Wednesday 22 June 2011

The trouble with Atheists


Greyface and his followers took the game of playing at life more seriously than they took life itself and were known even to destroy other living beings whose ways of life differed from their own. – Principia Discordia

Atheists. What is the deal with atheists? I'm not at all confused about atheism, which makes sense. Atheism makes sense after evaluation of one's religious experiences and subsequent rejection of their worth. It's the atheists that I don't get. It's like when they concluded that religion was damaging, they forgot that it was the damage that was negative, and not the religion, and proceeded to do their own damage, but in the name of Atheism instead of in the name of God.

Many atheists claim their beliefs are grounded in science and that they don't believe in things that can't be proven by science. This presents an interesting paradox because the disbelief in any form of deity has no scientific grounds. Basically, these atheists do not have a full understanding of the scientific method. A scientific hypothesis must be falsifiable, meaning that it is possible to prove it wrong. As an example, if I had a deck of cards and claimed the top card was the ace of spades. If I were wrong that would be proven when the card was turned over to reveal a different card. The existence of deity cannot be disproven through objective observation, therefore to hold a firm belief, as either a theist, or an atheist, is completely independent of science and both positions are equally valid (or invalid).

Another big hypocrisy that vocal atheist are prone to is in regards to the free practice of religion. Atheist activists categorically dismiss all religious beliefs as ridiculous, including those religions which are technically Atheist, or those that are fully accepting of science, as ridiculous. According to http://www.atheists.org :

We're respectful of the American people's individual rights to practice as they see fit (equal to our rights to do the same), but this does not mean we have to respect the decision.  If you choose to ignore logic and knowledge in order to believe in an invisible magic man in the sky, or Santa Claus for that matter, you've made a ridiculous decision and we're not going to pretend it's "just another way of looking at things."

The bulk of their vitriol is directed towards Abrahamic religions which are the religions of power and influence in most of the world. Atheists are hardly the only group to be frustrated by the ridiculousness of culturally mandated ignorance, but they destroy their chance of having political allies by summarily dismissing all belief systems as the same as those that kill people and demand lesser education for our children.

While it makes perfect sense to attack religious beliefs that fly in face of all evidence (such as the denial of evolution) or churches that extort money from their followers, it doesn't make sense to dismiss all spiritual people as ridiculous. As a Discordian, if you are going to call me ridiculous, I want you to know what you're talking about, first. I'm not offended if someone reads the principia and concludes it's ridiculous, but I am offended if someone reads the Bible and concludes that the principia is ridiculous, because that's just plain ignorant.