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Discussion and comments are fine here. They are moderated, only to the extent of requiring checking for unsuitable and defamatory material. However, comments that add nothing to the debate or just contain preaching or reciting of religious passages will be discarded and ignored.

To clarify why this is my policy - I believe the role of this website is to educate and entertain. The site presents an atheist’s convictions that are obviously firmly-held and so preaching or religious ranting only serves to further strengthen my position. If however, you have an insightful, rational argument to offer - please do so, it will be given my full attention.

If the policy appears to be targeted soley at religious believers who comment here, it applies equally to atheist readers as well. I see no problem with pointing out faulty logic or reasoning of anyone, but comments containing ‘baiting’ or personal attacks will also be discarded.

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My choosing of education for the blog category education was because I want to do my part in informing people who may be unsure about faith or are a part of a religion but are having doubts, that atheism is a completely sane and normal viewpoint.

Firstly, the majority of atheists are honest. Honest in their arguments, in their debates and in their viewpoints. As we are mostly well educated, well read people we know that honesty is the cornerstone of society.

In comparison, religious believers are quite capable of using false information to reinforce their case - they do this openly and without guilt it seems. They lie or pick and choose snippets from the bible while ignoring others that don’t support their case. Why? Because they believe - and are often quite open about - that the end justifies the means. They are so convinced of the rightness of what they believe that engaging in an honest debate is beneath them.

If you are a member of a religion and have been in the situation (and I wouldn’t doubt that you have) of discovering a mentor or senior church member has misinformed you about something - I’d say this to you, “If they lied then, why should you believe anything they say now?”. I’d also say to you “Why do you think they need to lie? If they are so sure about their faith then why use lies and misinformation to bolster their teachings?”

The great thing about being an atheist is that we are actually set free from the nagging doubts, guilt and fears that those with a religious faith have. We don’t have to fret that we haven’t been to church enough or given enough money or prayed enough to be doubtful of getting into heaven as we don’t believe in a heaven (or a hell). We are free to make the most of every second of every day that we are alive because we know that when we die we will simply be in the same state we were before we were born - not in existence.

That doesn’t concern me at all - I don’t look forward to my demise more than anyone does - but I try and stay healthy, try to do right by others and be honest. That’s all there is to it - no beliefs, no superstitious nonsense, no guilt.

I’ve been called before on my position by fervent believers who say things like ‘oh but you HAVE to believe in something, there’s no point to life otherwise’. Sorry? Why does believing in what is honestly, the most implausible, silly story ever told - give life more meaning?

I’ve come to the realisation that these people aren’t actually trying to convince me to believe at all.

They are trying to convince themselves…

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However, I don’t devote my life to telling people about my irrational fears. I don’t dwell on this and other things in my psyche that detract from the other vastly more important things that my life means.

My view is that many humans cling to a belief in an afterlife for one reason - the fear of losing one’s life. Note that I didn’t say ‘dying’. The phrase ‘he/she LOST their LIFE’ is far more profound than dying. I don’t believe the actual dying process scares us nearly as much as the thought that after our life ’spark’ goes out we will never be ‘alive’ again.

Coming to terms with this very uncomfortable thought is not easy - each of us has to find a point of view about it that in some way comforts us. But, many, many people cannot do this. It certainly may not be the sole reason that people find solace in a religious belief, but it’s one of them.

I spent a morning looking into the Hillsong church here in Australia. As a kiwi, I was very familiar with the AOG (assembly of god) mega-churches there, but I didn’t realise Hillsong was from the same ’stable’. I couldn’t resist adding a few comments of my own to the hundreds of ‘jesus is my lord - bless me oh lord above - I am a lamb’ stuff that the faithful were posting.

I got some quite good replies from a younger chap who seemed interested in my viewpoint, but who in reality was engaging me in conversation so he could try to ‘turn me around’. I also got many more replies from people, mostly who had troubal speling (isn’t it odd how so many fundamentalist christian’s have this problem?) ranting and preaching such nonsense that even a theologian would have a problem understanding. Why do they post in CAPITALS. Do they believe that will make me sit up and take more notice?

Anyway, to get back to my point.

To say that I honestly believe many of them to be mentally ‘challenged’ (to put it politely) is an understatement.

I guess it’s not surprising that the believers should feel upset or angry whenever their fondly-held beliefs are rubbished, but I would have thought that if they were indeed, so fervent in their beliefs that a negative comment would be ‘water off a duck’s back’ as they say. I mean, I didn’t get in the slightest bit bothered or upset with their replies about my lack of belief, I just accepted that they had a viewpoint 180 degrees opposed to mine and just left it at that.

I actually think that the reality for many is this - in the back of their minds there is a nagging doubt as to whether they have got it right.

A tiny fear that they have been conned.

A bigger fear that their death is final.

It would explain the rabid angry responses for sure…

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This world, this universe and this life are enough for me. I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that this is the only life we have. Sure, humans are capable of malicious, cruel behaviour - but with our evolutionary background, is it surprising? Of course not. We are however, able to transcend the mundane by participating and enjoying the arts, writing and music like this. The soaring guitar of Dave Gilmour and the beautiful chords from Richard Wright just take you somewhere else - you don’t even need to see the laser light shows, but they sure add to the majesty.

Amazingly, there are already dozens of tributes to him already on YouTube - this is one of the better ones.

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Our society is a ‘DEWS’ society. Sorry, it’s best acronym I could come up with at short notice!
D = Democracy (self-explanatory really)
E = English (which only conveys the language used by the majority of society members)
W = Western (as distinct from Eastern. Not a geographical term, more more of a philosophical one)
S = Secular (again, self-explanatory)

What do you think?

“Why should I care what the society is called?” I hear you ask.
I’ll tell you - because like the USA there are religious groups / cults / churches in this country that want very much to emulate the Americans. To add something like ‘In god we Trust’ to our aussie currency and similar insanities so that they can steer us all down the same perilous path that the yanks are heading down.

Honestly, the time for complacency and tolerance of religious mania is well and truly over. Many Americans are beginning to realise that their country is becoming the laughing stock of the rest of the other western civilisations. We all know that politicians (usually republicans) are fond of proclaiming the USA as ‘one country under god’ or that ‘god prefers America’ or some other such inane drivel because they have to tell the majority of voters what they want to hear. In reality I believe the majority of US senators (well maybe excluding George W) are educated, intelligent men and women who just ‘play the game’ and spout this nonsense but are just paying lip-service to the extremist elements of their constituencies. But the danger in this is that it becomes ingrained into society and it will be bloody hard to extricate.

I was listening to the ABC local radio yesterday and caught the end of a caller who was proclaiming that ‘god told me he didn’t cure my mouth abscess because he wanted to rid me of the poison in me’ or some such nonsense. I don’t know what the beginning part of the conversation was about (and don’t really care) but I was amazed by the complete non-reaction to the statement by the ABC program host. Sure, silence really spoke volumes - but I believe that the time for tolerance of this kind of childish crap during interviews and similar stuff that is made public is over. The host needn’t come out with what we were all thinking, ie: ‘oh come on, you really are a w**ker aren’t you?’, but could have said something along the lines of ‘well, I don’t personally believe that your god told you anything and I’d thank you not to bring that kind of stuff here’ (or words to that effect!)

Too harsh? No, I don’t think so.

Some people believe that our morals and our altruistic behaviour is attributable to the ‘word of god’ or scripture but they are wrong. Like most mammals, humans are by their nature altruistic. Not only does this behaviour reap benefits for the family groups and society they inhabit but because we all (well most, the appalling ‘I don’t want to get involved’ type of behaviour that some members of the species exhibit can be explained but that’s the subject of another posting) but it is also ‘hard-wired’ into our brains. It makes us feel good to do something to help others.

If you were to ask the countless selfless people who have sustained terrible injury while protecting or saving a complete stranger whether they would do it again if they knew the consequences of their actions - most (if not all) would likely say that they would do it again in a heartbeat. These people didn’t need to be told this kind of behaviour from an ancient fairy story, they instinctively knew it was the right thing to do.

So, in closing this - longer than expected - posting, let me say this: I take exception to being told or described as living in a ‘christian society’. Again, I don’t and we don’t and in reality there is no such thing, anymore than there is a ‘christian child’.

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So - why the hell does less than 6% of the population (well, in Aussie anyways - I know there are countries that are more like 90% so inclined, lack of education causes insanity …) have the right to screw with our major city?

And now, Australia has contributed to the spread of this particularly noxious faith around the world by sucking-in possibly thousands more impressionable kids.

I come back to the same word time and again - education. Religious HISTORY must be made a compulsory subject at our High Schools (including the free loading ‘church schools’. The curriculum would be to provide all the facts about all the world’s religions - past and current - in a completely impartial way.

As Dan Dennet says in his book, Breaking The Spell:
“Let’s get more education about religion into our schools, not less. We should teach our children creeds and customs, prohibitions and rituals, texts and music, and when we cover the history of religion, we should include both the positive—the role of the churches in the civil-rights movement of the 1960s, the flourishing of science and the arts in early Islam, and the role of the Black Muslims in bringing hope, honor, and self-respect to the otherwise shattered lives of many inmates in our prisons, for instance—and the negative—the Inquisition, anti-Semitism over the ages, the role of the Catholic Church in spreading AIDS in Africa through its opposition to condoms. No religion should be favored, and none ignored.”

That’s the only answer, so as we farewell the silly guy in the frock and red shoes let’s all remember that education, real education is what is needed to bring about a kind of world that is finally free of religious dogma, hate and bigotry.

OzAtheist has a great post about WYD too - have a read here.

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