Imagine you’re at a family gathering such as Thanksgiving, people you love and have known your whole life surround you; and someone asks everyone to hold hands and bow their heads while we praise and give thanks to Zeus and the many deities that have provided the food we are about to consume. Sounds ridiculous, right? That is how I feel every time I’m asked to praise “Jesus” or “God” with family, sometimes friends and business associates at community or company dinners. If you refuse or say I don’t believe or I’m not religious, you are looked upon as if there is something wrong with you or worse, “evil.” I am not going to say being an atheist, agnostic, or antitheist is the same as being a victim of racism or being hated for being homosexual, but I believe it can have the same negative effects.
I grew up like most Midwestern kids riding bikes, playing Army and dreading being dragged to church on Sunday morning. I remember some of my early religious upbringing as a Roman Catholic. I was an altar boy and helped the priest before, during, and after mass. It seems bad that one would need to qualify “I was an altar boy” but I find myself doing so whenever it’s mentioned- “I was not molested.” I don’t remember anything of the priest other than thinking he seemed like a nice man. I attended a Catholic kindergarten then went to public schools afterward out of convenience for my mother; the school was in the next town. I only attended that church until about 4th or 5th grade when my family converted to a Protestant church. I remember not questioning anything about the existence of God but a lot of the rules didn’t make sense to me. It reminds me of a quote by Vladimir Lenin, “Give me a child for the first 5 years of his life and he will be mine forever.” I remember asking my mother why God cared what music I listened to, it seemed ridiculous to me at a young age. The change to another church didn’t make a lot of sense either, we moved to the next largest town nearby and rather than going to another Catholic church my mother began taking us to a “Christian” church. I still don’t know why she decided to switch. We changed churches a couple of times before I turned eighteen and left for the Army. It seemed we always changed and followed my grandfather when he decided to go somewhere different. I don’t know why he switched either it may have been problems with the people in the congregation, the preacher, our their interpretation didn’t match his.
I have come to the conclusion that I am an antitheist, which by the definition I choose, means opposed to religion. I don’t like to use atheist because it has an ambiguous meaning. I don’t have faith that there isn’t a god, because there can be no proof that a god doesn’t exist. There is no proof a unicorn doesn’t exist or a flying pig for that matter but I see the existence of god just as likely. I don’t deny the possibility that there is a god; I just have seen absolutely nothing to convince me that there is. This was a process that I went through alone as all my family still consider themselves Christians. It was difficult to come to terms with having been raised to believe in all this mysticism and superstition and the fear mongering the church uses to scare people into believing. I saw a billboard about a month ago that said “Avoid Hell, Repent Today.” That is an aspect that really got me going down the path of non-belief. If God were great and all loving and real for that matter, why then would leaders of churches try to scare people into attending? One of the most disturbing encounters I had with religion was after the passing of my great-grandmother. She lived a long life, I was about seventeen when she died and she was one of the kindest persons I knew. I vividly remember our preacher at the time speaking with my mother in my great-grandmother’s home, my mother was concerned about her not being baptized when she died. The preacher who was a literalist as far as the word of the bible told her plainly she would go to hell and apologized. That was about the time I began to question my faith, and of course I was told the recycled tripe they use on everyone, it’s natural it will make your faith stronger, it didn’t.
This leads me to a ridiculous argument from fear I’ve heard from some I’ve questioned belief with, Pascal’s wager. Many may not know that’s what it’s called when they use it, it’s usually jokingly said as “If I’m wrong no big deal, if you’re wrong you go to hell.” More fear. I have not heard one argument for the existence of god that has sold me; most either ignore alternatives or use circular logic by referring to the bible. Another thing I noticed was that many of the people that I knew shared my opposition were scientists, known for requiring evidence, being skeptical and being intelligent. In reviewing some of these arguments I decided I would believe in science, their explanations made more sense and they actually prove things, at least science celebrates intelligence and reasoning. This reminds me of a few quotes of famous theologian Martin Luther; “Reason is the greatest enemy that faith has; it never comes to the aid of spiritual things, but more frequently than not struggles against the divine Word, treating with contempt all that emanates from God.” Another: “Reason is the Devil's greatest whore; by nature and manner of being she is a noxious whore; she is a prostitute, the Devil's appointed whore; whore eaten by scab and leprosy who ought to be trodden under foot and destroyed, she and her wisdom ... Throw dung in her face to make her ugly. She is and she ought to be drowned in baptism... She would deserve, the wretch, to be banished to the filthiest place in the house, to the closets.” Why would members of the church hate reason? Isn’t it something god gave us to adapt and flourish? No, they mock reason and tell their congregation that reason is the devil’s whore? Doesn’t make sense to me. To tie Luther into my position of religion being bad for humanity, his quotes were embraced by the Nazis and used as ammunition for the hatred of the Jews. Among the questions of my faith were: “Why does the bible contradict itself?” “ Why is there such a difference between old testament and new testament god?” “ Why do people believe that others spoke with God 2000 years ago but call those insane that claim such today?” “Why does a loving god tell people to do terrible hateful things to others?” Of course my questions were of my Christian doctrine I was taught. After that I began questioning more generally and researching other religions, I wondered with so many religions why is everyone so sure theirs’ is the right one? And I studied the history of religion and read of the depravity done in the name of god. I came to the conclusion that it is all indoctrination that is dependent upon what culture and time one grew up. Sure, there are Muslims and Jews in the U.S. and Christians in the Middle East, but the majority of “people of faith” are the same faith as their parents, and their culture.
How many of the Christians in the U.S. would be Christians if they were raised in a Muslim or any other religious culture? I would say not many. But these same people act as if they know some truth that no one else does. I believe that religion is the worst thing to happen to humanity. It sounds harsh to some, who would quickly tout the charitable efforts of religion and their followers. I retort that people who are charitable would be the same without religion, if you want to do charity you do so out of empathy, if you want to do harm you can find a religious text or interpretation to support it. In fact I don’t believe charity attributed to religious belief deserves merit. Why should one receive praise for charity if done out of hope for reward from a god or fear of a god? Isn’t this an egotist rather than a generous person? I think one deserves more praise for charity without doing it in god’s name and looking for no recognition at all.
I believe that history and current times supports my theory that religion is bad for humanity. A few examples of war and murder in religion’s name: the Crusades, the Inquisition, the slaughter of Native Americans and the concept of “Manifest Destiny”, the conflict between the pro-Christian, pro-Jewish U.S. and the Muslim Middle East, Iraq and the conflict of the different sects of their religion. What do they all have in common? Murder for God. Some may argue that “evil” people misuse religion and it’s really about peace and love. I would ask those people if they’ve ever read the Bible or Koran or their book of choice. Many haven’t and are ignorant of verses in which God tells Moses to kill the women that have slept with a man and keep the virgins for yourselves, among others. If one wants to be ethical, one does not need indoctrination. If one asks oneself honestly and objectively how the world would be different without religion I would think they would come to the conclusion of much less conflict. While some claim that people of different faiths can live together peacefully, I would say that all evidence points to the opposite. The texts of the two largest religions, Christianity and Islam, are all about spreading god’s word. Of course some people can interpret that peacefully while others interpret it as convert or die. The interpretation is subjective, what one wants to believe is what they believe.
My last point against religion for this paper is not about death but freedom. In many countries people have no choice to express their beliefs if they differ from the government’s or their culture. Some live under brutal Sharia law, others such as in Indiana can’t buy a beer on Sunday because of others’ superstition. The U.S. holds a principle against government establishment of religion but to the objective viewer or anyone without faith or of any faith besides Christianity will tell you, it doesn’t seem to be the case. Many like to falsely claim that Christians founded our government; to the contrary, many of our founding fathers were deists or despised Christianity. Our founders fled a theocratic government in England. The reason I believe freedom and religion cannot coexist is that to the believer, their “god’s law” trumps everything else. Which leads to religion poisoning freedom, if the government allows something that doesn’t fit god’s law they revolt and protest, some even commit violence. I defy anyone to argue that a self-proclaimed Atheist has a chance to be elected in the U.S. no matter how sound and reasonable his or her positions are, even if they’re the most qualified. George H.W. Bush said "I don't know that Atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God." Doesn't sound like the president at the time believed in freedom of or from religion. If there shall be no qualification of religion required to hold a public office, why is it that everyone has to tout his or her beliefs in the man in the sky? We have untaxed churches playing in politics, telling parishioners who to vote for and lobbying politicians. I say pay the toll or shut up. We non-believers have our freedoms infringed upon by silly laws that carry no reason other than that of the bible, such as “Blue Laws.” People rail against abortion and bomb clinics in the name of god with their definition of life coming from an ancient book that predates modern science.
I don’t have time to develop all my points thoroughly, but another problem with religious infringements is in the scientific community. I’m not just talking about Copernicus, and the church of old condemning science, it’s still happening today. It’s 2007 and we still have people that don’t want evolution taught in schools, opting for creationism or “intelligent” design. We have a constituency of sheep blindly believing the bible in the face of scientific fact. Stem cells are another example of fundamentalists preventing scientific progress. It makes me wonder, if Descartes didn’t sell the Catholic Church on science with god, where mankind would be if the churches were allowed to censor science for longer. It also upsets me where mankind could be without religions suppressing reason and science.
I am happy with the decision I came to, to let my family know I don’t believe was difficult but I’m not faking it anymore. I think I understand why many want to believe. I think people want to believe there is something supernatural, that good deeds are rewarded and bad are punished. Also I think people want to believe in seeing their loved ones again and living through eternity with them. I know my belief that nothing mystical happens when you die sounds disappointing, but I contend that we should make the best out of this life and world and make utopia here, as this is all that’s guaranteed. My family still tries occasionally to get me to come back to Christianity, but it won’t work. I appreciate where they are coming from because they believe it is in my best interests. But I am confident I have given more thought, reasoning, and research as to why I reject religion than most have for believing.
