You can now get OUT-campaign hoodies and T-shirts with the big scarlet letter “A” (hee hee) for atheist at: http://richarddawkins.net/store/
- Wear your “Scarlet Letter of Atheism” proudly.
I’m terribly amused by all this, even while applauding frowned-upon beliefs for coming out and taking their rightful place next to the rest of humanity. I won’t go as far as wearing such garments - that would put me on the same level as the loudly and proudly religious.
It is not as if I believe in nothing; rather, it is because I believe in the possibility of everything.
Terry Pratchett expresses my philosophy best:
“The presence of those seeking the truth is infinitely to be preferred to the presence of those who think they’ve found it” - Terry Pratchett
Despite my attempts to remain neutral, I do find Believers in Religion more and more offensive the older I get. I am so sick and tired of the often outright condemnation with which they treat other people, and their self-righteous smarminess while being unbelievably nasty to others. It is quite shocking, actually, that believers can unload all their evil onto one god or man, like Jesus. They crucify him every day, and on Sundays they do it with even more gusto. Expecting someone else to pay for your own awful deeds is one thing, but crucifying him and drinking his blood and eating his flesh? Aren’t there serial killers who do that kind of thing?
I know a born-again Christian who believes she is protected from Satan’s devilish deeds because she is covered in the blood of Christ. It sounds exactly like something from a horror movie about Satan worshippers …
If such beliefs are not loathsome enough, the religious have created the ultimate and most vile form of Apartheid by splitting humanity into those who go to a nice place when they die and those who suffer excruciating pain and anguish for all eternity. Wishing such immense cruelty on their fellow beings is beyond my comprehension, never mind their capacity to conjure up a hell to accommodate such monstrous imaginings. How is it possible to still believe in such frightful things after all the atrocities we have visited on one another in our brief human history?
I meant what I said in a poem: it is hell on earth because heaven is already occupied by too many gods. That is, the heaven created by the religious. When I look up at the sky I see only endless possibility and infinite potential and I hope for acts of benevolence in the universe in general. A kind act — only sentient beings are capable of being kind or unkind on purpose.
Our local Spar plays the most [god]awful Afrikaans gospel music every time I go there. We’ve complained about it; how can they possibly be so arrogant as to think all their customers share their religious views? Also, it is not as if it is uplifting music; the way the name Jeeeeeeeesusss is dragged out is downright depressing. And the unctuous ‘U’ (Thou) with which they address their god in songs just does not make for good rhythm or song writing. At least the more brilliant gospel singers in America make it all sound like a good bit of foot-stomping fun.
What I also find repulsive is the lack of compassion in the religious. You are not suffering because really bad things or people happened to you, or because genetically you come from a long line of alcoholics, schizophrenics, manic depressives, weak hearts, cancerous lungs/breasts/ovaries; your toe doesn’t hurt simply because the chair was in the way or you dropped a brick on it; and you’re not scarred for life because you were sexually molested by your god-fearing father/uncle/grandfather … oh no, you’re suffering because you don’t hammer a man to a cross every day, you don’t unburden the responsibility of your wrongdoings onto an invisible friend, you don’t blow yourself up in the presence of innocent strangers, you don’t pray, chant, prostrate or diminish yourself or judge others enough.
And how can the religious think their god is the only god when we have not even met other species from other worlds in the universe? What hubris. As for man being created in the image of his god, it seems to be the other way around: to think of a divine being with unlimited powers indulging in petty jealousies or vengeful acts towards only certain members of one species in one small star-system somewhere in the unimaginable vastness of the universe just doesn’t sound plausible. If there is a creator, he/she/it is probably nothing like the gods spawned by the dark and selfish inventiveness of man.
I do not believe that a god, gods, creator or omnipotent super-being will command a species to go forth and multiply to such an extent that children starve to death and adults kill one another because there are not enough jobs, land or mineral resources to be had. I also do not think it possible that one person’s - usually a man’s it seems - experience of an epiphany or a vision, whether it is induced by brain chemicals in flux, drugs, starvation or a sudden overload of patriarchal arrogance and testosterone, can truly explain all the wonders of the universe or come up with the one true answer.
We have simply not evolved enough as a species to understand much about anything. And if we keep up our current self-destructive behaviour we will certainly not be around long enough to gain an understanding of It All.
And to those who find themselves offended by my opinion: I have been poked by religious pitchforks for far longer and with more baneful intent than this piece of writing will ever manage.
Sara Dias
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