  
       
 |
To be an Atheist
This page is really just a response to a friend
of mine who asked of me, "What does it mean to be an atheist?" So for all
who would like to know, I posted it here for you to read and scrutinize. Enjoy.
To be an atheist is not merely a matter of believing that some
alleged God does not exist. To be an atheist is to not believe
anything without substantial, credible, verifiable, impartial,
consistent argument and evidence. The pious will readily believe something
before (and without) undergoing in-depth research, analyses, scrutiny and
evaluation. Whereas, an atheist will first diligently, impartially probe
and question the credibility of a thing, before s/he can claim to believe it.
An atheist will question first and believe last. You cannot simply tell an atheist that there are blond haired mermaids in the sea and expect them to just accept it. You cannot simply tell an atheist that there are leprechauns with pots of gold at the end of rainbows and expect them to just accept it. You cannot simply tell an theist that there are flying purple ponies on mountain tops and expect them to just accept it. You cannot simply tell an atheist that a guy named Santa Claus knows when you're asleep, awake, naughty or nice and expect them to just accept it. You cannot simply tell an atheist that Isis, Osiris, Horus, Ra, Allah, Ahura Mazda, Zeus, Attis, Dionysis, or Vishnu exists and expect them to just accept it. You cannot simply tell an atheist that there is an all-powerful, all-knowing, omni-present, omni-benevolent, celestial dictator who made us tiny people (and the whole of the universe) to praise him and expect them to just accept it. You cannot make such wild claims and expect an atheist to simply follow you across the street, eat from the palm of your hand and believe you. S/he will will definitely have questions for you, before they accept your claim(s). This is one of the reasons why atheist are so vehemently despised: They irritate and upset priests by not simply accepting and obeying. They aggravate congregations by not willfully bowing down and blindly forgoing analytical reasoning and Socratic questioning. What the pious hate (and fear) most of all is the fact that atheists raise logical questions which priests have no consistent, credible answers for. Quite often, priests are left with the decision of having to either admit that they truly don't know a thing (of vital importance to the credibility of their claim(s)) or condemn and vilify the curiously questioning atheist. Ultimately, the one major difference between an atheist and the pious is the fact that the atheist will dismiss the credibility of the existence of all supposed Gods on the basis of insufficient evidence and inconsistent argument. The pious will dismiss the credibility of all but one. So an atheist is s/he who does not make an exception for the God (or Gods) who you may believe to exist. An atheist leaves them all in the same raunchy cesspool. To be an atheist is to be non-herding. To be an atheist is to not be credulous. To be an atheist is to not be mentally locked in a cage, but rather an inquiring eagle parting the clouds with tireless wings. To be an atheist is to question everything.
As an atheist, I am for...
As an atheist, I am against... Deception (to include self deception) Dogma Irrationality Willful Ignorance Being a slave to one's own opinion Contempt and/or damnation of others
merely for being different and believing differently Making a value of and praising one's
refusal to think critically Belief or acceptance of anything on
incredible and insufficient evidence and/or argument As an atheist, my ultimate goal is... ...to educate and encourage the impoverished to value Socratic questioning and reasoning more than superstitious prayer and faith, to help them approach and deal with the real world as it really is, so that they may bring about a real, qualitative, progressive change for themselves, their children and their children's children. This requires dispelling the myths of punishment or reward after one dies. As well as the personally and socially damaging belief that some God has a divine plan that includes their individual gain. Sadly, many impoverished parishioners see this as some material or financial gain in this life if they would just 'have faith.' However, the problem of (and solution to) poverty is not to be found in myths of Gods and devils, or a lack of hard work, for it is well documented that millions of hard working people have remained trapped in poverty despite ever enduring efforts to escape. The perpetual state of poor and struggling classes (the full strata of middle class families who, although they may experience more comfort and leisure, are in reality a couple of paychecks or unexpected medical expenses away from tumbling down the class pyramid) is, however, a necessity of the system under which they live, to no fault of their own. For there must exist a majority whose work power can be exploited to build upon and maintain the power and wealth of a relatively few elitist, for nothing can be produced for the profit of a few (majority stock holders, CEOs, those who own and control the technology and means of production, etc.) without the exploited work of thousands. So although all profit generating goods can only be socially created, the profit is not socially shared. Instead, the vast majority of the workforce, that toils fervently to produce and provide all profit generating goods and services, are compensated with a check that barely allows them to comfortably survive without worry to the following check, unaffordable health care and medicine (at least in the more avaricious U.S.), expensive, seemingly unattainable schooling (for the poor in particular, which is one of the biggest psychological hindrances to even an attempt at enrollment amongst those poor children who truly are capable of succeeding academically ), and a pipedream ( in some cases a nightmare) of attainable prosperity for all men and women.
Meet the author
of the book Truth in Harlem on 125th St., where he
sells his
book at a discounted price.
|
