I went to an event this weekend that featured Richard Dawkins, Lawrence Krauss, Neil Degrasse Tyson, Bill Nye and others and felt so inspired. Since the event previewed a movie that is not out yet, and we were asked not to share too much I thought that I would instead gather other inspirational quotes and share them here as a way to spread the feeling.
I am always amused when I tell someone that I am an Atheist and they immediately ask if I am sad that this life is all we get and if I am not strong enough to handle the truth of God. To this I always laugh, because I believe the opposite.
That is not to say that I am not sad or afraid about death, of course I am. Only an Atheist can grasp the true terror that is death, the knowledge that there is nothing and this beautiful gift of consciousness and experience will be gone and unless you do something truly great (or horrible) in a short time there will be no memory of you, no impact, nothing. Thinking about this too long is utterly terrifying but at the same time it can be inspirational. If no one else will remember you and there will be little impact then there is all the more reason to make your experiences count and to impact those around you while you can so that in some way there will be a lingering effect. (This also plays a part in my feelings about Atheist morality and where that comes from, but that is another post.)
As for this disbelief and fear playing into being not strong enough to handle God, well this is what really makes me laugh. It is clear that religions originally came about to explain things that people did not understand. It was common for people to attribute everything like the sun and rain to deities and to try to influence the out come by praying or offering. As people moved on and learned about the world around them these beliefs fell away and were replaced by knowledge and new belief systems emerged. However still, there is no explanation or comfort for the idea of death (and I think that this is because there isn’t one) so modern religions remain. A good look at Judea-Christian religions will reveal an absolute obsession with death. In fact the entire belief is the way you should get through life in order to get to a good death and afterlife. The emphasis and rules for living is only so that there can be an even bigger emphasis on dying. Christianity even takes this a step further and worships death in the story of Jesus. To me this shows that those who cling so strongly to faith, even when there is so much evidence against it, are clinging because they are afraid of what life without it would mean. Many believers will say that they feel sorry for an Atheist because the life “must be so empty and sad” and for me this shows that they are unable to grasp what it means to face the harsh and frightening realities so they cling to the comfort of faith.
Now in the theme of my blog, while I think that clinging to something that is false just for comfort is silly I also have a deeper problem with this. Many believers are convinced that Jesus is going to return while they are alive and so they have very little concern about what this world looks like and what the current generations will be leaving to the future. If the focus is on struggle and getting to the next life then there is no reason to have real world concerns that will have any impact on things like medicine or the environment and this is very scary to consider when reasoning non believers try to improve the state of the world against the inaction of those that are waiting for the next world.
Atheist Ramblings 