Well, Christmas is over and it is time to get on with things. This post comes from one of the more interesting things I read this year. If you read Sam Harris' The End of Faith, you know that he is an atheist who writes from a somewhat inflammatory (I don't think so) position that all religion is bad (he actually does practice some form of meditation). Through Kent I picked up on an article he wrote for Truthdig.com entitled: An Atheist Manifesto.
Why should anyone believe in an all-merciful god?
Atheism is nothing more than the noises reasonable people make when in the presence of religious dogma. The atheist is merely a person who believes that the 260 million Americans (87% of the population) who claim to 'never doubt the existence of God' should be obliged to present evidence for his existence - and indeed, for his benevolence, given the relentless destruction of innocent human beings we witness in the world each day.
The fact that there is a word for atheism says something in itself. Are there words for people that are don't believe in witches or alchemy? How about people who don't believe in Zeus? Are they singled out as "non believers"? The answer would be no for all of those things because not believing in them is considered a rational position not worthy of distinction. With not believing in god (any god) the situation is reversed with "non believers" having to defend there claims. As Harris says, "this is a job the atheist does not want."
You may say "So What?". But why does a position of such reasonableness need to be defended? For instance, there is a lot suffering in the world today. Hurricane Katrina, the Asian Tsunami and the Earthquake in Pakistan are examples of the natural disasters that killed hundreds of thousands of lives this year. Many that weren't killed, live in dire conditions and will die soon if nothing is done.
If God exists, either he can do nothings to stop the most egregious calamities or he does not care to. God, therefore, is either impotent or evil.
End of story take your pick.
That in itself does not make a case against believing in a god. Harris points out that there is a spectrum of problems with the faithful ranging from narcissistic and self-deceitful to the outright harmful issues that block the path of progress.
Only the atheist realizes how morally objectionable it is for survivors of a catastrophe to believe themselves spared by a loving God while this same God Drowned infants in their cribs. Because he refuses to cloak the reality of the world's suffering in a cloying fantasy of eternal life, the atheist feels in his bones just how precious life is - , indeed ow unfortunate it is that millions of human beings suffer the most harrowing abridgment of their happiness for no good reason at all.
Moreover, religious beliefs create moral communities that settle this disputes through violent methods. Only with a strong belief in an afterlife and all the fruits that come with that, can one have such a disregard life on earth. Religious conflict is as strong now as in any time in history:
The recent conflicts in Palestine (Jews versus Muslims), the Balkans (Orthodox Serbians versus Catholic Croatians; Orthodox Serbians versus Bosnian and and Albanian Muslims), Northern Ireland (Protestants versus Catholics), Kashmir (Muslims versus Hindus), Sudan (Muslims versus Christians and animists), Nigeria (Muslims versus Christians), Ethiopia and Eritrea (Muslims versus Christians), Sri Lanka (Sinhalese Buddhists versus Tamil Hindus), Indonesia (Muslims versus Timorese Christians), Iran and Iraq (Shiite versus Sunni Muslims), and the Caucasus (Orthodox Russians versus Chechen Muslims; Muslim Azerbaijanis versus Catholic Orthodox Armenians) are merely a few cases in point.
Read this article...
