Posts Tagged ‘atheism’
Around and Around We Go Again…
October 5, 2011 | 
Author It amazes me sometimes, how often I may get the same old arguments, or ideas of what I believe or do not believe.
Far too often, I try to explain that I do not believe in gods, yet I am met with messages like these;
From @POCOYOSMILE on Twitter, “@Tylzen oh srry .its calld bein an atheist .the disbelief in any deity .you dont BELIEVE there is a god”
There are two popular definitions of atheism out there;
- The belief that there is no god
- The lack of belief that there is a god
You might say there is no difference between them, but the difference is subtle, but yet important to remember.
I fall into the the latter category, of a lack of belief, I do not actively have to not to believe in a god, I just do not believe.
It might be hard for a believer to understand this, if they cannot recall or have ever not believed in a god, but there are many things that they do not believe in. Do they have to make an active effort every day or now and then, to not believe in those things?
One label such as atheism says little of who I am, and what I believe in, because I do believe in certain ideals, which have no supernatural origin or controlled by an entity.
@POCOYOSMILE made another mistake, in his message towards me, he capitalized the word BELIEVE, where he should have done that with “DON’T”, which hopefully would make him see, that I do not believe.
Whenever a believer ask me, if I believe in a god, my typical answer would be, “I do not know if there are any gods, but I do not believe there are any gods.”
If you want to use a quick label, you could call me an agnostic atheist, the problem with this label is that many do not know what it means exactly. The misrepresentation of atheists and agnostics alike, by believers, make it hard to use quick labels, so I prefer to explain in greater details.
Agnosticism and Atheism are NOT mutual exclusive, you can be both, agnosticism is not a magical middle ground, it is different part of your belief, that represents your knowledge, or perceived knowledge in the matter of the existences of gods.
To finally cement the argument against @POCOYOSMILE is if you called believing in gods, is a hobby, then not believing would be equal to not having a hobby.
So what @POCOYOSMILE says is that by not having a hobby, you have a hobby. Which is absurd at best.
Just like asymmetry is not a kind of symmetry, it is a lack of symmetry.
To end my post, I want to ask a question, why is it, that so many believers are so set at equating atheism as a belief?
I think personally that they want to have atheism on equal footing as their own belief, so they can dismiss it, by saying, that atheism is just another belief that some have chosen, and holds as much merit as their own belief.
Or
Can they not imagine that someone actually do not believe?
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Religious charities rejects donations.
From time to time I hear from theists that atheists tends to donate less than theists. Studies supports this, but I think there may be an underlying issue other than their lack of belief in gods.
It is not unheard of that religious charities, such as the Salvation Army rejects donations if they think they go against their religious belief. With one particular case with the Salvation Army, they rejected toys of Harry Potter and Twillight, because it promoted the occult and witchcraft.
They also reject money donations from groups that they didn’t like or if the money was attained in such a manner that they did not like. Such as money won in legal gambling or lottery. Also money from musicians or likewise that does not share their religious belief.
I have focused a lot on the Salvation Army, but I would speculate that a non-believer would feel uneasy to donate money to charities that are religious, which the majority of charities are.
So what we need is more focus on secular, and open charities, to make sure we know what the money is spent on.
Catch them with Love…
… spread the message of love and understanding. Share it with the people, in addition you get a life philosophy, community, and structure. How can you not like this package deal?
Many do not have a choice if they want to be a part of this community.
They are simply born into it, it is a part of their upbringing, their culture.
Those who made the choice was their parents, grandparents, or even further back.
It might also have been themselves, but they found out that they were misguided, and wanted leave.
Can they leave? Yes, most of the cases they may leave on the free will, in more extreme situations it is more fleeing than leaving.
But at what cost?
People who leave their faiths, do lose a lot and the reasons why it such a hard thing to do for many.
It is their whole life that is being torn up by its roots, all of its structures, the identity of themselves.
To add injury to insult, the religions tends to have a stick to go with the carrot.
The stick of eternal damnation, and sometimes eternal suffering.
You may say, “What is the big deal? If they do not believe this, why should this bother them?”
As we know, we humans can develop irrational fears, fears that we are fully aware of being irrational and sometimes “silly”. We call these irrational fears, phobias.
Someone who is brought up in a religion can develop a phobia of the stick, a irrational fear, that still is there, even though they stopped believing in its validity and reality.
Psychology today are working on models of that have many similarities will Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). They will have nightmares about a hell, or eternal damnation.
They may also get stressed by the fact they feel that they do not know how to identity themselves anymore, as their religion used to be the ready package of identity.
Believers are aware of this, so they will rather cling to was they have left of their faith, instead of risking that they will end in a state of despair.
So they catch them with love, but keep them with fear.
