Responsibility.

I was watching the above episode of the Atheist Experience on YouTube and the host said that he does not blame the religious for what they think because they had little choice in the matter. He said that instead he thinks of them as victims and feels sad for them, at first I agreed with this idea. However, the more I thought about it the more I changed my mind. I now think that anyone over the age of say 20 or 25 should not qualify for this pity. In the modern world there is no reason that once a young adult is able to gather information and think for themselves that they should still cling to Religion. There are shows, movies, articles, blogs ect that will help you find your way out of religious beliefs. Atheists are all around and usually more than willing to talk to you about how to live without God. Once all of these resources are made available to a young adult and they are too lazy or too un willing to look at them and consider what they see then they are no longer a victim, they are now willfully ignorant and probably passing this on to other people. I think that this willful-ness is inexcusable.

The other idea in this episode that got me thinking was when the caller asked about the responsibility of Atheists to care about the environment. I tend to agree with this caller, while the host is correct in saying that Atheism does not make you believe anything in particular I think that it should come with some responsibility that could bring people together. Here are the main responsibilities that I came up with that I think should go along with Atheism and why. 

– respect for life. (ie no murder, or hurting others) Why? because Atheists believe that this is your one and only shot at the beauty of life and that should carry a heavy weight. Once someone is gone there is no do over, no afterlife so this life should be of the utmost importance and treated as such. Death should be a big deal to an Atheist, however since it is inevitable there should be a major effort to make the time you have worthwhile for yourself and for others. This also means that research into extending life would be important, as who would not want to be around for as long as possible? This respect for life as the most important ideal could lead to breakthroughs in medicine and if applied well enough could extend as far as standard of living. If there is just one shot at living, well everyone would want to live to the fullest so there should be a push in leisure, technological ease of life, and a general increase in standards of living so that this one life can not only be long but can also be happy and fulfilling.

(Side note, I have also decided that it is upsetting to me when the religious mourn heavily when someone dies. If they are in a better place and you will get to see them again shouldn’t you be happy for them? Stop being so selfish, if your best friend or spouse moved to a beach house in Hawaii with no cares at all and you were going to meet them there soon would you cry about it? I think not.)

– respect for the planet/environment. Why? Once again this is the only shot at life you get, and the planet is kind of essential for sustaining life. By taking care of the planet we can sustain our own lives for longer and we can sustain future generations who we should be worried about looking out for, don’t they deserve a shot at life? This sort of mentality could also serve to foster a sense of inter connectivity with those around us (past, present, future) that people seek in religion so much.

(This idea is also unsustainable in many Religions because if you think that Death is not the end all and only a step to a better place what is the big worry. Dead? That’s ok! You get to be with God. End of the World or Planet? That’s ok! The end of the world means the prophet comes back and the chosen ones go with God. So really in Religious ideology the more we take care of the planet we are just pushing our meeting with God away and so this would not be a priority.)

The Need for Punishment.

Recently I watched this video:

Now this is not a particularly good video in itself, but it did get me thinking on one point. The hosts of the show get asked by the caller if Hitler gets punished for his evil deeds. Initially both of the hosts try to say that yes he did in his death but the caller then makes a great point that everyone dies so how does that work as a punishment? I think that this is something that a lot of people feel they want – someone who has done wrong should be made to regret that action, they should suffer. However, I really liked what the female host of this show said instead in that the punishment did not matter, what mattered was that the evil that he did stopped. This really struck me. I do think that someone who commits violence against another person should be removed from society so that the can be prevented from hurting others but I think that this idea of punishment is unnecessary. Prison is often seen as a punishment and a way to make criminals suffer, and I do not think that it needs to be seen that way – this should just be a space to remove dangerous people to. Do we really think that making a criminal suffer is going to change anything? It will not undo what was done. It will not make them change how they as a criminal are. So what is the point? Many times criminals who are supposed to spend this time suffering to develop feelings of guilt or sorrow actually end up feeling just the opposite. Many criminals come out of the system worse and more angry.

While it may make some people feel better for a moment to see someone that hurt them getting hurt this is not a beneficial reaction. The idea of justice seems synonymous with revenge, people want to get justice for the families or the victims that were hurt by hurting the criminal. While listening to this caller this also struck me as another central idea in religion. Many bad people or bad actions do not get punished in life, these people will live the violent way that they are and they will not regret it and some may not even get caught at all. The idea that God is watching and he will know is comforting and it removes the responsibility of doing something about these actions from people who are alive. The idea of “they will get what is coming” does two things. First it approves of the revenge and punishment idea as an acceptable way to react. Second it shifts that responsibility to be not our problem. Sadly, Violence and crime in the real world is everyone’s problem and perhaps rather than worry about punishment we should worry about prevention. Instead of worrying about how to make the bad people suffer, worry about how to make the good people heal.