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A Cousin’s Question April 12, 2006

Posted by AkumAPRIME in : Philosophy , trackback

My cousin Kristy wrote me this Email:

Hey Evan. Unbeknownst to you, I pop in on your blog from time to time to see where in the world you are now. I probably know more about you now than I ever have in my whole life, and I’ve got to ask one question: how did you arrive at the conclusion that you are an atheist? As you may know, I am wholeheartedly and totally Christian, and I’ve never had the opportunity to ask a real-life atheist how they became one. So if you don’t mind, and you have time, I’d really like to know. Be honest–I’m genuinely curious and it’s impossible for you to hurt my feelings just because I happen to disagree with you. Thanks! your cousin, Kristy

In answer, I replied:

To be clear, I am a strong Atheist. This just means that instead of Not believing there is a God/s, I believe there IS no God. Do you see this difference? One might call weak Atheism agnosticism; just not knowing. But I take the view that there isn’t an omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent God.

A) There is no direct evidence for a god. By this I mean God has never been seen or measured… Quantified, in any way. Especially not by me, which would be the most compelling evidence. The world around us can be explained without a God, so I find no reason to believe that this world couldn’t exist without a God.

B) The Christian God in particular is contradictory. Is your god omniscient (all knowing)? Do you have free will? Well you can’t have both. If s/he is omnipotent, then s/he knows whether or not you are going to hell. If s/he knows that, then you do not have free will, as everything you will do is already known and decided. If s/he Doesn’t know what you will do… well then what Else about your God is off base?

C) The history of Christianity, and all religions, are dubious at best. The Bible has gone through So many changes and has been altered by so many people, that it can Hardly be considered the words of God, who is said to have originally inspired the Gospels.

D) The intense hypocrisy of religions is astounding. For example, in America, where we are all supposed to have equal rights, homosexuals are denied equality. This is based on the idea that homosexuality is a moral weakness, or even a damnable sin! This is based on biblical doctrine. But the same people that are so quick to damn gay people, have No problem eating Shrimp (Click here to see what I mean)! It is this tendency to select certain parts of religion to accept, but not others, that adds to my belief that religion exists ONLY to make us feel better, to make us more certain about what we already think.

There are ALOT of myths regarding Atheism and what it is and isn’t. THIS website does the best job of explaining. I’m sad to say but it seems the best weapons that the religious authorities have is the total willingness of their subjects to believe the authorities, with no research of their own and Total devotion. Evolution and gravity, for examples, are really not even a question anymore; there are some who even say the earth is still flat and the universe revolves around the Earth, using the same logic the Intelligent Design theorists use. Evolution defies the bible. The bible thus loses credibility to me. I don’t know if this answers your question, but when it all comes down to it, we All make a faith based decision when we think about the universe. I guess the only way we’ll know is when we die. oh hey, cool that you read my Blog! ;)

love, Evan HB

ps: How are things? I was just about to say I’m in Thailand now, but I guess you will see pictures soon enough.

I will update it to be a bit more clear and full as to my opinion on the matter when time permits.

Comments»

1. Scoosh - April 15, 2006

I’m interested to see her reply to this. I had the same conversation with Maryam in Taiwan and she is in the process of turning agnostic, lol. It’s nice to see someone really listen, understand, and accept logic.