Thy Leaves are So Unchanging!
It had to come up eventually: Atheism.
I once considered myself one, although I always hated the name. It was an ideology that I naturally flocked to because it represented living aware, and against a system that the masses sucked on despite all of its bitter flavors.
Much has changed since those times and today I have a gripe with the group as a whole. My observations of most Atheists to-date has led me to see a very deep crack in the armor of contemporary mainstream Atheism: it's merely a shadow image of big brother Religion. That is to say, most people who call themselves Atheists define that self-imposed identity by what they find absurd in holy scripture (Bible, Quran, etc).
"I don't believe in old men in the sky w/beards, or talking fire-bushes. I only believe in science; that's met its burden of proof."
"That book has fostered inhumane and irrational wars in the name of a God. Women have been raped and killed because of the Hoh Kus Poh Kus 'men of faith' teach. 'Witchcraft' never came from an Atheist."
"Two of every animal on earth in a single boat? Hah! Only an idiot, a SHEEP, would believe that shit. I LAUGH at those fools."
I hope I've said enough to clarify my point. Basically, Atheists are little more than pragmatically aimless rebels with an anti-cause. Not all of them, I'm sure. But I have yet to meet one that stands out from the pack. They thrive on comparing the stupidest parts of Religion to the best parts of Science/Rationality.
I once had a debate w/an old friend who I consider a pretty smart guy. He's an avid Atheist. It was funny because as we argued, he kept trying to back me into the wall he was so used to people backing themselves into. Once he realized rational, and logical arguments could be made against his own system, he inevitably had to back down, resorting to what I call "equal parts faith."
What this mentality has done is effectively polarized the field into one that looks all too familiar. Skeptics on the Left, and Believers on the Right. Skeptics so eager to prove the Believers wrong, and the believers so ready to dismiss any rational understandings of their own doctrines that both sides are blinded to the inherent necessity of the other.
Where there was once great potential, there is now only another piece of the establishment. Although this article is about the Atheist, it speaks true to the other side as well. But to the original point: Atheists as a whole have failed to see the flaws in their own doctrine, and to build from it a better solution. A solution that presents a view of the world, and humanity that even the believer folk can get behind. One that undigs the trenches this unnecessary war.
I'll end this with a point given by Mahatma Ghandi that speaks sooo many truths: "You must be the change you wish to see in the world." Paving a better path requires more than just sitting pretty and merely pointing at a broken system.
Many nights DTC.
Addison
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You seem to generalize atheism just by how people argue or debate, not how they live. You don't have to have debate fodder to show you don't believe, you just have to come to the conclusion that it doesn't make sense.
ReplyDeleteI can't generalize about how an Atheist lives, as that would just be silly.
ReplyDeleteSo naturally I'm only left with the option of generalizing how Atheists argue/debate about Atheism/Religion. That's what this article was about.
Furthermore, my point is that once you establish you don't believe the "fodder," an attempt to go the distance and examine your own beliefs in contrast to that which you oppose would bring things past square 1. Square 1 being where most mainstream Atheists are. As well as their more religious counterparts.