do with spirituality. She also says that she can not subscribe to a religion that uses the Bible for its basis because it is a poor basis for any belief; she says it has been edited for political purposes over the eons, and can not possibly be accurate. But enough about my mother.) Nonetheless, she made me go to Sunday school as a child, not for religion but at least to gain an understanding of what all the fuss was about. She did not want me to be ignorant. So there I was in my 4th grade Sunday school class where we were learning the lesson that God is omnipresent and with us at all times, whereupon I had my own epiphany. I blurted out to the teacher’s horror, “Well, if this is true, then we don’t need church. And I don’t believe in God, anyway.” I also never reconciled the “God is good yet we must fear God” problem. Goodness and fear were anthithetical to this 10-year old. The concept of a paternal God seemed silly to me at the time, kind of like the superhero figures portrayed in Saturday morning cartoons that I knew were made up, and nothing anyone has attempted to say to counter this has reduced the silliness factor. Religion is really socially sanctioned fairy tales for adults. This is the best way I can describe it. It’s the easy way out of taking responsibility for a lot of things: life, actions, examining one’s life. (My personal favorite: the idea of “God’s plan”; it allows people to be either slackers or obnoxiously entitled. Incredible idea.)
Robin, thanks for the story, and I respect your insight. Feel free to post more of it. ; )