http://normalbobsmith.com/hatemail456.html
I could be going out on a limb here, but has any one of us ever asked ourselves if perhaps “Atheism? Could it be a religion too?”
That question and many others are addressed in another heart warming episode of Hate Mail.
6 thoughts on “Is Atheism in fact a Religion?”
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“…atheists don’t attack the strong, potent religions such as Islam…”
*Sigh*, this is getting seriously tiresome…
First things first, I’d say that like charity, this begins at home – and the dominant religion in the West just happens to be Christianity. But this statement is simply not true in a worldwide sense. You can be sure that atheists (be they lifetime atheists or apostates) who have grown in an Islamic society have Islam as their main target – because guess what, it’s the religion they are the most familiar with. Don’t believe it? Just check it out for yourself:
http://apostatesofislam.com/index.htm
http://www.islam-watch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=49&Itemid=55
http://www.faithfreedom.org/testimonials.htm
Atheism is not a religion, it’s a non-belief: it contents itself with questioning outrageous claims, starting by the closest and most prevalent ones – if not the ones it holds as being the most dangerous. Speaking of which, I often get the feeling that many Christians are jealous of some Muslims, in that they envy the war-based orientation of a large part of Islam, and that they’d like so very much to be able to forcibly impose or defend their beliefs in much the same way that the Iranian theocracy does. In fact, this is not just a feeling I have: it was explicitly stated in the ‘Jesus Camp’ movie, if I remember correctly…
“…we need to evolve spiritually instead of in every other way for there to be real peace and love between everybody. How can anyone disagree with that?”
– This guy disagrees wholeheartedly:
http://www.culturekitchen.com/leo_igwe/blog/god_atheism_and_african_renewal
Bob
I refuse to be in any club whose members are “horrible, retched creatures.” What do they do at the meetings; eat their leader and drink his blood?
“Atheism is in fact a religion. It’s a set of beliefs and corresponding behavior that shapes your interaction with divine things. ”
Urm, what? How can we interact with divine beings if we don’t believe in them? I bet it’s really hard for them to get our attention, let alone interact with us, when we keep forgetting they exist. They must be constantly going, “Hey! HEY! I’m talking to you! Are you even listening?? FINE, I’ll go bug some Mormons if you’re gonna be that way!”
Haha, no seriously, Kun, I don’t believe these beings exist. I do not believe that ANY of the gods of ANY religion in the history of mankind are real by any meaning of the definition, and that includes the Christian gods–Yahweh, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Oh, and Satan. I don’t believe he is real, either. Or angels, or ghosts, or spirits, or demons. I do not worship any of these entities, and I do not attend a church, temple, or synagogue so that I can listen to preachers talk about them. I do not pray to them, or give them any of my attention at all in real life. I discuss them online, but only in the sense of wondering how any grown-up can believe in such impossible concepts. So how does that make me religious in any way?
Do I believe in any kind of spiritual realm at all? Well, I don’t know. There may be one, and there may not. With scientists postulating multiple dimensions like it’s no big deal, maybe it’s possible that there is some weird dimension where strange beings exist, and for whatever reason, they like fucking with humans. Or maybe aliens like to visit from time to time and fuck with us. And the next time they come ’round, they’ll be like, “Wait, you guys made a RELIGION about that?? But we were only kidding! It was all a practical joke! DAMN, you people are dumb.”
Anyway, I do know that so far, none of the world’s religions seem to have found any spiritual realm. The Bible was obviously written by mere mortals and not inspired by the will of any deity. Christianity is derived from the religion of ancient Egypt. Even the name of Jesus is written in Egyptian temples: it is IOSA, and it is still written this way in the Gaelic Bible. The word “Christ” comes from the Egyptian KRST, which meant “buried.”
I could go on, but it is plain to me that one religion evolves from another, over and over and over, and will continue to do so until humans become extinct. No god dropped your religion from the sky, all shiny and new. Christianity has nothing to offer that is different from any other religion. But most importantly, there is NO EVIDENCE for the existence of any of the beings that you seem to think are so real. And that is why I don’t believe in them.
Hey bob!! Long time no talky…I had to say after reading this section of hate mail my day was totally turned around!! Thanks again for saying all the things dumb people should hear, it was perfect…seriously.
Jenn
I thought Dustin was pulling your leg too! Great reparte:
NOW PLEASE WIGGLE MY PUPPET STRINGS TO YOUR WHIM!!!!”
That’s a keeper.
Bob,
You’re using words like “logic” and “evidence” still. Why? How? Just say, “I am an atheist because I have constructed my own laws of logic wherein Christian doctrine arbitrarily doesn’t fit.” Or you could say to the Christian directly, “your chosen thought patterns are strange to me and are implausible on the basis of my own conventional beliefs that admittedly have no bearing on reality, as far as I know.” Such responses, in light of our conversations, would be far more appropriate than charging that others are illogical or stupid. Remember, you are the one who wrote a few hate mails ago, “I believe our own assessments of right & wrong comes from the individual. Yes, it’s that arbitrary, but our own assessments on anything come from ourselves, within us.”
a friendly reminder,
Bob