Religion is a favourite topic of mine. I find pleasure in pointing out the wonderful variety of paradoxes, incoherent constructs, and logical conundrums that tend to reveal themselves quite easily when using religious dogma and doctrine as building blocks for developing one’s thinking. An example is how one can piece together two fundamental Catholic beliefs — (1) God’s infinite capacity for forgiveness and (2) his promise to sentence to eternal damnation those who do not redeem themselves of their sins — to get two conflicting assertions:
(a) If God’s forgiveness is infinite, then Hell should be empty.
(b) If Hell is not empty then there is a limit to God’s forgiveness.
Perhaps it is these philosophical curiosities that “atheists” use to demonstrate to the religious the utter futility in their lifelong commitment to their faith. If so, then they are good selling devices — kind of like those “shoot-the-iPhone” banner ads that promise a prize if you successfully click on the cross-hair while an iPhone dances across it. So if you find yourself nodding even just a little bit while reading Points (a) and (b) above, consider yourself experiencing an Inception moment that brings you a bit closer to joining the growing ranks of “non-believers”.
Not surprising, therefore, that atheists are quite visible today. At least in the corner of the Philippine cyber-community I am most aware of, they seem pretty well-organised. The community Filipino Freethinkers is one (maybe the only) such Filipino community I am aware of (though they count among them “humanists, atheists, agnostics, deists, etc.” — the etcetera bit making what defines them as a community a bit ambiguous). As of this writing, their Facebook page, “Likes” (i.e., Facebook users who opt in to get updates posted on their profile newsfeeds) number more than 3,200.
For me the appeal of atheism, drawing from my own experience tossing it about in my head, would have come from a freedom to grow intellectually and to approach life from a broader range of perspectives. The problem is, atheism seems to be defined more by what one is not rather than what one is. An atheist does not believe in God, is what I keep hearing.
In that sense, I don’t consider myself an “atheist”. There is a lot more to being intellectually free than not believing in God. Being intellectually free is to be open to confronting realities about one’s place in the universe. Religion, in contrast, considers the specialness of humanity’s place in the cosmos as the cornerstone of the belief system it prescribes to its flock. The irony there is that the religious are seen to be the “humble” ones while the intellectually free the “arrogant” ones. Strange indeed. As I recall, it was science that pointed out the insignificance of humanity in the face of an immensely vast universe while religion stubbornly insisted upon the special and literal central place humanity held in the cosmos.
To be intellectually free then is to understand what it really means to be humble.
The concept of “God” as religion pitches it, as such, does not give enough meaning to the true nature of our humbleness in the cosmic scheme of things. God is an old man with a long white beard who speaks in a thunderous voice. Or a triangle with an eye inside it. Or a finger pointing out from a floating cloud. Or the rays of the sun poking out from a gap in a cloudy sky. Or he may look like Morgan Freeman or George Burns. Or a lamb. Or a calf. Or a naked man hanging from a cross.
Religion attempts to simplify or encapsulate God so that he may fit within the finite capacities of the average human mind — so that considering one’s self “humbled” in “God’s presence” need not be such hard work.
But what science presents as a context to appreciate humility is different. Those who worked hard to understand science have a more real grasp of just how humble and insignificant beings humans are. Modern physics has shown the vastness of reality and the smallness of the subset of it that we perceive with our senses and the illusion of reality that our minds are wired (by millions of years of evolution) to make of it. Science does not simplify reality to fit our human capacities. Science challenges us to expand our human capacities to understand it. Humanity’s greatest minds have done just that — developing the mathematics and intellectual constructs to piece together a picture that reveals reality as something not necessarily structured to make sense to us if we apply conventional thinking to it.
So while science challenges us to step up to understand more as it reveals more, religion hides as much of the truth as possible so that we need work less at understanding less meaning.
Where is God in either world view? If we use the God as defined by organised religion, then I’d answer that question by saying that he does not exist in either — not in science nor in religious faith. That leaves us with a God that we should define ourselves. And that requires a lifetime of hard work.
[With thanks to the guys behind BetterPhilippines.com and BadMannersGunClub.com for many of the concepts that went into writing the above article.]
humans were created and bred by the annunakis as slaves. period. religions were created and designed by annunakis to make the humans docile. and now the slaves are being arrogant and stupid.
We have an active and daily international email exchange where Pocholo Suzarra who call himself the grandfather of Filipino atheism is in the forefront of his mission.
While theists are respectful, Pocholito and his atheist groups use vile words against those who do not agree with atheism. Pocholo said that he was kicked out of De La Salle College during his early teenage years and for more than 6 decades, he has espoused his campaign of hate and villification against religion especially Christianity and Catholicism. I have attached your two articles on atheism as well as that of Hector Gamboa who said he is/was an atheist but is very much dismayed by the behaviour of his fellow atheists when they argue.
Yes it’s ironic isn’t it that “atheists” have just about turned their “atheism” into a religion in its own right. Atheism demands a lot of work thinking things through rigorously because it is, in principle, against the very nature of relgious practice which at its very essence is a non-critical belief in a system of ideas prescribed by officers of said religion. A lot of people who lack that rigour in thinking presume to label themselves “atheists” yet lack the skills to clearly frame their supposed atheism in a coherent conceptual framework in their heads.
“Atheism demands a lot of work thinking things through rigorously”
Of course not. You dont need a MENSA brain to figure out if it’s possible for a senior citizen Noah to build an ark and gather pair of every beast on the planet, From Asia to Australia to get a pair marsupials, That Earth is just 6K yrs old. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to smile when creationists claim that farthest the visible stars at night are just 6k light years away. Goodluck
It doesn’t when you regard Atheism for what it is not (as you’ve demonstrated above). But for one to regard what it is requires a lot of that thinking as I stated.
“My experiences with science led me to God. They challenge science to prove the existence of God. But must we really light a candle to see the sun?” -Wernher von Braun
my experience with god led me to science.
i can now not only light a candle on my own, but make one.
god cannot hold a candle to science
Yes, Atheism is a religion as abstinence is a sexual position. Atheism advocates separation of church and state, If that’s wong, I don’t know what is right.
Some states that Atheism is a “religion”, doesn’t that make atheism redundant?
It’s just ironic how atheists do not believe in God nor any form of Deity but literally ‘practice what they preach’ and spread the word which is a form of teaching from all major religions. Atheists interminably argue with believers persuading them that there is no such God and is rampant in social networking sites that some consider aggravative. Atheists also writes and publishes books and sells them targeting a particular group of people i.e. the believers countering every aspect of their belief. It is starting to sound like religion itself in some ways but you can never justify that atheism is a religion because a religion has to have a form of deity.
It’s safe to say that Atheism is not a form of religion, but rather a form of faith. Having faith in something is what keeps you motivated to believe and continue doing something. And just like what Aaron posted above; I also do question my faith in Christianity once in a while but end up with a much stronger faith.
There is a lot of hypothetical thinking taking place in the minds of Believers and atheists that involves the theory of possibilities and the exploration in search for the truth and I think that’s our true purpose in life. But if I died believing in something then found out that it was not real, I would still die a content person; I led a life led by faith that made me a good man and has done good unto others and the same has been done towards me.
I am a devoted Catholic. I have friends that are Atheists, agnostics, hindus, sikhs, muslims, buddhists & “Atheists” who think it’s a fashion statement. Albeit the cultural and spiritual differences, we all get along, we all take in constructive criticism of our faith & learn from each other. I think we should start living like this. It is the best we can do so far. Keep faith and maintain peace within ourselves.
@ Jom
Atheism is nothing but fear of “Divine retribution”. God is not a respecter of men. What you do in life will come back to you in death…Gods judgement.