What is atheism. What is Atheism and who is an atheist? Esoteric look
Atheism ... Unwillingness to deny the obvious ...
Somewhere on our planet, a man has just abducted a little girl. Soon he will rape her, torture her, and then kill her. If this monstrous crime does not occur right now, it will happen in a few hours, a maximum of days. We can talk about this with confidence in the statistical, ruling life of 6 billion people. The same statistics claim that right at that moment parents of the girl believe that almighty and loving god cares for them... Do they have reason to believe in this? Is it good that they believe in this? .. No...
The whole point of atheism lies in this answer. Atheism - this is not a philosophy; it is not even a worldview; it’s just a reluctance to deny the obvious. Unfortunately, we live in a world where denying the obvious is a matter of principle. The obvious has to be stated again and again. The obvious has to be defended. This is an ungrateful task. It entails accusations of selfishness and callousness. Moreover, this is a task that an atheist does not need. It is worth noting that no one has to declare himself as a non-astrologer or non-alchemist. As a result, we have no words for people who deny the viability of these pseudosciences. Based on the same principle, atheism is a term that simply should not be.
Atheism is a natural reaction of a rational person on .
Atheist - everyonewho believe that 260 million Americans (87% of the population), who, according to polls, never doubt the existence of God, should provide evidence of his existence and especially his mercy - given the continued death of innocent people, witnesses of which we we become every day. Only an atheist is able to appreciate the absurdity of our position. Most of us believe in a god who is as believable as the gods of ancient Greek Olympus. Not a single person, regardless of his merits, can apply for an elected position in unless he publicly declares his confidence in the existence of such a god.
A significant part of what is called “public policy” in our country is subject to taboos and prejudices worthy of medieval theocracy. The situation in which we are is deplorable, unforgivable and terrible. She would be funny if so many were not at stake. We live in a world where everything changes, and everything - both good and bad - sooner or later comes to an end. Parents lose their children; lose their parents. Husbands and wives suddenly break up to never meet again. Friends say goodbye in a hurry, not suspecting that they saw each other for the last time. our lifeas far as the eye can see, it is one grand drama of loss. Most people, however, think that there is a remedy against any loss.
If we live righteously - not necessarily in accordance with ethical standards, but within the framework of certain ancient beliefs and codified behavior - we will get everything we want - after death. When our bodies are no longer able to serve us, we simply dump them, like unnecessary ballast, and go to the land where we will be reunited with all those whom we loved in life. Of course, too rational people and other rabble will remain beyond the threshold of this happy haven; but those who drowned skepticism in themselves during life can fully enjoy eternal bliss.
We live in peace difficult to imagine, amazing things - from the energy of thermonuclear fusion, which gives light to our sun, to the genetic and evolutionary consequences of this light, which have been unfolding on the Earth for billions of years - and with all this Paradise meets our most petty desires with the thoroughness of a Caribbean cruise. This is truly amazing.. Someone gullible might even think that a man, fearing to lose everything that is dear to him, created both paradise and his guardian of God in his own image. Think of a hurricane Katrinadevastated. More than a thousand people died, tens of thousands lost all their property, and more than a million were forced to leave their homes. It is safe to say that at the very moment when a hurricane struck the city, almost every New Orleans resident believed in an omnipotent, omniscient, and merciful god.
But what did god dowhile a hurricane was destroying their city?
He could not help but hear the prayers of the elderly, who were looking for salvation from the water in the attics and eventually choked. All these people were believers. All these respectable men and women have prayed throughout their lives. Only atheist I have the courage to admit the obvious: these unfortunate people diedtalking with an imaginary friend. Of course, a storm of biblical proportions is ready to fall on New Orleans was warned more than once, and the measures taken in response to the erupted were tragically inadequate. But they were inadequate only in terms of sciences. Thanks to meteorological calculations and satellite images, scientists forced the mute nature to speak and predicted the direction of Katrina's strike.
God has not told anyone about his plans. If the inhabitants of New Orlen fully relied solely on the mercy of the Lord, they would have learned of the approach of a deadly hurricane with only the first gusts of wind. However, according to a survey conducted by the Post, 80% survivors of the hurricane claim that it only strengthened their faith in God.
While Katrina absorbed New Orleans, almost one thousand Shiite pilgrims was trampled to death on the bridge in Iraq. There is no doubt that these pilgrims earnestly believed in goddescribed in the Qur'an: their whole life was subordinated to the indisputable fact of its existence; their women hid their faces from his gaze; their brothers in faith regularly killed each other, insisting on their interpretation of his teachings. It would be surprising if at least one of the survivors in this tragedy lost faith. Most likely, the survivors imagine that they were saved, thanks god's mercy.
Only atheist fully sees the boundless narcissism and self-deception of believers. Only an atheist understands how immoral it is to believe that the same one saved you from disaster and drowned babies in their cradles. Refusing to hide the reality of human suffering behind the sweet fantasy of eternal bliss, atheist acutely feels how precious human life is - and how regrettable that millions of people endure each other’s suffering and give up happiness on a whim of one’s own imagination.
It is hard to imagine what a catastrophe of what magnitude could shake the religious faith. it was not enough. There wasn’t enough genocide in - even though there were priests among the murderers armed with a machete. Least, 300 million people, among them many children, died from smallpox in the XX century. Verily, the ways of the Lord are inscrutable. It seems that even the most egregious contradictions are not an obstacle to the religious faith. In matters of faith, we have completely taken off the earth. Of course, believers do not tire of assuring each other that God is not responsible for human suffering. However, how else should we understand the assertion that God is omnipresent and omnipotent? There is no other answer, and it is time to stop evading it.
Problem theodicy (excuses from God) is as old as the world, and we must consider it resolved. If God exists, he either cannot prevent terrible disasters or does not want to do this. Therefore, God is either powerless or cruel. At this point, pious readers will resort to the following pirouette: one cannot approach a god with human standards of morality. But what measures do believers use to prove the goodness of the Lord? Of course, human. Moreover, every god who cares about little things like gay marriage or the name that worshipers call him is not at all so mysterious. If the god of Abraham exists, he is not worthy not only of the grandeur of the universe. is he not even worthy of man.
There is, of course, one more answer - the most reasonable and least odious at the same time: biblical god is a figment of human imagination.
As Richard Dawkins remarked, we are all atheists of Zeus and. Only atheist understands that the biblical god is no different from them. And, as a result, only atheist may have enough compassion to see the depth and significance of human pain. It is terrible that we are doomed to die and lose everything that is dear to us; It is doubly terrible that millions of people suffer without any need during their lifetime. The fact that a large part of this suffering is directly to blame - religious intolerance, religious wars, religious fantasies and embezzlement of already scarce resources for religious needs - makes atheism moral and intellectual the need. This need, however, places the atheist on the fringes of society. Refusing to lose touch with reality, atheist turns out to be divorced from the illusory world of his neighbors.
The nature of religious faith ...
According to recent polls, 22% Americans are absolutely sure that Jesus will return to Earth no later than 50 years later. Yet 22% believe that this is likely. Apparently, these 44% - the same people who attend church at least once a week, who believe that God literally bequeathed the land of Israel to the Jews, and who want our children not to be taught the scientific fact of evolution. The president Bush understands well that such believers represent the most monolithic and active layer of the American electorate. As a result of this, their views and prejudices influence almost any decision of national importance. Obviously, they have drawn the wrong conclusions from this and are now feverishly leafing through the Scriptures, racking their brains over how best to cajole the legions of those who vote on the basis of religious dogmas. More 50% Americans “negatively” or “extremely negatively” refer to those who do not believe in God; 70% they believe that presidential candidates should be "deeply religious."
Obscurantism in the United States is gaining strength - in our schools, in our courts and in all branches of the federal government. Only 28% Americans believe in evolution; 68% believe in Satan. Ignorance to such an extent, permeating the entire body of the awkward, is a problem for the whole world. Although any intelligent person can easily criticize religious fundamentalism, the so-called "moderate religiosity" still retains a prestigious position in our society, including academia. There is a certain amount of irony in this, since even fundamentalists use their brains more consistently than “moderate” ones.
Fundamentalists they justify their religious views with ridiculous evidence and groundless logic, but at least they try to find at least some rational justification. Moderate believers, on the contrary, are usually limited to listing the good consequences of religious faith. They do not say that they believe in God, because Bible prophecies have been fulfilled; they simply claim to believe in God because faith "gives meaning to their life." When several hundred thousand people were killed the day after Christmas, fundamentalists immediately interpreted this as evidence of God's anger. It turns out that God sent another vague warning about the sinfulness of abortion, idolatry and homosexuality. Although monstrous from a moral point of view, such an interpretation is logical, if we proceed from certain (absurd) premises.
Moderate believers, on the contrary, refuse to draw any conclusions from the actions of the Lord. God remains a secret of secrets, a source of comfort, easily compatible with the most terrible atrocities. In the face of disasters such as the Asian Tsunami, the liberal religious community readily carries sugary and mind-numbing nonsense. And yet, people of good will naturally prefer such truisms to the odious moralization and prophecies of true believers. Between catastrophes, the emphasis on mercy (rather than anger) is certainly a merit of liberal theology. However, it is worth noting: when the swollen bodies of the dead are pulled out of the sea, we observe human, not divine mercy.
In the days when the element pulls thousands out of the hands of mothers and indifferently drowns them in the ocean, we see with extreme clarity that liberal theology is the most blatantly absurd of human illusions. Even the theology of God's anger is more intelligent intellectually. If God exists, his will is not a mystery. The only mystery during such terrible events is the readiness of millions of mentally healthy people believe to the incredible and consider it the pinnacle of moral wisdom. Moderate theists argue that an intelligent person can believe in God simply because such faith makes him happier, helps him overcome the fear of death, or gives meaning to his life.
This statement - pure absurdity.
Its absurdity becomes apparent as soon as we replace the concept of “god” with some other comforting assumption: imagine, for example, that someone wants to believe that somewhere in his garden a diamond the size of a refrigerator is buried. Without a doubt, believe in this very nicely. Now imagine what would happen if someone followed the example of moderate theists and began to defend their faith as follows: when asked why he thinks a diamond is buried in his garden that is thousands of times larger than any hitherto known, he gives answers like “This faith is the meaning of my life”, or “On Sundays my family loves to arm themselves with shovels and look for him”, or “I would not want to live in a universe without a diamond the size of a refrigerator in my garden”.
Clearly, these answers are inadequate. Worse: it may answer either madmaneither idiot.
Neither Pascal's bet, nor the “leap of faith” of Kierkegaard, nor the other tricks that theists make are worth a damn. Vera into the existence of god means faith that his existence is in some way correlated with yours, that his existence is a direct cause of faith. Between the fact and its adoption, there must be some causal connection or the appearance of such a connection. Thus, we see that religious statements, if they claim to be a description of the world, should be probative - like any other statements. For all their sins against the mind, religious fundamentalists understand this; moderate believers - almost by definition - no.
The incompatibility of reason and faith for centuries it has been an obvious fact of human knowledge and social life. Either you have good reasons to adhere to certain views, or you have no such reasons. People of any belief naturally recognize supremacy of reason and resort to his help at the first opportunity. If a rational approach allows you to find arguments in favor of the doctrine, it is certainly taken into service; if a rational approach threatens learning, it makes fun of it. Sometimes this happens in one sentence. Only if rational evidence in favor of a religious doctrine is unconvincing or completely absent, or if everything is against it, doctrines resort to Faith. In other cases, they simply give reasons for their beliefs (for example, “the New Testament confirms the prophecies,” “I saw the face of Jesus in the window,” “we prayed, and our daughter’s tumor stopped growing”). As a rule, these bases are insufficient, but nevertheless they are better than the complete absence of bases.
Faith is just a license to deny the mindthat followers of religions give themselves. In a world that continues to be shaken by a gnawing of incompatible creeds, in a country that has become hostage to the medieval concepts of “god,” “the end of history” and “immortality of the soul,” the irresponsible division of public life into questions of reason and questions of faith is no longer acceptable.
Faith and the public good ...
Believers regularly state that atheism is responsible for a number of the most heinous crimes of the 20th century. However, although the regimes of Hitler, Mao and Pol Pot were indeed anti-religious to varying degrees, they did not differ in excessive rationality. [“Stalin” and “” are explicitly added here for reasons of loyalty, which somewhat excuses the author - conformism is excusable, because the force breaks the straw. But oblivion - for exactly the same reasons - that hitler's regime was more than religious and persecuted atheists - no longer, because Mr. Harris himself chose the topic “for atheism”, and lying about the “atheism” of the Nazi regime is a favorite trick of clerical propaganda. - VK.]. Their official propaganda was a terrible jumble of misconceptions - misconceptions about the nature of race, the economy, nationality, historical progress, and the dangers of intellectuals. In many ways, religion has been a direct culprit even in these cases.
True, no matter how shocking it sounds, this is as follows: a person can be so well educated that he will be able to build an atomic bomb without ceasing to believe that in Paradise 72 virgins await him. Such is the ease with which religious faith splits human consciousness, and such is the degree of tolerance with which our intellectual circles regard religious nonsense. Only atheist I understood what should already be obvious to any thinking person: if we want to eliminate the causes of religious violence, we must strike at false truths ...
More detailed and a variety of information about the events taking place in Russia, Ukraine and other countries of our beautiful planet, you can get on Online Conferencesconstantly held on the site "Keys of knowledge." All Conferences - open and completely free. We invite everyone interested. All conferences are broadcast on the Internet Radio "Renaissance" ...
Adrian Barnett
Why do people become atheists or remain believers?
(Why do people become atheists?)
(Copyright by Adrian BARNETT.
Translated and reprinted
by permission of the author.)
(Copyright held by
Adrian Barnett
Translated and published
by permission of the author.)1. Reasons
2. Why am I an atheist?
3. Where does faith in God come to people from and what does it rest on ?:A. Faith in God from Parents
B. Everything is put in its place for a specific purpose.
B. There must be justice and justice
D. Man is not an animal.
D. “Blessed is he who believes, warmth in the world”
E. Afterlife4. Conclusion
1. Reasons
People become atheists for many reasons. Believers most often see the reason for this in a personal drama similar to treason in love, after which the former believer asks: “How can you believe in God if this happened to me?” And they begin to hate God. But in this apparent case, one must keep in mind that in order to hate God, you have to believe in Him. People who for whatever reason hate God are not atheists. (An “atheist” is, by name and content, a person who does not believe in God.) An atheist may not like religion or hate what people do in the name of God or on behalf of God. But an atheist cannot hate that which he does not believe in, just as we cannot hate a fabulous dragon eating beautiful princesses. (However, certain legends about God, like the fairy tale about the dragon, may be pleasant to us because of their artistic and or pedagogical merits. But to believe in a real God or a real dragon is too much for an adult, and even more so for an atheist. )
Some believers mistakenly believe that people themselves by their own will elect atheism. According to them, atheists seem to inspire / order themselves: “In fact, I believe that God exists, but I will pretend to be unbelievers.” But atheism is not an arbitrary choice. It’s impossible to imagine the matter in such a way that one believer, waking up, will have nothing to do on a coin: “Eagle” - I will believe in God, “Reshka” - I will become an atheist. He threw a coin - and it fell tails up: “That's it! Tied up !! From now on I declare myself an atheist !!! ”
Atheism is not the result of a boyish trick and not an act of disobedience or protest. (although the impetuous molestation of a religious preacher can serve as the impetus for atheism). Atheism is also not an act of arbitrary choice, like thinking in a cafe: “Well, so what do I take today for an afternoon snack? Uh ... Okay, let's stop at a slice of cake and a cup of coffee! ”Or in a furniture store:“ And what color floor mat do we buy? Uh ... Okay, I think that this green one will suit us best. Although - stop! And what color will our grandfather like the rug? .. Okay, this time we will not buy. ” Or walking past a magnificent temple: “Now let's think about which God, for decency, should we believe in? .. It’s difficult to choose, we need to think ... Okay, we won’t tempt fate. Let’s stop believing in any kind of God ... And the point is in the hat! ”... Such ideas about a person’s paths to an atheistic worldview do not at all correspond to the true state of things. No believer in the world has come to atheism in such a way. The notion that atheism is some kind of rebellion against God. - completely absurd .
I often receive accusations by email that I am rebelling against God, because I do not like the idea of \u200b\u200bthe Being, which is more significant and greater than myself, or I do not want to be responsible to that which is higher than myself, or something else like that. But if this is really inherent in me, then I am by no means an atheist, because in this case I continue to believe in the existence of God, but only try, so to speak, to move away from him. But I’m not only saying that I am an atheist in order to somehow “make” my life easier, I really am an atheist. I do not believe in the gods of Judaism, Islam, Christianity and the gods of all other religions. And if I am just “rebelling”, then I am convinced internally and know for myself that God is with me and expects me to “get even” with me after my death.
The reduction of atheism to rebellion against God comes from those theologians, and believers with them, who are simply unable to reckon with the fact that there are hundreds of millions of people in the world who do not believe in God preached by them, as they do not believe in the gods of all others religions. The idea deeply stuck in the minds of theists: “Since each person believes in something, somehow, this faith is their faith in God.” They, theologians and believers who joined their opinion, cannot personally imagine themselves without faith in God and therefore, meeting with atheists, they completely deny them, atheists, existence and begin to say: “Atheism, rejection of God - this is your faith, yours religion. ”(or they start saying that atheism is itself a religion). Funny, but I never heard a Christian preacher say to a Hindu or a Buddhist:
- Oh! You say you don’t believe in God Jesus Christ? In this case, you are a true Christian, because by denying, you will thus recognize God Jesus Christ. And do not pretend not to be a Christian. Your worship of Vishnu, Shiva and Krishna is only a rebellion, rebellion against Jesus Christ. But deep down in your heart you acknowledge Jesus Christ as your God.
People do not choose atheism. Atheists simply do not have faith in God; and those who have lost faith in God found themselves without faith in God, that is, they became atheists. They did not choose anything, did not elect, did not take. They simply threw away faith in God as unnecessary. - That's all!
True, some atheists from among former believers tragically experienced the loss of faith in God, a faith that once was a significant part of their personal lives. One of the reasons for this was that the former believers clearly realized, in the worst case, for themselves personally, that a comprehensive and clear understanding of the problems of Life, the Universe and All Other Things can be found outside of religion; that everything in the world finds its more true explanation without resorting to God. We do not see the traces of God in the universe or in nature. In all the reality we know, there is not a single case or fact to understand which we would need to turn to faith in the existence of God. God's intervention in events or processes in the world cannot explain anything.
Many, if not all, of the answers offered by religion begin with vague and ambiguous assumptions, are filled with incoherent and contradictory statements (which are designed to be assimilated by blind faith) and end with bare statements about the alleged impossibility of experimentally verifying a particular statement (often churchmen refuse to publicly demonstrate and provide for verification a fictitious or falsified pseudo-scientific fact). Many implanted beliefs and dogmas are composed by preachers of religion arbitrarily, are highly irrational and do not at all testify to them, beliefs and dogmas, of God-revealed origin. And when believers realize that their religion does not give them anything significant and that they can find answers to vital questions outside of religion: in science, in philosophy, and in the end - in sanity and free thinking, then they, believers, get rid of faith in God, break with religion and, of course, become atheists.
We must not forget that everyone, including you, dear reader of my article, is born an atheist. The baby does not believe in God, does not have faith in God. He is an atheistic diamond of the purest, nothing obscured, water! The belief in God that arose later on in you is the result of your perverse education. If your parents are faithful Baptists, then you are most likely to become a Baptist. If your parents are Muslim, then you will be a Muslim.
Which God does this or that person believe in? This does not depend on God himself, who is not, but on the geography of your birth and on the faith of your parents. The believer receives his God as a player, approximately, receives a win in the lottery. Even worse, since there is always an empty lottery in the hands of all believers without exception - under no circumstances can God be won by it.
And now how can we not rejoice that we are so lucky to be accidentally born in a country in which they worship the One True God? :-))
2. Why am I an atheist?
I was born into a hereditary Christian Anlican family (Church Of England - Church of England). With the exception of the time of marriage and funerals, we did not go to church, did not read prayers before meals, did not scare anyone in the family with hellish flames.
God, Jesus, the Bible are often considered an integral part of lifestyle, and since children still don’t know much, they, and I, too, believed everything that adults told them. So, at school, every day before and after classes, we read a prayer and thought that this is happening all over the world. Each of us believed that bad people would go to hell, and good people, like ourselves, would live in the halls of heaven. Religious education in the school was based solely on the Bible - on the history of Abraham and Sarah, the tribes (tribes) of Israel and so on. Nothing was said about other religions, and if it was, it was only in passing. The students were told more or less in detail about Judeo-Christian mythology, while, of course, they did not talk about atheism, the abominations and atrocities of God's chosen ones, the absurdity and inconsistency of biblical tales. Atheism was not mentioned, and we did not suspect its existence. But at the same time, the Christian religious life of all students was in the background. In my bedroom, like other students, the Bible lay on the bedside table, which I sometimes read from nothing to do.
When I became a senior, at about 18, I began to put my faith to the test. There were doubts. He began to get acquainted with the history and creed of other religions. At first I was surprised at the content of the beliefs of other religions, but when after that I began to look closely at Christian beliefs, they turned out to be no less strange. And then he asked himself the question: “Why do I believe in Christian stories, dogmas and teachings?” Over the years of schooling, my head was filled with quite a lot of religious, muddy for me, positions and concepts that, well, did not coincide with the real one position in reality. From biology, geology, evolutionary doctrine, cosmology and so on, I already knew something about the world around me, but this reliable scientific knowledge did not at all coincide with the stories of the Bible, with the teachings of the Church of England. Religious beliefs and beliefs were too vague, vague and unproven. Especially in comparison with clear and evidence-based expositions of the subject in the same school textbooks. For instance. I have already seen many contradictions and sheer stupidity in the Bible. If the textbook on physics was written in a way that the prophets wrote the Bible “by the inspiration of God,” I would not have put this textbook penniless, I would have thrown it out of uselessness. And then I, as it were, asked the Lord God himself: “Why is the good and omnipotent God, who sees everything and everything can, plunges many people into suffering, sows death all over the world?”; “Is a kind and omnipotent God really very, very poorly doing his work?” The answer of the churchmen that a good and almighty God is doing a great job for the benefit of man, but this blessing has ... a mystical meaning that cannot be understood by the mind of a mortal man, - looks like a mockery ...
Over time, I developed a suspicious attitude towards all kinds of church organizations. Here I heard many times preachers who urged their believers to take for the truth such that I knew for sure that this could not be. Many of those present in the temple only pretend to believe everything they hear, since all those present expect them to demonstrate such behavior. This is clearly seen in the examples of televangelists. Listening to his sermon, no one jumps up with the words of indignation: “Shut up! Is it possible to publicly grind such nonsense! ”On the contrary, the believers sit quietly, and after the end of the TV show they say with senseless reverence:“ Amen ”or“ God save you! ”When the rector of the church speaks, nobody talks, nobody asks him further clarification, does not raise questions, but obediently listens, no matter what noodles they hang on his ears. The faithful preacher suppresses those who listen to it by reference, not unspeakable wisdom and authority of “divine verbs”, which suppresses their own thought, prevents them from thinking more deeply about the meaning of what they have heard, and in the bud prevents tricky questions.
To all this, I firmly recognized that Christians are not the only ones who deeply believe in their God. The same deep believers exist in every religion that preaches not Christian truths at all. Therefore, the depth of religious beliefs cannot measure the truth of faith in God. After all, Christians and non-Christians believe in completely different gods and in completely different religious truths. In this case, why should we consider Christian beliefs to be true, and not the beliefs of other religions. But every religion always and everywhere claims a monopoly in the possession of Truth, Love, Happiness, Justice, Morality and all other spiritual values. All this slowly, gradually and confidently led me to the conclusion that, possibly, without exception, all religious beliefs are false (are all wrong) ...
I gradually realized that the world, the Universe in which we live, is one and there is no place for God in it, there is no Mind governing everything. There is no reason and no reason to believe in God of any kind and content. God is a phantom in the existence of which people believe (believe, believe, but do not know!) Due to the absence of the slightest evidence of this. In this respect, the God phantom is no different from the Bigfoot phantoms (Yetti, Bigfoot) or the Loch Ness Monster, or Aliens, or some other monsters that are talked about a lot, but have no supporting evidence for these conversations.
I don’t think at all that all other non-Christian religions indulged in false misconceptions because Adam and Eve have tasted in heaven a forbidden fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, or are shamelessly deceived by their clergy (although I show on my Internet pages how the blasted prophets and saints inflate gullible simpletons). But I am deeply convinced that in their worldview beliefs all believers are mistaken, and all this despite the fact that they themselves, having thought carefully, can reasonably and consistently discover the causes and content of their errors.
According to my observations, different believers have different reasons for their faith in God. I will list them in a generalized and somewhat simplified form:
3. Where does faith in God come to people and what does it rest on?
A. Faith in God from Parents
They simply were accustomed, indoctrinated into religion from childhood. In religious families, children, so to speak, with their mother’s milk absorb faith in the God of their parents. Religion entered their flesh and blood, became such a significant part of their spiritual life, that they never had the idea to research or doubt the content of the grafted faith in God. They believe, for they always knew for themselves that their faith in God is the pure truth.
B. Everything is put in its place for a specific purpose.
They feel that we are here in this world, appeared with a predetermined purpose. The universe, its harmony, beauty in it cannot be the result of a blind incident. The most understandable reason for the goal that is set for us and the universe is the existence of God. We have a destiny that is known only to God, and we have no choice but to rely on Him and trust Him. They feel with all the fibers of the soul that only faith in God will help them fulfill their destiny, achieve the meaning of life that they have prepared. And without faith in God, they do not see and do not understand the meaning of their lives.
B. There must be justice and justice
The need for justice can only be satisfied if there is a God. For believers, our world is not a booth for perverse people who without restraint commit various types of crimes with the hope of avoiding all kinds of punishments immediately after death. Faith in God gives hope that good people will ultimately be fully rewarded in heaven, and the wicked will be punished properly.
D. Man is not an animal.
Believers have a certain biological snobbery. Believers are offended by the doctrine that man appeared as a result of evolution, that he is organically connected with the animal world. They are more pleased to believe that God created them as a separate creative act, gave them an immortal soul, which animals lack. In their opinion, only faith in God separates man from the world of cattle.
D. “Blessed is he who believes, warmth in the world”
Belief in God is comfortable for man. Believers are pleased to realize that God, who loves them, constantly watches, troubles over them; if something good happens or something bad happens, then all of this is accepted by them as perpetrated or admitted by a caring God for their future good. It is especially important that religion helps to survive the death of their loved ones, loved ones and reconcile with their death. It is much more pleasant to think that the deceased grandmother is no longer tormented, taken to heaven with Jesus, where she expects a reunion with us, than to admit that the grandmother has completely ceased to exist, has dissolved in the scale of the universe and will be completely forgotten after several generations.
E. Afterlife.
Sensation, understanding, the whole complex of spiritual life occupies the dominant part of our personality. It seems that the personality, a kind of “I”, stands not only above my body, but also independently of it. This is the "I" believers call the soul.
It is hard to imagine that our consciousness, our "I", the soul, will someday cease to exist, although we know this for sure. Indeed, even for imagining oneself dead (which is not difficult) it is necessary that our consciousness be alive, acting and “imagine”.
For example, try to imagine that a huge meteorite fell on your house and killed you before you read this paragraph to the end. You can easily imagine this: “I was killed, I am dead - I realize this. And for me, killed by a meteorite, nothing happens. ” But, to your surprise, you can also easily imagine what happens after your death, although nothing happens after you die. It doesn’t really happen, but something remains of me, thanks to which I can easily continue to imagine, imagining the search for lifeguards of my body, my burial, and so on and so forth. Thus, it is easy to imagine that after the death and burial of our body something remains of us that continues my conscious life, it remains, they say, not dying soul ...
But with this train of thought, we completely ignore two important things. Firstly, I just imagine, imagine, imagine my conscious existence after death, and therefore this existence is not real, but only imaginary, imaginary. BUT secondly, the specificity of the imagination lies in the fact that it, the imagination, everything, both existing and non-existent, always imagines only existing. In order to understand and imagine oneself - with the body and soul - not existing, one must not imagine at all. After all, when we die, we will not only cease to bodily move, change, feel, we will also cease to be aware, cease to imagine. This completely unconscious feature of our consciousness serves as an indirect reason for a religious person to believe in an immortal soul, in an afterlife, in reincarnation of souls and other very soulful nonsense.
4. Conclusion
In these areas of the causes of religiosity, I carefully analyzed the measure of consistency of faith in God. I discarded religion, because it does not offer me anything worthy of my attention (by the way, religion never played any significant role in my life) and firmly embarked on the only atheistic path that leads to the Truth.
Many visitors to my website sent me their confession about why and how they abandoned their faith in God and came to atheism or how, as unbelievers, they strengthened their atheistic views. For those interested, I propose a presentation of the confessions of my addressees in their own words. Only in one or two places did I lower their strong expressions, marking with a *. Among these stories are all sorts of things: funny, tragic, inspirational, and each and every one - sincere, frank.
[Note: We did not translate into Russian the confessions of English former believers and atheists. Those interested can read them (numbering about 40 over the past two years) on the website of Adrian Barnett at the Internet address:
Translation, notes and table of contents
Today, when it has become fashionable to consider oneself as adherents of the most diverse religions, some people, trying to emphasize their disbelief in God, call themselves atheists. Who are atheists? Can a person who denies faith in God (Allah) call himself an atheist? What are such famous atheists as Peter Gannushkin, Evgraf Duluman and their followers? Let's get it right.
Who are atheists?
Atheism is a term that translates to “godless”. The concept came from France, but combined all the forms of denial of God and religion. Atheists are sure that any religion is an illusory consciousness,
based on the denial of the naturalness of the world. How do atheists differ from believers of any faith? The former believe that the nature of things is natural, and religion, whatever it may be, was invented by people. The second, on the contrary, believe that God (in any manifestation) is primary, and the world is nothing but his creation. Atheists perceive reality by studying and comprehending it. They try to find a scientific explanation for each phenomenon.
Are all people who do not believe in the divine origin of the world and do not belong to any of the faiths, can be considered atheists? No, far from all. Who are atheists? People for whom unbelief and the pursuit of a scientific knowledge of the world is the basis of a worldview. They carry their unbelief in the world, but do not force it,
but they try to do it only by knowing the history of religious teachings and the particularities of each faith. People who simply deny their own but believe in ghosts, druids, Cthulhu, drumsticks, or other mystical manifestations cannot consider themselves atheists.
Atheist Handbook
In Soviet times, lecturers even issued a special manual. It was called the Atheist Handbook. The target audience of the publication was party workers, students, educators. The publication cannot be called unambiguous. On the one hand, the book gave clear answers to the questions “Who are atheists?”, “What is religion?”. Employees of universities and those who took part in the compilation of the manual and its appendix (it was called the “Sputnik of the Atheist”) introduced the history of religious movements and trends, their characteristics. Compilers warned of the dangers of selflessly following teachings and the perniciousness of blind faith. On the other hand, the publication was quite politicized and often gave characteristics to religions not in terms of scientific achievements,
but from the position of partisanship and ideology. This way of presentation was not always evident. Today, the publication is of interest to modern atheists and collectors of rare books (although the mass edition of the manual cannot be called rare).
To summarize
So, real atheists - who:
They learn the world around them by scientific methods;
Recognize the intrinsic value of a person as a person, and not as a follower of the doctrine;
They consider human well-being to be the main criterion for the development of any society;
They do not fight religion, but conduct explanatory work, affirm their worldview and defend human rights.
Some of the great ones said that atheism is just another religion. There is a sound grain in this statement: believers believe in God, and atheists believe in godlessness and the power of science.
Suppose a person believes that God is. What will he do in this case? He will seek God. And if a person does not create any new sect or his beliefs, which will be guided by, he will certainly come to some kind of religion. In order to understand who God is and what He wants from this very person.
The apostle Paul has the words, “Faith without dead”. And what deeds are pleasing to God, religions tell about this. But, as we understand it, in all this variety of religions and theological movements, and spiritual practices, there is only one true one. One that will not only give answers to all questions, but also that will lead to the salvation of the soul.
A person who believes in God (which is a big question), but rejects religion, begins to think for himself what kind of relationship with God he should build and how. And very often it comes down to the rule: "live in good conscience." It sounds beautiful. But how can such a person have a conscience to be a full measure of his life? After all, conscience allows someone to cheat on spouses. Someone can easily deceive another, and conscience will be silent. Conscience without God is not always the right indicator.And religion helps a person come to the true denominator of the correctness of his actions and, most importantly, the knowledge of God. "Seek and find!"
And with regards to the fact that "people who believe in God but do not believe in religion will go to Paradise" - this is a big question. I will give an analogy, and draw your own conclusions: Imagine, we need to get out of the forest and right in front of us is a path leading to the road. We can go through it, but we can go through the forest, through trees and swamps, making a big detour and miraculously not getting lost there forever, try to get out on the same road. But this is far from a fact. The choice is ours.
