Imagine that all of a sudden, you awoke in a strange land with no memory of where you were before, or even if you were before. All around you see other people who, as far as you can tell, are in the same position as yourself. Amidst this uncertainty, all you really know is that you have a mind and body, and that a bunch of stuff exists. You don’t know where any of it came from, where any of it will go, or whether there’s even a reason any of it is here in the first place - yourself included. This odd situation describes exactly what happened the day each and every one of us was born.
Don’t you ever stop in the middle of your day and wonder who or what we are? Where we came from? Where we’re going? Whether there’s some kind of afterlife or reason why we’re here at all, instead of nothing?
I’m no atheist, and the main focus of this blog is to explain why. It’s not because I think atheists can’t be moral, or because I think that atheists can’t lead happy, fulfilled lives. It’s not because I think atheists secretly believe in God and are just lying to themselves, or because I think atheists are just mad at God. It’s not because I think atheism is un-American, or because I’m some anti-science evolution-denier. It’s not because I was raised religious, or because I think all atheists are liberal commies. These are all reasons I’ve actually heard people offer for their rejection of atheism, and they’re all what I would consider wrong reasons to reject atheism.
Science tells us that we’ve all been born on a giant rock hurtling through space at thousands upon thousands of miles per hour, and that the star enabling the show can only do so for a limited amount of time. Religion tells us... well, religion tell us lots of things, and certainly not all of them true, but most religions agree with the scientists that life on Earth is temporary. The inescapable conclusion for every thinking person becomes that whether the intervention is stellar or divine, the end of the world is an impending reality, and our existence here is transitory. Suddenly the Subhumans' Brit-punk cadence "it's a dying world" has an uncanny relevance confirmed by modern science, and predicted long ago in the Psalms: "In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment."
To honestly tackle life’s questions is an art that requires bravery, diligence and discernment, especially in our current global atmosphere of war, deception, greed and scandal. We’ve got television, authority, school, parents, newspapers, preachers, extremists, agendists, public relations liars, scientists, police and politicians all telling us how things are, or what to do, or what not to do, each with a different and often conflicting agenda, yet similar at the root: believe our truth. Indeed, the warfare is mental, and this only complicates the innate human longing for truth.
The endless barrage of advertisements, sound bites and “official stories” that flow from “experts” can condition people to disconnect their critical faculties and rely on authority. If we’re not rigorous, this rather large amount of noise can cause us to overcompensate with skepticism as a coping mechanism, but knee-jerk skepticism is just as intellectually debilitating as blind faith. Whether we believe in God or not, mental passivity is arguably the biggest threat to reason, but if we are to succeed in establishing a society of reason, the art of critical thought must replace the error of thoughtless criticism.
After all, this isn’t laundry detergent the preachers are selling, but potentially the most important claims ever made. The Bible claims to be our Creator’s revealed word to humanity; that’s a pretty high-stakes claim if you ask me.
Accordingly, our own education is our own responsibility, and our age stands unparalleled to any other in the abundance of technology and information available. Using knowledge, analysis and thought, the thinking person can evaluate the many claims that constantly assail them. Knowledge tends to enable discernment, and disable ignorance; when we are even somewhat literate in the basic precepts of any given field, we can intelligently question most anything presented to us by alleged authorities on the subject. Free speech and thought are gifts, and to fail in their implementation invites deception, slavery and dependence. Why else would science reward empirical reasoning, and why else would Jesus admonish those who search for truth to seek - unless the apprehension of truth required effort?
In the final analysis, most of us base our worldviews around the pronunciations of either religion or science, but we ought to be aware of the extent we expect either to provide definitive answers to life’s ultimate mysteries. The latest proclamations from the Ph.D. crowds are far from being the final authority on any given matter. We would do well to remember that just eighty years ago, the Caucasian race was presented as superior in a high school biology textbook, and before that priests told us the Sun revolved around Earth, not vice-versa.
I'm often reluctant to categorize my beliefs because there are logical reasons for refusing to paint oneself into mental categories that unique individuals tend to interpret uniquely.
Much mention gets made of the search for God or the Bible or this teaching or that. There are many salesmen of truth out there, but my current stance is that man cannot find God; God must enable the matter if salvation is to occur at all.
As for me, well.. I’m just another human being living on this rock they call Earth, watching and observing all that unfolds, trying to make sense of it somehow. My formal interest in the (a)theism debate began about twenty years ago, but my earliest written sequential pages date to 1980 where, at the age of five, I wrote and illustrated a little kids’ rendition of a book concerning space and the universe. Against a backdrop of seventies-style construction paper, rudimentary artwork was accompanied by formative scrawlings: “...meteors, bumpy road - watch out... 30,000 miles ahead. Saturn. Look out for Martians. Space!” The idea of origins has simply always been intriguing to me.
Largely self-educated, my formal schooling consists of a high school diploma, an associate's degree and a production certificate in web development. I’m a mid-thirties honky (that’s slang for WASP), and engaged to the mother of my child. I've lived in a few different states in this great U.S. of A., and upon last count, I've worked approximately fifty-five different jobs since I entered the work force at age 16. I’m no atheist, and the main focus of this blog is to explain why.
It’s not because I think atheists can’t be moral, or because I think that atheists can’t lead happy, fulfilled lives. It’s not because I think atheists secretly believe in God and are just lying to themselves, or because I think atheists are just mad at God. It’s not because I think atheism is un-American, or because I’m some anti-science evolution-denier. It’s not because I was raised religious, or because I think all atheists are liberal commies. These are all reasons I’ve actually heard people offer for their rejection of atheism, and they’re all what I would consider wrong reasons to reject atheism.
If I reject atheism, what do I believe? And why am I often reluctant to categorize my beliefs?
Let's address the second question first. I'm often reluctant to categorize my beliefs because there are logical reasons for refusing to paint oneself into mental categories that unique individuals tend to interpret uniquely. Bertrand Russell touched on this in his essay Why I Am Not A Christian, specifically the ambiguous and often conflicting definitions of the word Christian, which often means something entirely different from one person to the next.
Consider your typical low-level discussion about (a)theism online: Believer A shows up on atheist website B and leaves some comment C that falls somewhere between Cro-magnon man and Stephen Hawking on the intelligence scale. Atheist commenters D - Z then proceed to accost A anywhere from Bill Cosby to Sam Kinison on the respect scale, each according to their own ideas of what A’s belief system logically entails. The problem is, say we have at minimum an atheist who’s been sexually abused by a priest, an atheist who was once a passionate believer, and a 16-year-old atheist who argues like he’s reading The God Delusion for his first time while taking bong rips and watching South Park.
Each of these three atheists are almost certain to have differing interpretations of what A believes, not to mention differing motivations for engaging A in the first place. What if A happens to be of any particular belief system that atheist commenters D - Z absolutely cannot stand, and never fail to denigrate via sneering insults and ad hominem arguments?
I recognize that justifying my lack of full-disclosure in online debate doesn’t exactly help the reader understand my belief system, so exactly what do I believe?
The inescapable conclusion for every thinking person becomes that whether the intervention is stellar or divine, the end of the world is an impending reality, and our existence here is transitory.
Well, first and foremost, I believe that no religion is higher than Truth, and I support free inquiry of religion, philosophy, science and the arts to better comprehend the human condition, and these are essentially the guiding principles of Theosophy. Agnosticism also has its place in my belief system, as I believe there is an important difference between belief and knowledge, and regardless of what we believe, we cannot know until we taste. I believe there is a most-high God, so in that sense you might consider me a Monotheist. I also believe in the existence of an entire pantheon of lesser spiritual entities, so in that sense you might consider me a Polytheist. I agree with the Deists that God’s divine qualities are deducible from the natural world, but I disagree that the divine qualities have never been revealed by prophets. I believe that humans would generally do well to eliminate tanha and I believe in the wisdom of the Holy Eightfold Path; some will recognize these as foundational tenets of Buddhism. I believe in an afterlife, and I believe that consciousness can exist without a material body, and these beliefs are not exclusive to any one religion. I believe that what the Bible describes as sin is real, and I believe that sinners cannot dwell in God’s presence without the problem being accounted for. I believe Jesus died for the sins of the world and is Risen; these are obviously recognizable as foundational tenets of Christianity.
These are just my baseline beliefs as they rolled off my tongue at this moment. In reality, they’re under constant evaluation and evolving in both clarity and understanding over time, and we haven’t even begun to discuss the nuances or more general beliefs on things like politics and social issues. So what label should I use to describe myself? Hopefully by now the reader can empathize with my apprehensiveness in categorizing my beliefs.
Though I believe I’ve drawn my conclusions from deep thought and earnest study in a wide variety of topics, along with a wide range of observations and personal experiences, I don’t expect everyone to agree with me, and I’m okay with that. My goal is not for the reader to dogmatically conform, but to provide a platform for further exploration, and more importantly, to test my own ideas in the marketplace of plausibility. As such, I encourage the reader to investigate and cross-examine each and every claim discussed in this blog, and to speak up if something seems amiss.
Since there is no surer path to mania than arguing (a)theism, you might find lighter posts about art, pop culture, photography and skateboarding to be a welcomed relief. Psychologists attest to the fact that a mind prone to anger when confronted with information threatening to existing world views is likely a mind full of fear, so should you find yourself getting angry or offended at any point in reading, it is possible there may be some insecurity in your belief system. Root it out with knowledge. Please don’t dismiss anything this author says just because it appears to conflict with your preconceptions. Condemnation without investigation is a bar to all knowledge. Though we may believe in certain foundational truths we must never close our minds to the possibility that we may be wrong. Often a different perspective yields a different perception, or as the great Sherlock Holmes put it,
[C]ircumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing... It may seem to point very straight to one thing, but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something entirely different… There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.
-Arthur Conan Doyle
These articles are indebted to an ever-growing host of brilliant scientists, researchers, philosophers, theologians and writers, all of whom have paved the roads we travel. I apologize ahead of time for the unavoidable wordiness inherent is scientific, religious and/or philosophical discussion. It’s a tough task to present semi-technical ideas in plain language, but don’t be intimidated by ten-dollar words or scientific jargon included mainly for scholars; all one needs is enough understanding to get the general ideas and concepts those big words attempt to convey, and in most cases I include everyday analogies to help. If you feel like you need to, grab the dictionary; I do.
Before commencing this journey it would be wise to define one’s basic philosophical, scientific and/or religious beliefs while simultaneously comprehending their opposing counterparts. If you haven’t before, take a mental inventory of your basic beliefs as they are right now – about God, about the afterlife, about the theory of evolution in general, etc.
Fare well my friend, indeed the stakes are high.
