Religion of Fear

Doug's got an awesome new post about his conversion from a godless heathen to a Warrior for Christ. It's a must read..

As I turned away from God, I believed at that time that my life became less meaningful. There was no gratifying end to all the storms of life endured here on Earth. Humanity became nothing more than a group of atoms that, in time, would leave no trace of existence in the giant dustbin that is the vast universe. All human achievements would be lost. No philosophy would remain, no evidence that humanity ever existed. Only the inevitability of nothingness would remain.

That's the standard meme of religion.. it's a very old philosophy.

The assumption goes.. unless one believes that there is a God and that our soul remains intact after death, there is no reason not to be completely immoral. There is nothing to "live" for.. no beauty in the world that could ever have any meaning for what it is.

That is why religion fails.. that is why it is fundamentally flawed and evil.

To make matters worse, because people like Doug are so empty without convincing themselves of the existence of some supernatural overlord, they assume the rest of us are exactly the same.

Truly.. people like Doug cannot possibly understand how an atheist can go through life happy and pleased with joy in the real things that the world gives us all.

Instead.. Doug, and those like him, are so grounded in fear that they cannot possibly imagine how anyone else can find a peaceful serenity in life as it is. Doug assumes everyone else must be as empty and fearful.

I feel sorry for them, that they are so empty and devoid of any real humanity.

I left two comments for him.. the one I'm pasting below.. and one that I'm sure he'll delete because in his post, he claimed;

Intellectualism, and faith, were sworn enemies, in my opinion at that time. I was too smart to follow the faith of my childhood. My 172 IQ demanded that I dispassionately follow the conclusions of the world, rather than a Christian God that only desired to limit me in my life, and hold me back from achieving the greatness I knew was on the horizon for me.

And I nearly spit coffee on my monitor when I read that.. LOL

The IQ's of Steven Hawking and Albert Einstein are estimated at about 160. They've got nothing on Doug.. lol

Anyway.. my comment;

You raise an excellent point that is often missed in this whole debate.

You assume that everyone must be in "despair" if they think that life is truly temporary and there is nothing after.

You state it perfectly;

As I turned away from God, I believed at that time that my life became less meaningful. There was no gratifying end to all the storms of life endured here on Earth.

What you're missing, Doug, is that many atheists, as well as agnostics, deists, etc., don't need to think that life continues after death in order to find meaning in life right now.

People are happy because of life, and do not live in fear of something they cannot control. They are moral just because that is how they are, that is their nature. They need no fear of some deity to give them morality, they just are.

The mistake you make, and which is extremely common from religious people, is that you assume everyone else thinks as you do and has the same fears as you do.

It is true, Doug.. that we come from star dust. Nearly every particle of our bodies was created in the center of a star that became a nova and exploded a very long time ago. In time, we will be again nothing but star dust as our Sun expands to consume our planet, and then explodes.

Nothing will remain.. but the star dust that we were born from.. and that's okay. What we do on this planet, right here, right now, for each other.. that is the meaning of life... we do not need to convinces ourselves of anything else to have that meaning.

Because you need God in order to be a moral human being, it's fine that you believe in God. Whatever works for you is great. Just, please, stop assuming that everyone else needs that same coping mechanism.

We are not all the same.