Questions about Atheism: Answered

I posted a blog a week ago welcoming questions about atheism in general and my atheism and received 8 questions. Below are the 8 questions with my answers. If you have anymore questions after reading this or need me to clarify anything please let me know I will be happy to help.

I hope you enjoy and I hope it gives you a little more information about myself and possibly other atheists.

1- What was your upbringing like? Were you raised agnostic?

My very early life was Christian based. My mom was living with my aunt and both were single moms. I don’t remember a whole lot about that time as I was quite young, not more than 3 or 4 years old, but I do remember the 2 moms would load all 6 of us kids up and we would go to church. I remember learning songs like “Yes Jesus Loves Me,” but that is about it.

As I grew older I know God was mentioned from time to time and I had a Bible Stories for Children book. I remember a couple of the stories from that book but being most interested in Sampson and Delilah for some reason. I also remember being extremely confused about the concept of a holy trinity and how God could be God AND Jesus. The whole thing boggled my poor little pre-teen mind.

God wasn’t a daily thing in much of my life but it was present from time to time. Once in awhile my mom and my brother would go to church. I can remember going a time or two but thinking it was silly to need to go to church to worship someone that I was told was “everywhere” so I didn’t go very often.

So, long story short, I was raised semi-Christian but not in a way that directly influenced my belief or non-belief in God. I would say at that point I was closest to being a deist as I figured a higher power was possible to start the world but I didn’t really think of it as the Christian described being.

2- At what point in your life were you able to put the label of agnostic on your beliefs? What events (if any) led to that?

I am not really sure I can pin this down. I remember as a 6 or 7 year old child being a bit “creeped out” that God watched us all the time (as I was told). I wondered if he would watch while I showered and such and that didn’t leave me with a good feeling.

I can say I have always been a skeptic so I never really believed the way most people that do, do. I thought it was a neat idea etc but I didn’t actually expect anything to come of my prayers and never heard God speak to me etc.

It wasn’t until a couple of years ago that I started really identifying as an atheist, but mostly because I hadn’t really thought about it much until that time. I also took a class 2 semesters ago about Genesis and that really cemented it in for me. I am of the mind that you can’t take part of the Bible as literal without accepting all of it as literal (how do you tell myth from what is real otherwise?) so even the idea of Noah’s Ark seemed silly and unbelievable to me. There was also a lot of messed up stuff in Genesis upon further reading that turned me off quite a bit.

3- What do you want me to know about you and your beliefs?

I am not sure really. I would want you to know that I don’t think people that do believe in a God or gods are foolish. I understand why many believe and why it would be a positive thing for some people and know of at least a few Christians in particular that are amazing, wonderful people and feel as though they can give that credit to Jesus. I am completely okay with that.

I like to think of all people as people so I have a difficult time when religious groups (not just Christians) act out against gay rights or women’s rights etc.

4- Are there things I do in my day-to-day life (apart from the obvious prayer before meal type situations) in which I am pushing my (general my) beliefs on you without realizing it?

The only time religion really impacts my day to day life is when it applies to politics. One really touchy issue for me is gay marriage, which some Christians are using the Bible to fight against. There is no real downside to gay marriage from my point of view. More income via marriage licenses and weddings, happy couples able to get married, etc and the only reasons I have heard against it are that the Bible is against it/God doesn’t like gay people, or that it “breaks down” the fabric of marriage because a “marriage” is between a man and a woman. I really dislike when other peoples religions are used to force through political agendas.

5- What is the point of anyone being alive if we are just to die and go nowhere?

Why does there have to be a point? I don’t think there is a specific purpose to my life. I am living because I was born that way and I want to live, I enjoy life, I like watching my kids grow up and I love the smell of leaves in the fall. So far as I know my purpose in life is to enjoy it while it lasts, because I only get so much of it, and to try to have a positive impact on society.

6- How can you be sure that there is NO god? because we are talking about atheism not agnostic.

You have to be careful with these terms because while they complement each other, they are not dealing with the same topics. Theism deals with belief, gnosticism deals with knowledge, so I'm actually an agnostic atheist(the vast majority are agnostic atheists), because I both do not claim to know if a god exists and also do not believe. There are also gnostic atheists(not very common) who both do not believe and also claim to know there are no gods. So to answer the question I am most certainly not sure, but being not sure has nothing to do with the truth of the claim or my belief in it. Agnosticism must be qualified, one can be agnostic toward many things, I'm agnostic with respect to leprechauns as well.


7- Is there a way to prove to people that there is NO God?

First of all you can’t prove a negative, but aside from that I highly doubt it. The burden of proof is always on those that claim a position, its not my job to prove or disprove. I also don’t really think there is a place for proof in the world of theism, its all about belief and faith. I can’t prove your personal belief “wrong” because it just a belief.

If I said to you can you PROVE that Odin wasn’t a real Norse God? That he never existed? Wouldn’t you ask the people that believe in Odin to prove he is a true god instead of you trying to disprove it?

8- What is the foundation for morality for an atheist? How can an atheist fight for certain standards and values (i.e., liberty, equality, protection for children, etc)? In other words where do these standards come from and how can they be expected of others?

The morality for most atheists comes from what societies deem moral, if you want to be allowed to stay in your community, you need to follow the rules and be a decent person. It is as basic as what is taught to every child in grade school, treat others the way you would want to be treated. If you want to be around people and in society then you need to do things that don’t get you kicked out. If you kill someone, those in your community will remove you from society by putting you in jail etc. It is about making yourself look at life from another persons perspective and thinking about what you would want if you were them.

This can be seen throughout history, but most recently with slavery. Slavery was once acceptable and the morals of societies at that time did not have anything to say about it, or considered it normal. I’m sure I don’t have to point out that at the time the Bible was written slavery was normal and acceptable, as long as you followed the guidelines. I don’t think God has ever told us that slavery is wrong and immoral, our medical knowledge has simply improved and it became obvious that other races(or lower status families) weren’t “sub-human” and society subsequently deemed it immoral to treat people as property. Today it’s homosexuality, my morals already guide me toward “they are people too and should have the same rights as any person”, and society is slowly moving in that direction. I already mentioned above about religion being one of the main (if not the only) group against gay marriage.

In other words I fight for liberty and equality for all people because I want to be treated equally and have liberty. Its actually quite selfish as I am trying to behave the way I want other people to act towards me.

As to how it is taught, it doesn’t really need to be. Even a young child learns without prompting that if you always steal toys from your buddy, your buddy won’t like you and won’t play anymore.

I’ve seen some amazing videos of teaching in Japan showing very young kids being left alone to resolve issues on their own instead of being broken up and told how to resolve by an adult. They end up resolving the problem the same way many species do, the group excludes the individual that is acting without regard to the group, that individual realizes their mistake and makes an attempt to make amends so they can be a part of the group again. I try as often as possible to leave Mr. A and Ms I alone to work out their own problems, and they almost always work out a mutually beneficial solution all on their own. We don’t need teaching and instructing to be good to each other, its hard wired into us to learn it, and when someone doesn’t participate they are removed.