As is my morning habit, I looked over various online news articles while eating breakfast. While checking out Yahoo News, I skimmed the editorials, and found this one: Atheism isn't the final word, from USA Today, by Don Feder.
I realize Don Feder has a well-earned reputation for being a bigoted right-wing mouthpiece, and perhaps I should just ignore him. On the other hand, I do not think it would sit well with me if I did not say something to rebutt Feder's lies about atheism. This is going to be a point-by-point rebuttal, but I'll try to chop out irrelevancies where possible, and hopefully wind up somewhere within the acceptable guidelines for copying and pasting.
Oh, for the days when one could safely stroll into a bookstore without tripping over the latest atheist title. Ironically, by writing their tracts, in the long run atheists might boost belief.
Hrmm. I could just as easily imagine someone saying, "Oh, for the days when one could safely turn the radio knob without hearing any of that nigger music." And, logically, couldn't one just as easily say that "Ironically, by writing their tracts, in the long run christians might boost atheism?"
Why the sudden outpouring of atheist advocacy? Perhaps it's a way for the cultural left to assert itself in the face of the religious right.
Okay, I'm a leftist and an atheist. Guilty as charged. How many of you reading this are also atheists? Not all, not even most, not even half. Not all atheists are liberals, nor are all liberals atheists, nor is there anything bad about being a liberal or an atheist or both at once.
In China, where communism's war on God continues, the home-church movement thrives. Half a world away, America has the highest weekly church attendance in the industrialized world, notwithstanding attacks on faith from Hollywood, academia and a judiciary seemingly intent on purging religious symbols from public spaces.
A rather one-sided view of history. In many ways, we are more touchily reverential of theism today than we ever were in the past. Consider that our founding fathers were by-and-large Deists, and Thomas Jefferson himself put together an edited version of the Bible, with all the silly parts cut out. Likewise, I think most of us understand that the various legal actions taken to prevent religious materials being displayed on government property is intended to protect all religions, rather than enshrine one particular belief system. When that fails, well, you get abortions like this.
In the USA - the most science-oriented society in history - Christian bookstores, radio stations and TV programming proliferate. It seems as though a hunger for the Creator is imprinted on the human heart.
So, am I inhuman, or do I simply lack a heart? Pardon me while I vomit. And has this guy been paying attention to our test scores in science and math?
What would a world without God look like? Well, for one, morality becomes, if not impossible, exceedingly difficult. "Thou shalt not kill" loses much of its force when reduced from commandment to a suggestion. How inspiring can it be to wake in the morning, look in the mirror, and see an accident of evolutionary history - the end product of the random collision of molecules?
Oh yes, atheists are immoral because we don't have a giant sky god waiting to beat our heads in with a stick when we die. In point of fact, there are perfectly good secular reasons for moral behavior, which can be appreciated logically and intellectually. You don't need superstitious fear or traditionalist brainwashing to be a good person, or even to understand what good is compared to evil.
A universe that isn't God-centered becomes ego-centered. People come to see choices through the prism of self: what promotes the individual's well-being and happiness. Such a worldview does not naturally lead to benevolence or self-sacrifice.
This guy's a Republican? I thought enlightened self-interest was all the rage in conservative circles. Again, though, this is just a lie or a smear. There is nothing about atheism that prevents one from appreciating altruism or understanding the benefits of being in a group, rather than trying to survive alone.
An affirmation of God can lead to the Ten Commandments, the Sermon on the Mount and the Declaration of Independence. In terms of morality, a denial of God leads nowhere.
Well, the value of the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount as moral guidance would be worth a diary or two in itself. I will point out, though, that only half of the Ten Commandments have any sort of universal applicability outside Jewish or Christian belief systems, and the Sermon on the Mount seems to advocate a rather frightening amount of bodily mutilation. Let us turn our attention to the Declaration of Independence. Now, it does mention a Creator or Divinity in several areas. However, just as an intellectual exercise, try reading it without the religious bits. Does it, or does it not, maintain the same sense? Is atheism a denial of God, or simply a refusal to inject religion into everything?
True, terrible things have been done in the name of religion. Terrible things have been done in the name of every noble concept, including love, charity, loyalty and kinship. Yet, the worst horrors of the modern era were perpetrated by godless political creeds. The death toll from sectarian conflict over the ages is dwarfed by ideological violence, from the Jacobinism of Revolutionary France to the charnel houses of communism and fascism.
Hold up a second here. I will accept that Soviet-style communism was in many ways a mass-murder machine. I do not accept that those deaths were motivated by atheism, however. There were specific economic and political benefits to Stalinist rule resulting from the Gulag system which had nothing to do with promoting atheism. Also, I want to point out that fascism is far from an atheistic movement. Hitler, for example, made constant appeals to God in his various speeches, and modern neo-nazis frequently point to the Bible and religious passages as evidence of their superiority over the 'mud people'. Finally, what the hell does Jacobinism have to do with atheism?
There is no irrefutable evidence for God's existence or non-existence. But, if you look closely, his footprints can be discerned in the sands of time.
There is no evidence. But here, have some evidence. This is followed by several passages of literary references and condensed history which have very little, if any, relevance to supporting Christianity.
Atheists are free to disbelieve and to try to propagate their disbelief in books and other intellectual forums. But saying the debate is over doesn't make it so. A bit of humility might make their case more convincing. Then again, humility is itself a religious concept.
Ah yes, nothing like bragging about how humble you are.
I can't speak for all atheists. I can only speak for myself. I think atheism is very much a personal decision. There are no atheist churches, with atheist sunday schools to raise young minds in blissful denial of God. I came to atheism raised as a Methodist. I simply realized that I felt no spiritual presence in my mind when I prayed. It was just hollow, meaningless, nothing. What clinched it was when, in my early teens, I had an experience that forced me to confront the idea of death. It scared the bejeezus out of me, but I didn't feel the need to embrace a religion to secure an afterlife. It seems to me that nonexistence is the end of life, and I can accept that. And with that out of the way, there seems no need to embrace any of the other silliness of religious thought.
Feder's a jerk. I can't tell if he's actually read any of those atheist 'tracts' he mentions, or if he's just upset that we exist, and we won't shut up or go away. It's possible that he has read one or two, and been offended. Well, you know, I don't read any of Dobson's books, because I know they would offend me. I happen to consider some Christians to be extremely arrogant, offensive, and downright evil. But I don't condemn the whole faith or every member of it because of a few bad eggs, even though I am skeptical of faith in itself.
Unfortunately, we live in a time where it is socially acceptable to impugn atheists, but forbidden to criticize theism, especially Christianity. But, I look at the blacks, I look at the gays, and the lesson I take home is this: we may never be fully accepted by society. There will always be those filled with hate. But we have to stand up for ourselves if we are to secure any acceptance of our views and right to exist.