I may be ostracized by this, by anyone who is religious that happens to read my rantings, but I feel the need to defend Atheists. There has been an argument by many a theist that Atheists are preaching untruths, that life as we know it was spontaneously created without spiritual meaning; that the life we live is not simply a test, rather merely an existence. Life exists because it must, if you will. The theist, of course, challenges that there must be a deity responsible for existence, that life is too intricately built to have happened by accident; everything is intelligently designed by a creator.
I just realized something. If I outline my understanding of the basic beliefs of the theist, and the atheist, it would look like this:
The Atheist: Life exists simply because it must, and was created from nothing in a random event. The world as we know it is the result of billions of years of evolution and adaptation. Science and logic is the foundation of this ideology.
The Theist: Life exists as the result of a creator. There is a larger purpose for our life that is defined by the maker’s will. Our life on Earth is devoted to praising the creator for all he has given us. Religious faith is the foundation of this ideology.
That sounds innocent enough, right? I mean, sure they believe in two completely different reasons why we are here. So why has the conflict become so tense between the theist and the atheist? I believe the problem lies on both sides of the fence.
In my more immature, cynical thoughts, I have corralled both the theist and the atheist into a realm of ridiculousness. The theist, I had thought, was afraid of change, afraid of the fact that if there was no creator then we were responsible for our own existence, and that there is no purpose to our life. Morals are outlined by the creator to ensure the world exists as he wants it to exist. The atheist, I might have once believed, were mostly a group of bitter ex girlfriends and boyfriends, or battered souls from a more traumatizing experience that left them re-examining their beliefs and eventually disowning the god they once trusted. I am reminded of an internet quote fortified by a picture of Earth and the Galaxy, a MEME if you will, about the two:
Atheists believe this all happened by chance. Christians KNOW a wizard did it.
The MEME (is that supposed to be in all caps? I don’t know) singles out Christians, but it really applies to any theist. Yes I admit these thoughts of mine were a tad bit ignorant. I think most thoughts are created with a little bit of ignorance, which is why I study, and ponder on these thoughts until I can come to a logical and fair understanding.
So, why can’t theists and atheists live in peace with each other? I believe that the theist think that atheism attacks their religion whereas the atheist think the theist forces religion on the unwilling. Both are true, but not entirely… make sense? There are some theists that believe the atheist is a threat to the continuity of their religion. There are some atheists that believe religion is a threat to the continuity of society.
I defend atheists because their intent is not the destruction of religion, rather the acceptability of a world without religion. They are simply providing and alternative lifestyle to those that feel they do not need religion to be moral citizens. Furthermore, they are advocates of a society with the freedom of religion, as well as a freedom from religion. Our society is one such system where we are protected from religious governance. The atheist goal, I believe, is to provide an option for those that wish to have faith without religion, and accept science and logic as a means to existence as an alternative.
What theists believe atheist are, is in fact, the antitheist. The antitheist is one who strictly believes one or all religions are wrong, and should not exist in society. It may be said that most religions have an antitheist nature towards other religions. It almost seems that religion could work better if each one of them didn’t require an army to amass in some sort of afterlife super battle between good and evil – this way no one religion would feel the need to recruit the non believers and sculpt a world in their Gods image.
I’m not atheist, nor am I a theist (weird how one space separates the two). Yet I have faith in the supernatural and am open to the possibility that there may be a deity that created us all. Faith is accepting a miracle that we do not yet understand, science is the ability to understand. Just because we may have a good understanding that the universe was created from nothing, doesn’t mean there wasn’t something theological behind the theory. Some dude named Einstein said this:
Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.
Apparently some people thought he was smart. I would change ‘religion’ to ‘faith’, though, as I do not believe religion is necessary for faith. So it should be written:
Science without faith is lame, faith without science is blind.
Simply living within a world with such mystery and miracles does not satisfy our thirst for knowledge as an advanced race with the ability of reason. I remember reading this somewhere, and wholeheartedly agree with it:
Living in a world without understanding its mysteries is like spending your whole life in a library without opening a book.
I do not believe that the common perception of god is correct. That god is omnipotent and omniscient. I believe that if there is a god, then this God makes mistakes. Applying this theory to most perceptions of god is simple: god is omniscient, yet mankind is made in the image of god. Mankind is fallible, therefore god is fallible. God is therefore not omniscient. The smartest man (or woman) in the world could be omniscient in the eyes of everyone else, because he (or she!) knows more than anyone else in existence. This does not prove that he (or she) does not make mistakes.
To me real intelligent design is a progression of elaborate events, or miracles that we may not understand. If you believe in a god that created an organism with the ability to evolve and adapt to the random changes in an environment, that seems more miraculous than creating a species without the ability to do so – even if that was not the natural intent of said god. At any rate, I believe in these things but I don’t base my life around it more than I do logic, reason and morality. Truth is I could care less what or where it is we came from.
