Standing up for Atheism and providing an Antidote to the religion virus

Revitalised Atheist

Before the weekend I had decided that I was going to concentrate less on looking at anything to do with religion and atheism and this was because there were other things that I want to spend time on. I had decided that it would be better to work on my tutorial videos for applications on mobile devices, iPads, Android devices and the tutorials for Mac users. I felt I was getting distracted by the rat run that I was going down by discussing my atheist views. Like an idiot, I put up one last post on Facebook on something to do with atheism and I had some reactions to it that required me to defend what I had said. I hadn’t said anything that was particularly provocative, but the readers of the post who were just readers of my Facebook stream and not mentioned in particular, decided to take offence. There was no offence intended, it was just that the questions or the atheist statements were to difficult for these Christians.

The following day I posted a follow-up to explain the difference between ignorance and a wilful ignorance and I upset people even more. This ended up with a load of abuse from one person and the other person who got upset first, then unfriended me on Facebook. Naturally I defended myself and in doing so I made more comments about religion that the Christians didn’t like and so it grew and built upon itself. Then, un-asked for, other persons joined in and sadly these were family members claiming of being upset by atheistic views. At no time did I get rude specifically to any one person, nor did I say anything hostile about religion as far as I was concerned. Yet these people still got upset and claimed that I said they were foolish. I did not resort to any bad language nor specifically aimed personal insults and yet the abuse kept coming in.

Truth and honesty

It seems that I was expected to not tell the truth and not be honest about my views on religion and atheism. Religious people expect you to shut up, not ask questions and to let them get on with it. I have no problem with letting these people get on with their ridiculous rituals and believing whatever they want to believe. I do however, take objection to being told to not ask questions or to publicly air my own views. I do take objection to being told what I can say or do and I do not like being told what I can think. I find it especially wrong that I’m being told to shut up when the religious promote their ideas at every opportunity in the public media. In fact, that was what prompted me to write a post on Facebook initially on Friday evening. Cliff Richard was on a early evening magazine programme called The One Show and he is one of these weird christian types and they also had another article on the show to link into Christianity with a look at a Christian musical group that were part of the Salvation Army. I find things like this particularly insidious as there is rarely a contrary view given to provide balance. They show it as being completely normal to believe that there is a magic man in the sky and it is all part of the big picture to have the general populace of a society under the thumb of religion.

Respect for beliefs

It seems that the theist believes that everybody should respect a religious belief because of the fact is that it is religious. This is a rule that they have made for the benefit of religion to stop people asking questions that might lead them to actually start thinking for themselves. So it must be wrong in their eyes if an atheist says to a theist ‘so this magic man in the sky of yours, how come he is invisible?’ Or the question ‘If it says in your magic book that the Earth is only about 10,000 years old, how come we have scientific evidence of the Earth being around 54 billion years old? Or ‘do you really think it is possible that there was a magic garden with a woman that was made from a rib which was taken from a man called Adam and all the trouble started when a talking snake tricked the woman into eating an apple?’

Feeling foolish

It seems to me that the reason that the theists get so upset is because when you ask them honest questions that expose the ridiculous nature of their belief, it is not surprising that they feel foolish. The atheist asking the question hasn’t called them foolish, silly or stupid, but of course the believer understandably feels that way. So isn’t it any wonder that this leads to claims of getting upset and accusations of bullying or hatred. It still seems amazing sometimes that it takes so little for a Christian to feel like they are being oppressed. It is especially amazing when you consider all of the terrible things that have been done in the name of one religion or another against both non-believers and also followers of other religions. People will actually fight to the death over who has the better imaginary friend.

Standing up for reason, science and being an atheist

I refuse to be bullied and censored by these religions and these religious followers. After this weekend of aggression and pressure from the religious I am even more determined to promote atheism. Religion and the belief in whichever of the gods is harmful to humanity and deserves to be stamped out. I’m not going to follow the example given by the religious who have over the years killed thousands if not millions of people for not believing or thinking in the same way as they have been indoctrinated or brainwashed into thinking themselves. To a large extent all we need to do as atheists is to promote education and to encourage the asking of questions and ask for critical thinking. The religious of this world can’t really help themselves, they are the way that they are due to the effectiveness of the indoctrination and brainwashing by their cults. It is not surprising with religion being such a big business and with the amount of time that they have had to perfect their methods. I would like to think that with education getting better and with the global connections now possible through the Internet, that sensible, reasonable humanism will eventually win the day and religion will wither and shrivel away to nothing.