science, religion, atheism, and me
i don’t think that my opinions on religion are unique or groundbreaking, but i think the perspective that i see them from might be a bit different from the norm (maybe not). i’ve written a bunch of stuff on my beliefs. what’s below is some of it. its not meant to offend anyone and i hope that it doesn’t. if you are offended by it, i’m sorry, but quit being a bitch.
So, I’m an atheist. I don’t believe in a god or a deity or any higher power. If you know me, its probably not a big surprise, but it’s always best not to assume. First, I’m going to talk about the single most amazing thing in science, and what it means to me personally. Then, I’ll get into opinions about religion and why I’m not religious. I’m planning on closing with problems I have with theists and atheists. If people like this kind of post, I have a bunch more thoughts both written and in my brain that I would be glad to share.
I’m an atheist, and that makes my life awesome! I believe in science, or what Neil DeGrasse Tyson calls “the best way to know about our physical world.” [link] We are at the current point (as opposed to the end) of a chaotic process that resulted in the universe that surrounds us that took place over a time period longer than any person could possibly conceptualize. From the big bang, we had atoms. Forces fused these atoms together inside of stars to form other, heavier atoms (going from hydrogen to things like iron, oxygen, and carbon). These heavier atoms were ejected from dying stars during supernovas and formed molecules, which over time began to form the most basic building blocks of life. From there, evolution took hold. The organisms that did the best were more likely to reproduce, resulting in a newer generation that was even better suited to its environment. Given another unfathomly long timescale, these organisms became all of the creatures (bacteria, fungi, plants, animals) that we see around us today, and make planet earth the best documentary ever. This process happened, and is happening! This is so completely amazing to me that I can’t even put it into words. And we FOUND THIS OUT! After all of this time, the little pieces of matter were able to understand and articulate this. We are quite literally, to steal the phrase from sammy, matter trying to understand itself. Personally, the understanding of this process allows me to be amazed every single day, and it makes my life much better.
But all of that is just about science, which I don’t think is mutually exclusive to religion. (I could talk more on this, but that could easily take up a whole post). It is completely possible to trust the scientific process and God at the same time. Given my view on and understanding of science, all of the more fundamental, take the bible literally religions are obviously not for me, but those are just a some of a huge array of belief systems. I don’t think all religious people are homophobic creationists who believe the earth is 6,000 years old. The root of my atheism has nothing to do with a small faction of crazy people. Those exist everywhere and in every group of people you would care to look at.
The reason that I am an atheist can be traced back to one word: faith. In my mind, when a claim is made, the burden of proof falls on the shoulders of the person/group/whatever making the claim. If you tell me that ‘The Flying Saucer Cafe‘ is a great place to go grab a coffee and a sandwich and do some interneting, I will probably believe you, but if I asked you why you better have a better answer than “just trust me.” (for the record, the FSC is a pretty tight spot with a good atmosphere and free wifi). The words “just trust me” completely infuriate me. They basically mean, “we have no proof, but we want you to believe what we say anyway” which is something my humble 15 pounds of grey matter just can’t do. Going further, religion doesn’t even deny that this issue of proof is there. Rather, it embraces it, claiming that having faith is an essential tenant of the dogma. Thats why I can’t hop on board the S.S. Holy Ghost.
I do understand though that people can beyond my problem of faith. And if you are one of those people, awesome. I have no problem with someone being religious or being excited about their faith. I really go back to live and let live for pretty much everything. The only people that I have problems with are those who decide to push their beliefs (or the consequences of their beliefs) onto other people. There are very obvious public examples of this (gay marriage, creationism, etc.) that I won’t get into as I’m sure you can figure out what I have to say anyway. However, what does upset me is the passing on of religious beliefs from one generation to the next. Once you have established that your opinion and perspective is right based on faith, then it becomes very difficult to incorporate new ideas into your understanding that disagree with what you believe, even when there is proof. I feel like it is detrimental to society, and does hurt us collectively. At the same time, I’m not going to tell people how to raise their children and I would never act on this opinion. It’s a grudge I’ll keep private.
Lastly, I want to take a few seconds to talk to any atheist out there. I said that I have a live and let live philosophy to life. This includes you too. If you sneeze in an elevator and someone says “God bless you.” please don’t respond with some tantrum about how God doesn’t exist. I understand you feel like a persecuted minority, and at times that may be true. However, we don’t need to be militant in fighting back. I’m an atheist, and all of the things I said in this post are true. At the end of the day though, the best part about being an atheist is not having to concern yourself with any of this mumbo jumbo. You just live your life with one less thing to be stressed about. I think its pretty silly to get rid of whatever stress comes with religion and replace it with some other stress associated with atheism.
Disagree? Want to praise me? Have an idea on what else I should talk about? As always, feedback is welcome.
Hypothetical situation: You are having a conversation with a co-worker about the possibilities in the future to move up in the workplace. She is older and has a family. She is thinking of going for a higher position, and you agree that given her circumstance and experience, she should. You are new to the workplace, but have promise and ambition. She thinks that you should apply for a higher position as well. But then she says, but really in the end, it’s all apart of the plan God has for you. Side note: You also have a extreme distaste for public displays of blind, Christian faith since you subscribe to a similar line of beliefs as the ones you posted above. You are mild-mannered, but want to be an agent of change. How do you respond?
i guess a part of me doesn’t really want to be an agent of change all the time. if she’s older than me and has a family, she most likely has her opinions on religion cemented to the point that it would be impractical for me to try and dislodge them. i wouldn’t hide the fact that i’m an atheist and don’t believe that god has some plan, but i wouldn’t really put it out there either. in this situation i think it might come across as confrontational if handled improperly. i would apply to the position, because fuck it. also, i don’t get too worked up over displays of faith, because there isn’t really too much i can do about it that would have a positive effect on the situation.
Hey Mike – I’ll write some more later because right now I feel so sick and have an awful headache, but I thought I would share this with you: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKbeLfhHvPY , essentially it gives a scientific explanation for religious and mystical experiences that people report, thought you might find it interesting
We have had this argument before, but I will just put it out there. Your beef with “faith” is wonderful. However, to think that your knowledge of science and all that great stuff you rambled on about like atoms and whatever else, does not have a necessary component of faith in it, well, you are lying to yourself. Yes, you will say that you can prove it. That you can replicate this and that. But… no. To say that there is no doubt in science now, that there is no possibility of scientific flaw would be ridiculous. I think you can agree with that. So if you are not 100% sure, then there is some component of faith.
sure, nothing is 100% confirmed. however, we can conduct multiple (and very different) experiments that point towards the same conclusion. that still doesn’t mean that we have it exactly perfectly right, but the probability is higher. some of it does have to be taken on faith, but at least we’re trying. with religion, you don’t even have the attempt. rather, the great part about it is that you just believe, which i can’t do.
“with religion, you don’t even have the attempt [of proof...]” I am adding the “of proof” to reply. Hopefully that is what you meant. To say that there is no attempt to prove is… well… crap. First of all, let us start something scientific; nice and easy. Gravity. Everyone who has been schooled pretty much believes it. We live it… we stick to the ground. On the moon… apparently not so much (surprising I am not a science major, right?!) Someone, at some point, proved gravity. It was there before it was proved, it has been verified by a good amount of smart people, but probably around the age of 10 or so everyone pretty much buys it. I am not saying I do not think there is gravity.. I do! But the point is that we have faith in the abilities, intelligence, and verification of these people and their instruments. If you wanted to, Michael Zappitello, you would not be able to come up with a genuine new way for yourself to prove that there is gravity. You will pull equations from history, expirements people have done, maybe you can even get hooked up with some sweet science institute that will give you tools and mechanisms to prove that there is gravity. The point is that you have faith in all of these different ways of proving things.
To say religion, or religious people, do not have any attempt to prove that what they believe in at all is true, is… simple minded from your end. The amount of academia and study (scientific, might I add as well!) that has gone into religious thought and practices for thousands of years, for you to say that is not an attempt at all- is ridiculous, and insulting to many faith backgrounds and cultures. There are thousands, even millions of people from all of time, who have studied, tested, and experienced faith and God, over and over again so that the study of religion and God has become more sophisticated and precise. True, that the tools and systems of verification are different, and that in these two very different studies there are different values which each raise up and understand as more critical to understand for each field. I am fine with you having more faith in the scientific field, but just because the measures of what religions use are different does not mean that it is automatically wrong.
Hey I am actually one of Sam’s friends from home, but I just wanted to comment because I am an atheist as well and share the same mild-mannered, non-militant style of going about it. I think it is good talking about the atheist point of view because it is a social stigma and if we talk about it in a manner such as this, I feel we might be able to soften the stigma eventually. Even though this might be controversial to some, I understand all religion as a form of social function as well. Essentially people trying to make sense of the world and in a way, empower themselves. (As you might be able to tell I have a psychology/sociology) I was just wondering what your thoughts on this was.
thanks. thats kinda what i was trying to do. i’m an atheist, but i don’t think any part of my beliefs are that outrageous that one would be offended. as far as religion as a form of social function, i have a bunch of thoughts on that which may become a post that i put out there eventually. there is a bunch to talk about there.
I look forward to that possible post..it definitely is an interesting subject!
*correction I meant to say (I have a psychology sociology background) lol but not trying to be egotistical as that may have come off..i was just letting you know the angle I was going at it from.
hey mike!
I just tried searching for a video i watched form ted talks that was really interesting…it was a group of 3 professors, a physical anthropologist, a cognitive scientist and some other smart ass person working in some narrowly defined science field, and they were basically explaining what it is to be human/science and religion/moral codes. I can’t find the video but I will keep looking because I think you would really like it. Basically, the professors all agreed that faith with no proof has persisted in the population, and it must have some advantageous effect otherwise it wouldn’t have evolved in the first place. The same kind of evolutionary pressures have also been exerted on the brains that are thinking “faith? with no proof? eff that!” so it isn’t really very fair of an atheist or a person who took the leap of faith to call the other person stupid/moronic/damned/etc. Both ways of thinking exist in the population, both ways of thinking have had the same evolutionary pressures exerted on them, and both ways of thinking contribute something to the moral code/common code/social contract that allows our society to persist. Anyway, I will keep looking for it for you so you can get a better idea and more details. Keep on keeping on!
so i totally agree with what you’ve got there. the only think i would want to clarify is that i don’t think that religious people are stupid. i think that any segment of the population is going to have its share of smart people and stupid people.
believing in science is just as presumptuous as believing in god.
hey. thanks for reading, i hope you got something from it. i like your statement, and i think its worth talking about. do you have anything more to it though? i would disagree with it. science might start with some assumptions, but they are pretty basic ones. from there we can cement an idea through various experiments. confirming ideas independently of the original source. with religion there is an inherent lack of independent confirmation. i think this distinction puts religion on more shaky grounds than science.
I don’t think anything can be proven or disproven, which can me a pretty annoying person to impatient people. I just think that it’s important to be humble with whatever you believe, because in my opinion, it’s imposible to be sure that it is true. Moments of doubt arise in any dogma. In science, things can’t really be wholly true- they can only be less false. Science is indeed fascinating, mind blowing, and exciting. Societally, religion produces the same phenomena that science does with matter, molecules, etc- but within people and their socialization and their psyche- it’s amazing what they will accept and believe. In any case, I think it’s silly to act like anyone knows the truth, because really, we simply don’t.