MAXIM-For me, it's irritating to simply be labeled an "atheist" because there is so much more that I believe in and defend, and it has absolutely nothing to do with whether God exists or not. What I stand for is naturalism, rationalism, and secular humanism. I do what's best for myself with respect to the lives and feelings of the LIVING BEINGS around me. No God needed for this. I do good things because it's best for everyone, not because I'm scared of burning in Hell. I question everything. I live by Confucius' silver rule, "don't do anything to others that you wouldn't want done to yourself." In some respect, you could say that I am an "atheist for Jesus." However, religion complicates these values, therefore I think that if the Bible really IS the infallible word of God, then our God is sadistic, mysogynistic, homophobic, and malevolent. One that created His children with the illusion of free will. If we truly had total free will, then God would accept our choice if we chose to live without His company. Just like I would never disown or torture my daughter for rebelling against my wishes, why would a "perfect" Creator Father be any different? Instead, we are threatened with eternal damnation for simply "choosing." What kind of free will is this? It's not.
In one of my previous posts I said that it's infinitely more complex for me to believe that an omnipotent God just "always existed" rather than to believe that our universe came by a simple, natural way (Occam's Razor.) Just as human beings arose through simplistic, natural processes, I believe the universe did as well. This leads into the science versus faith debate and my views about it. No, science does not YET have the answers for abiogenesis or the origins of the universe, but should we just give up and say "I don't know, therefore it must be God?" Faith teaches us to be lazy while science teaches us that hard-work, perseverance, and research breaks down knowledge barriers, and one day we actually might have all of the answers. Science says, "I'm not sure, but I'll try to find out." Religion says, "I'm sure, no need to worry about it." If it were up to religion, would medicine even exist? Would hospitals even exist? The answer is NO because it took scientists that actually weren't satisfied with the Bible's bronze-age explanation for life to develop these cures for our illnesses and diseases. If scientists were content with "God's purpose for our lives," then we would not even care to intervene to change our future. We would accept the fact that 1 out of every 4,000 males are born with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a genetic DNA mutation. (Yet, the "signature of God" or "DNA" is supposed to impress me like it has Creationists?) Using faith, we would say, "okay, well, Duchenne, just like smallpox, must be in God's plan, just "believe" and be patient. Pray, and it will work itself out." It would say, "sorry parents, get over it. God wanted Duchenne here on Earth so it's here to stay. It must be useful for us somehow." Thankfully, we have people that won't accept this. For the same reasons believers are atheists toward other Gods, I'm an atheist toward theirs. I bet they think other religions are pretty outlandish, ridiculous, and far-fetched? Well, that's what I believe about the virgin birth, a talking snake, a 6,000 year old Earth, a person living in a fish for three days, and a resurrection.
As human beings, if we really think about it, no matter what we do is in self-interest. For instance, I don't get paid for this blog, but it makes me feel better by expressing my feelings toward an important aspect of my life. It gives me purpose to inform people about the other side of the argument instead of just spreading false propaganda such as "evolution is only a theory" or "if humans came from monkeys, then why are there still monkeys?" These are falsities that are spread simply from scientific ignorance or outright denial of the evidence. (Later on, I will do a post about Darwinian evolution because it's the premise for my views about life.) Anyways, back to the point, if you give to the poor, you receive good feelings in return. If you convert someone to Christianity, you are rewarded with the emotions of satisfaction because you think you're making God happy and improving your status with Him. If you die by sacrificing yourself for the good of another person, you believe you'll be in heaven afterwards (otherwise, I think you would be clinically insane for sacrificing your one chance at living.) What I'm saying is that there is NOTHING that you do that is NOT motivated by INCENTIVE. Economists fully understand this. Adam Smith, the father of modern economics understood this as well, but WE have to understand this concept to understand the roots of religion and the meaning behind our behavior. Of course humans are lonely. Of course we want meaning. Of course we think we're superior to the other animals of the world, but the problem is that we CAN'T GET OVER OURSELVES. Given a few more million years, chimpanzees may be just as "intelligent" as we are, but the important issue here is survival. 99.9% of the species that have ever lived on Earth are extinct. Homo sapiens are relatively young (in terms of the universe's age) at 200,000 years old, so we need to flourish with the time we have to make the most of it, and potentially, we can stave off the statistical probability that we will eventually become extinct. My central point is this: science gets us closer to that reality than religion does. We are building churches instead of laboratories. We are praying instead of learning. We should be funding scienctific research instead of buying preachers a new Mercedes. The consequences of this are important. It gets the only life we are absolutely sure of NOWHERE. It inhibits our progression. The truth is, you DON'T KNOW if Heaven exists, and we DO KNOW that suffering exists. Let's fix it!
Anyways, to wrap things up, if you're betting on Pascal's wager that you have nothing to lose by "wagering" on God, I think you may be under the false assumption that it's a 50/50 bet. There are thousands of options for the Creator of the universe, and of course everyone thinks they chose correctly. I believe that IF God exists, this Creator would have much more respect and regard for a person that didn't buy into exaggerated fairy tales that promote blind faith. My idea of a perfect God would say, "faith is for lazy people, evidence is for the wise."
3 comments:
Ok "Ragzy" Mr. Ragland....Jason....Family....Faith is for lazy people, huh? WOW! I am honored to have been allowed to try and convey my thoughts on your blog. I just wanna say that I LOVE you! I really do! I loved your dad! What is love to you? I know what it means to me. Let me try to explain it, in terms that you can understand.
Love is when your cousin, who is much older than you, who is the most talented person you know, in many different areas, comes to you and asks for help, because he can't quit drinking. He wants to SO BAD, because he loved his son so much it hurt! He knows it's gonna kill him, but he can't, no matter how hard he tries! He begs for help!! What do you do?? What would science tell you to do? I think something might compel you to do something..ANYTHING! Right? Although, you're no expert on the subject, and you have absolutely no clue of what to do. You've heard all about AA, and how they do things. You think to yourself, "Why can't he just quit?" He KNOWS it's gonna kill him.........The "Scientists" told him so! He told me that the Dr. told him if he drank again, he was gonna DIE.....PERIOD!
What do you do when there is absolutely NOTHING you could have done?? Do you run? I did. It's all I knew to do.
I don't know if you really grasp how close your dad and I were. I had more respect for him than any other person I've ever known, except for maybe my dad. I loved him so much. I talked to him, not only about music, at GREAT length, but also about drinking, working on cars, computers, sports, You name it. Charles was my homie!! I miss him dearly.
Should I have stayed out there, in Lone Grove and made a home for myself and my young family? While KNOWING that one of my best friends was gonna kill himself, and there was NOTHING I could do about it. Do you know I feel partially responsible for your father's death? I asked myself over and over again if there was more I could've done.
Now I have to have FAITH that I did the right thing! Even though I still really don't know for sure. I pray everyday, that he didn't die, laying there bleeding out, in my old bedroom, somehow blaming me for running out!
That's what faith is! Faith is heartbreaking sometimes. But when you live with it, you learn to know it. When you know it, THEN, and only then, can you know what it is. Then you learn to embrace it, and use it as one of your strengths.
I'm so proud of you! You were always wise for your age. Your thought process doesn't surprise me one bit. I always knew you were gonna be somebody special. Your young family is beautiful!!! I just want you to keep this in mind: I'm honored that you are my cousin. I love and miss you dearly too! And to finish off, just take this final thought on this journey you are on......Love is an act of FAITH!! Science can never explain that!!
I see where you're coming from, and I love you too man! I was a little harsh in the latest post. I'll concede that much, but what I am speaking of is the fact that science, one day, with enough hard-work, can CURE addiction. I am saying that if we set back and are content with faith that things will turn out right, a disease like addiction will NEVER be cured. That's the "laziness" I'm speaking of. The faith I'm describing is the "I'm going to Heaven so the rest will sort itself out and God will take care of it" kind of faith.
Yes, in a different meaning, faith in ourselves is positive, it's inspiring, it's special, but I used faith in this post with a negative connotation.
I know of many, many people who won't even pick up a science book because they think it's "of the Devil." A person once even said to me, "don't let college turn you into an atheist." I mean, could it be that a college education turns some into atheists because of the simple fact that it educates them to think for themselves? Or is it more likely that Satan is conspiring through science to turn us from God?
That's why I started this blog. To let people see a real example of someone that said, "how can I look in the mirror and say I'm going to live forever?" I started to figure out why human's have created religion, and it's because we WANT TO LIVE FOREVER so it was virtually impossible that we WOULDN'T invent it at some point.
I believe we are at a time like no other in history, and we should harness our brain's capability, not limit it by settling for hope.
Prayer says, "I can't do anything about this so I better pray." My Dad prayed. He BELIEVED with all of his heart that he would be healed. And you know the rest... If science can offer real, tangible results for making our lives better, then why would we choose prayer over science? You know as well as I do that prayer is not, contrary to what Jesus said, a sure thing, and if God only answers "in His will," then prayer is useless because His will be done no matter what. Otherwise, we would be changing His mind. I just cannot accept this. My beliefs don't console me, but they also do not change the truth that we are "evolved."
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