One Atheist’s Abbreviated World View - 7 Pillars I Try to Live By

An excellent post from the Atheist Revolution archive made its way onto the reddit atheism what’s hot list this past week.

The post is vjack’s endorsement of the secular humanism worldview (which I like to think of as a belief system), coupled with a suggestion that other atheists follow suit.

The goal in this is to communicate to the world that atheists have more - much more - of a world view than just denying the existence of god(s).

I agree. The crux of the matter is that theists, and many people still figuring out the question of God’s existence, have a hard time imagining what atheists might believe in - if anything. In fact, I think many people are afraid of atheists due to the flawed thinking that, without a religion to guide us, we are likely to be or become amoral/immoral people.

So, to vjack and anyone else who might care to know, I too declare myself a Secular Humanist. It is a beautiful, nuanced, almost intuitive world view that is extremely close to how I try to live my life. For an understanding of this world view, I recommend reading the wikipedia entry for secular humanism, as well as the affirmations and declaration on the Council for Secular Humanism website.

I’d also like to share my “abbreviated belief system” - a little graphic I drew up that captures some of the ideas found in secular humanism (with personal language interpretations/variations) that I most closely identify with. I found the process of distilling my world view down to something simple like this to be very rewarding, and I’d love to see your version.

June 29, 2008 · Filed Under Atheism

6 Comments 

10 New Commandments for Fundamentalists, Evangelicals & Creationists

  1. Thou shalt promise heaven for believers at the beginning of arguments, and hell for non-believers at the end of arguments.
  2. Thou shalt put thy fingers in thy ears and repeat “I’m not listening, I’m not listening” when confronted with evidence against your faith.
  3. Thou shall make no attempt to understand scientific or rational explanations of things when they conflict with the word of God.
  4. Thou shalt condemn evils committed by non-believers, and ignore or praise evils committed by believers
  5. Thou shalt explain all of the world’s seemingly needless suffering as “necessary but unknowable due to the mystery of the Lord”.
  6. Thou shalt look forward to, and even encourage, the destruction of the world.
  7. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as long as he attendith thy church.
  8. Thou shalt cherry-pick the Bible to suit thy purpose.
  9. Thou shalt memorize the circular argument that “God exists because the Bible tells us he exists, and the Bible was written by God, therefore it must be true”.
  10. Thou shalt blame all the evils of the world - as found in the Bible and interpreted by you - on homosexuals and atheists.
  11. Bonus Commandment (follow this one and get an eternal supply of salt-water taffy and Nike Air Sandals when you arrive in heaven): Thou shalt take all atheist quotes about God out of context to make it appear the source is/was a believer.

June 26, 2008 · Filed Under Atheism, funnier than hell

1 Comment 

Conservapedia Shifts Focus From Homosexuals To Atheists?

In November, Boing Boing posted a list of the ten most viewed articles on Conservapedia.

At first blush, it looked as though Conservapedia’s fundie, creationist right-wing community was obsessed with homosexuality. While that may be true, it was soon postulated at Infothought and Crooked Timber that there was something fishy about the stats (make sure you read the comments).

Out of curiousity, I checked and found that Atheism is currently Conservapedia’s number one hit (click at left for a larger image of the stats).

Like the homosexuality case, there could be a number of different reasons for this:

  • it might be another bot prank
  • it might be due to the success of Conservapedia’s atheism awareness campaign
  • it might be the atheist community’s obsession with itself

Thoughts?

June 26, 2008 · Filed Under Atheism

6 Comments 

Fuckin’ Christ

Today, I wanted to write something funny, but this came out instead.

Since my de-conversion, I’ve had all kinds of days. I’ve had good days, bad days, great days and terrible days. The ups and downs have tended to see-saw between the joy around “I’m free to think as I want” versus the anger around “I’ve been in the dark for 40 fucking years of my life”.

I can see now why some atheists come across as angry people. It’s because sometimes, we are angry. Angry with the deception. Angry with a life controlled by bullshit. Angry we couldn’t have opened our eyes sooner, and angry there are still billions of people suffocating and suffering as we once were.

Of course, I know it could have been worse. I could be 80 years old and just now figuring this out. I still have time to reach more of my potential as a self-realized individual. I still have time to figure out what I can do to contribute to humanity.

Realizing that I am just now starting to truly think for myself, makes me also realize that I’m an intellectual and moral infant.

That last sentence has the potential to make me a bitter man. The challenge is to get past the anger, and focus on the next 40 years. A lot can still be done.

I wonder if others have had these feelings?

June 24, 2008 · Filed Under Atheism

5 Comments 

George Carlin Dies

Via The Atheist Blog comes word that George Carlin has died. Mr. Carlin was unquestionably my favorite comedian, and was an atheist who chose to spread the word through brilliantly crafted comedy.

George will be missed and remembered.

June 23, 2008 · Filed Under Atheism, religion

Comment 

Newest Member of the Atheist Blogroll is…

Me!

I’m astounded at the vastness of the atheist blog community (it’s much larger than I could have imagined) and am excited to be added to Mojoey’s incredible Atheist Blogroll.

Thank you to Mojoey, and welcome to any visitors who find their way here from the blogroll. As you can see, I am just getting started so please check back!

June 22, 2008 · Filed Under Atheism, links

3 Comments 

For the Blogroll

June 22, 2008 · Filed Under links

Comment 

Let’s Agree Not to Bother

I know, I know. Many of the people who read this think I am wrong. Terribly wrong. So wrong in fact, that some of you think I am going to hell.

You want to convince me to change my mind. You want to save me from eternal damnation.

While I appreciate your kindness (I really do), I want to tell you something: Your chances of convincing me are less than my convincing you. Yes, that’s how strong my dis-belief in god is - I know you cannot convince me to believe any more than you can convince me that my parents are goats.

Likewise, I know many of you hold the same conviction. You really believe in what you believe in. More than anything. It’s 100% wrapped up in who and what you are. I get that.

So, while there are other atheists out there who want to debate fundamentalists and evangelicals, I am not one of them. It’s just not my gig.

Now that we’ve agreed not to debate who’s right and who’s wrong, let’s figure out what we can talk about.

I want to talk to three kinds of people. First, I’m interested in connecting with other atheists. Being new at this, I’m hungry for knowledge so I want to meet people to help me with that.

Second, I want to talk to people who want to gain an understanding of atheism. They want to learn what makes atheists tick. In other words, they want to learn about non-religious world views.

And third, I am open to talking to religious people who have at least some doubt about religion. These are people experiencing the internal battle between religious faith, and rational thought. These are the people who have heard the voice of religion and want to hear the atheist perspective.

June 18, 2008 · Filed Under Atheism, religion

Comment 

How I Became An Atheist

If you were brought into this world by atheist parents, it’s pretty likely you became one yourself. For you, atheism was the natural, default position, and you have a hard time imagining how anyone could believe in god. You had it easy.

In North America, a very large majority of people are Christians. Children, by and large, are born into Christian families, and become Christian themselves. Atheists like myself who are raised among this group of people typically experience a difficult journey toward non-belief.

My family was never evangelical or fundamentalist in its practice of religion. In fact, we never went to church. Not only that, but we grew up in a liberal Christian community (most were members of the United Church of Canada).

So, on the surface, we were the most moderate Christians in an already moderate Christian community. Generally speaking, my parents didn’t have much to say about religion unless my brothers and I brought it up (because of something we heard at school from friends). Apparently, they believed in God - they just didn’t much like speaking about him.

Looking back, three people had tremendous influence on the religious beliefs within my family.

The first, I’d rather not identify. Suffice to say, this person had periodic access to my mind, and was able to plant the seeds of religious fear quite effectively. Every time I saw this person, I became more and more indoctrinated into a belief system that told me I needed the help of god to be saved.

The other two influencers were an an aunt and uncle who happened to be devout Jehovah’s Witnesses.

The fact that we were related and lived close to them gave my aunt and uncle good access to introduce their beliefs to my mom and dad and my brothers and I. This process was slow but ultimately, quite effective. I remember in the first “visits” hearing my dad remark that the Jehovah Witnesses were a fringe religion that had it all wrong - he may even have called them a cult. Still, it was hard for my parents to deny them these visits and, over time, I could see them them buying into more and more of what the Jehovah’s had to say.

I was not immune to these visits. My aunt and uncle would bring pamphlets - even slickly produced books - for my brothers and I to read. I often sat and listened in on the conversations. They were very compelling speakers - especially my uncle.

To this day, I still feel the influence of those people in myself, and in my family.

Years passed. I graduated from high school and then university. Post-secondary education did its job and expanded my mind, and my faith in the supernatural was suitably shaken - but not distinguished. I graduated, and the old feelings of being supervised by some omniscient being returned. I knew I would some day be judged. I struggled with this for many years.

And then, after what seemed to be a sequence of bad experiences, I found myself crying in the shower as I looked up to the heavens asking “why, why why?” and gave myself to Jesus. I was, in my mind anyway, born again.

I met my future wife-to-be the next day, and it became obvious God was now looking out for me.

Of course, that feeling didn’t last - even though I was attending church regularly! I eventually came to realize that the expectation that things would, from that moment on, be forever better, was seriously flawed.

Worse, the existence of a god that would permit such suffering in the world made even less sense. How could he permit those things? And how could the religions of the world often be the source of the suffering?

In the first few months of 2008, with all this baggage piling up, I began to seriously question my beliefs. I read literally hundreds of pro and anti-religion articles. I studied the Bible, watched hundreds of videos and eventually found Richard Dawkins web site. I bought The God Delusion in May, and confirmed what I probably already knew - that there was no god.

I continue to probe, challenge and learn. The more I do this, the clearer things get, and the more convinced I am that I am right.

June 18, 2008 · Filed Under Atheism, about me

2 Comments 

Coming Out

This post is my official coming out as an atheist.

I am what is defined as a strong or positive atheist - someone who does not believe in gods or anything supernatural. It does not mean I am 100% certain (just like I can’t be 100% certain fairies do not exist), but that I have yet to see evidence that would prove me wrong.

My perspective is different than from someone who is agnostic - a person who doesn’t think there is a god, but who is decidedly uncommitted. I think it would be fair to say agnostics are not as confident in their non-belief. Then again, they may just be more polite.

Atheism is but one part of my world view. It is certainly a very important part of who I am but, in my opinion, there is a lot more interesting stuff to talk about than merely what I don’t believe in. That’s why I intend on focusing here on what I do believe in.

I’ve decided to come out primarily for three reasons. First, because I believe atheists are a silent, repressed group of people who are largely afraid to declare their non-belief. I think we should encourage one another to say to the world that that there is absolutely nothing wrong with what we believe (or don’t believe!).

Secondly, I have come out because I am concerned about where our precious world is heading, and because I believe we atheists can contribute to solving problems in amazingly positive ways. I want to be a part of that.

Lastly, I happen to think that people who do not believe in god can have beautiful, loving, happy, fulfilling lives. I want to share the message that a secular life is not an empty one!

Peace.

June 18, 2008 · Filed Under Atheism, about me

Comment 

Next Page →