Atheism: some more thoughts about it

A friend posted something about how atheism is not a religion. And he's right. It's not. But I immediately thought about how certain levels of atheism can require a level of faith similar to that required by believing what a religion teaches. You can read all about atheism and its meanings on the wiki page. It's a really good read.

I consider myself an "explicit weak atheist" according to the article, and also an agnostic (which is very similar to a "weak atheist" anyway). Just wanted to be clear.

So I said in the first paragraph that certain levels of atheism require faith like religions do. According to the wiki article, this level I'm thinking of would be "strong atheism". It is the specific belief that there is no god or set of gods. This type of atheism requires faith though, because no one can prove that a god or set of gods does not exist. It simply can't be done. Just because we can't perceive something doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

Of course, on the other hand, it can never be proven that a god or gods does exist either. Even if a powerful being appeared before you, walked on water, transmuted water to wine, brought a dead animal back to life, cured a person of terminal cancer, teleported right in front of you, and/or conceived a human child without touching the woman... it still wouldn't prove the existence of a god or gods. It would just show you that really powerful beings can exist. Or maybe just a REALLY technologically advanced one. Doesn't matter what the explanation is... it's still not proof of a god or set of gods.

What I'm trying to get to I think is that I don't understand how anyone can be anything but a "weak atheist". No event in my life or any event I've ever heard of has even remotely suggested the existence of a god. Sure, I've heard religious folks speak and say there is a god. But what do they know? They don't know anything. They only believe. They have faith. But that faith is based on absolutely nothing. Some coincidence in their life that seemed too good to be true, or too unlikely to have happened without "divine intervention" is still not even evidence of a god, let alone proof. Surviving a crash that should have killed you is not proof of a god. It's a coincidence. Things just happened that way because that's how physics works. The circumstances were such that you survived. That's all.

It's nearly 1 AM, and I'm swiftly losing my focus. I think I just wanted to write about how religious people are wrong, and about how even some atheists are wrong.

If you think I'm wrong... prove that there's a god. Or prove that there isn't one. I'd be mighty impressed either way. In the meantime, I'm going to go on with my lack of belief in any god or set of gods, because I haven't seen anything to suggest their existence. There's no reason to waste time on them.

A follow up to the exorcism post

Hello again to anyone who reads this blog. It seems I'm focusing quite a bit on religion and how much I'd like for it to go away. Sadly there are people who insist that their religion is "true" in spite of an overwhelming lack of evidence, and in spite of the fact that there are so many mutually exclusive religions that claim to be the one true one. They were all written by people. Some of them just appealed to enough people that they lasted.

Anyway, I wanted to address something from my last post about the church that performed an exorcism to "help" a teen boy stop being gay. It's still infuriating, but the person who responded and deleted his two comments did mention something I have to correct my assertion about. Apparently, as of when I did my reading, homosexuality is not necessarily a biological trait. It supposedly can be, but isn't always. Or something like that.

But when I thought about it... I realized it really doesn't matter if it's biological or not. What right did those people in that church have to impose their way of thinking on that boy? The boy wasn't hurting anyone (to my knowledge). It's persecution. It's morally wrong what they did to that boy. One of the touted traits of this country is freedom of religion. And that's great. It's a protection against one group of people telling another group of people what to think. Having a different sexual orientation is a bit like religion in that respect. But for some reason the religious zealots from that church are allowed to mistreat a young kid in a way they would be furious over if done to them. If I went to their church, tied them up, and forced them to listen to me spout on about how their socially acceptable imaginary friend for adults (and by that I mean their god) is a farce that isn't any more likely than the flying spaghetti monster (I've linked it before... easy to find on wiki), they be pissed off. How can they be so hypocritical?

My guess is because their faith tells them that they're "right", and that the exorcism was a good thing where my explaining why their god doesn't exist is a bad thing.

I have friends who have deep faith that their religion is the "truth". I'll never understand why. Faith to me is something built up over time based on experience. I have faith in my parents, my brother, and my friends. I believe that if I was in trouble these people would help me. I know that I would help them. But I can't prove they would help me without it actually happening... so it's faith instead of knowledge. But having faith in a religion... in a god that has no better chance of existing than a levitating pasta creature... It makes no sense at all. And then to let it guide your actions like those people in that church did... That's what scares me about religion. Even if they are based on something that a goat herder made up thousands of years ago, people seem capable of believing strongly enough to let it make them do stupid things.

I think I understand why people want to have faith. If you believe in some powerful being that for some reason cares about what happens to you, and that everything happens for a reason, suddenly life isn't so hard. Things will work out. You don't have to worry. It's a comfort.

I just can't do it. Part of me wants to have faith in a higher power because I crave that kind of comfort too. But there's nothing in my life that has ever given me reason to even suspect that there is a higher power... except what religious people say, and that barely counts because they are just people... people who believe... and they don't have evidence either.

I'm definitely wandering around in this blog post. Sorry for that.