My views on religion and atheism.

I’ve been reading Richard Dawkins’ “The God Delusion”, which is a highly praised and extremely interesting book on atheism. He aspires (quite successfully, if I may say so) to disprove god’s existence, and to show the gullibility of religious organizations and people who follow them. He makes very clear and accurate points and arguments, and manages to make the atheist lifestyle, usually seen as “bleak” or “pessimistic”, seem attractive indeed.
With this book in mind, and with the many researches, conversations and experiments I had in the past in relation to religion and theology, I decided to write my conclusion on the subject. To begin with, I decided to call myself an atheist, but my interpretation of the word is very different of the one that’s usually meant when referring to it. I am a person who has tried many a time, and to no avail, different forms of belief. I have grown up a christian, later went on searching around for other beliefs and practices, like Wicca, reiki, hinduism… I even thought of a theory (inspired by the, rather eccentric beliefs of Alexander Scriabin) of how a human being, as an individual, not as a race, with all of his actions influencing every part of the world, perhaps even the universe, is, as a matter of fact, a god. All these beliefs, even though I really wished to be able to believe them, did nothing but produce a feeling of passive hypocrisy in myself, and that was the reason to move on to the next belief system, for I, at least, understand now that, if something does not feel right, something is amiss, which is my first argument against a belief system… And the worst gut feeling I get everytime I meet people who follow one or another belief, is their fanaticism… The fact that, whatever you do or are or say, they will try to persuade you how right their belief is. That is my second doubting point: How can something be so right and perfect and good, if people can get so ravingly mad about it (even though, I must admit, I myself am not much better than that… I can get extremely passionate about my views, whether political or philosophical)? And then comes my third argument, which is actually closely connected to the first: If it is the absolute truth, why can I doubt it? Why is it then so difficult to accept, for example, that Allah, or whoever, created the universe if nothing existed before him? When I think of truth I think of something that’s so devastatingly real that no evidence would be necessary. When I see a chair I know it’s a chair. I know its purpose, and I know it’s there. If this is not the case, then I have every reason to doubt it (even though every doubt would probably disappear with enough evidence). So suffice to say that I don’t like religion, and I don’t like fundamentalism as much as I don’t like people who adher to them with such fanaticism (not passion, mind you, it’s a small difference). I also am quite reluctant to respect such beliefs, because I consider them foolish, because, the way I see it, if God were to exist, he probably would’ve much better things to keep him busy than us.
So here comes my interpretation of the word atheist: “atheism” comes from the greek word “theos”, which means god, and the prevative “a-“, which indicates something that does not exist, or is absent. The word atheism is normally used to indicate the nonexistence of a god. My interpretation, however, indicates non-belief in any god. Which means that, even though god may or may not exist, I simply do not care. I am too selfish to care. Which means that, even if I would know for certain some god existed, I would not pray, nor ask him for help, nor let him make decisions for me. If I knew he created me, I’d reckon he gave me hands, eyes, ears, legs etc. for a reason, and thus I would utilize them appropriately. Thus I do not believe in god, and I do not care if he exists or not. What I do believe, and what I do care exists, are myself, my friends, family and loved ones, the world around me, the people around me, and the things I can experience. These things are tangible, and these things are worth fighting for. People who give their lives for their gods are fools. People who try to convince others of their beliefs are fools. People who believe in god are not necessarily fools, but most of them give the rest a bad name. If I do something good, I do not do it because my god dictates me to, but for the satisfaction I receive by doing it, and for the love and gratitude others might show to me, when I help them. If I do something bad, I do not fear my god’s punishment, but the consequence of my action, not in the afterlife, but yet in this one. I do not think one requires a religion, or a god, to be a morally better person. One requires knowledge of his actions, that is all.
That said, I have to admit there are some things I can believe in, but they do not require the existence of a god, as it were. For example I do believe in what we call a soul, even if it’s just sparks in our brains, these sparks are energy, and that energy always recycles itself, so, technically speaking, our soul is immortal. I also can accept theories on what we call “magic” (which I think is the same as art: the creative use of energy), auras (which is simply the body heat of a being, and it might be possible to read one’s personality from it), and some other minor things, whose existence may or may not be proven scientifically in the future.
To conclude I want to say that we should not waste ourselves to faith. We should live our lives as much as we can. Perhaps reincarnation waits for us, but perhaps we’ve got only this once. So just in case, try to be healthy, try to be good, and try to be happy. If god would exist, he would want nothing more from us than to be happy, anyway.
-Alexander N. Arvanitis

~ by Λέλεκας on January 17, 2008.