Devout Atheism

I find belief in God exceedingly difficult to accept.

To me, there is nothing characteristically different in faith in a greater power more than any other superstition. They are equally untestable, unreasonable, and downright unscientific.

We humans are greater, more impressive beings than any other on the planet solely because we have inherited the unparalleled ability to reason.

It is the unequaled capacity of our minds that has given us the ability to travel to the moon, split the atom and begin unraveling the secrets of our origin. Without it, you wouldn’t be able to read this article.

But when we choose to believe in something like a god, we throw that reason away; in a sense, compromising our humanity.

Our species should be above this.

Our focus should lie not in appeasing some imagined being in the sky, or attaining bliss after our bodies have perished, but in using our reason to create a more balanced, harmonious world here on Earth.

Some theists contend that, without religion, without a fear of the afterlife, we cannot do this, we cannot be moral beings. Without faith we would all be running around naked raping and killing one another at will.

Yet, in practice, the opposite seems to be true. I need not point out the countless numbers that have suffered, and continue to suffer, on behalf of organized religions of all sort.

But can you name a crusade or oppressive regime inspired by atheism?

This is not to say that all, or even most, religions will necessarily inspire acts of violence, but that people should not feel that they need it to do acts of good.

If we dispel this notion, we throw away countless justifications for evils like ideologically driven killings, oppression of homosexuals and other minorities and the condemnation of other beliefs which could not exist without faith in the supernatural.

If we cease needing religious belief to compel us to do good things we can find humanity more meaningfully united in peace and reason, and will find ourselves reliant not on the weaknesses of our spirit and superstition, but on the strength of our greatest intellect.

The human condition would be better suited by our taking support and comfort in each other, rather than in the dreamed-up love of dreamed-up gods.