My aggregator is having fun with me. It doesn’t often link to the Christian Post iPost section, but this one is special.
TEN REASONS I’M NOT AN ATHEIST (AND NEVER WILL BE)
Here it is, beloved folks! The world’s first ever non-atheist manifesto! Feel free to spread it online to as many people as you like. Just click “share” on the button below and the article will pop up on your page. Blessings…!
The first ever! (Excluding every religious manifesto ever, of course. I think maybe he means “anti-atheist”, and even there he may be a few generations late. Or maybe he means his first non-atheist manifesto… anyway, he’s new to the game, so maybe it’s something we’ve never seen before.)
1.- I shall not be an atheist because something doesn’t come from nothing.
I look forward to his explanation of where God came from. I also wonder which definition of “nothing” he is using. It matters.
2.- I shall not be an atheist because there is no way such harmony, order and perfection could exist in the universe without an intelligent mind behind it all.
He must be referring to multi-host parasites. It is indeed elegant, how a single organism can infect fish, birds, and snails in turn, or snails, ants, and sheep. It truly is a beautiful harmony. Of course, he could also be talking about the harmony, order, and perfection of a universe that is utterly hostile to us with the exception of less than half of one small planet, an infinitesimal fraction of the known. Beautiful in its rarity, but a cruel beauty.
3.- I shall not be an atheist because a mere chance explosion cannot explain how the structure of my brain is able to understand the laws pertaining to the universe’s harmony, order and perfection.
He’s absolutely right, there. Fortunately, no atheist has ever claimed this, ever. And I would argue that, without an understanding of natural selection (one of many important intermediates between the big bang and an understanding brain), his brain does not in truth understand the laws pertaining to the universe’s perceived order.
4.- I shall not be an atheist because I am much more than a rational bio-chemical machine. I am full of love, desire and hope. And I also recognize beauty when I see it.
Does he really think atheists do not feel love, desire, and hope? Does he really think we don’t recognize beauty? As an evolved animal, I will allow that I am a bit more elegant than any machine any human ever made, but “evolution is smarter than you are“, so this is to be expected.
5.- I shall not be an atheist because I have a moral conscience. I can tell the difference between good and evil. I believe in objective moral values.
A moral conscience is so important to humankind that we created religions just to support it. And while I believe that the writer believes in objective moral values, so do many others whose objective moral values disagree with his.
6.- I shall not be an atheist because every tribe and tongue on the face of the earth has a religious consciousness and the idea of a transcendent (or supreme) something or someone.
The fact that their religious consciousnesses disagree with one another to the point of conflict is only relevant when arguing against each other–when arguing against atheists, you all worship the same god.
7.- I shall not be an atheist because I whole heartedly believe my life has a purpose and a meaning.
If your life would be meaningless without a god, I humbly suggest you are doing it wrong. My life has purpose and meaning as well–it just does not have a god.
8.- I shall not be an atheist because although I am imperfect, I have the idea of an insuperable perfect being within me. Such a sublime concept cannot stem from little old me.
How do you know? And how do you know? If you are imperfect, how is it possible to know that the insuperable perfect being within you is not an illusion, and imperfect after all? And how, as an imperfect being, can you possibly know that it is impossible for you to believe this illusion? Sounds like wishful thinking to me.
9.- I shall not be an atheist because the fruits of practical atheism are- for the most part- ugly, wicked and downright perverted. And much of intellectual atheism is nothing more than an exercise in insoluble contradiction(s).
Well, yeah, I am just an accident. I don’t claim any privileged revealed information, like religions often do. But, frankly, there are moral imperatives because I am an atheist. But they do require us to think for ourselves.
10.- I shall not be an atheist because the Holy Spirit abides within me. I know God’s alive. I spoke to Him only five minutes ago.
To him, not with him? I spoke to my dog, but he did not speak back. Well, a bit, but I don’t speak dog. It is not abnormal, even in this modern day, to speak to (or with) God. What would be remarkable, though, would be if all those who claim to speak to God actually agreed on His message. We’d only need one religion! Gee… I wonder which one?
So… nothing new. Oh, well.
that’s pretty much just silliness!
Anti-atheist manifesto?
I believe instead in “presto!”
Lol, bullshit. Manifestos are at the cores of religious systems, the loyalty test against other-religious and non-religious. What an extraordinary claim!
There’s one hell of a didactic manifesto if you ask me. Which no one did. So, sorry.
I will not be an atheist because… reasons! Stupid, irrelevant reasons. I will not be an atheist because Legos!
Actually, the inherent cruelty of Legos in the dark is a good reason to be an atheist… No good, loving god would have allowed such sharp corners to be so easily invisible on the floor during daylight hours, only to cause endelss, torturous agony during that nocturnal pilgrimage for a glass of water.
I’m rather partial to reason #6, of course. Because majority consensus = always right? Ha. And 4 million flies can’t be wrong, too.
#8 amuses the hell out of me.
I’d be more impressed if you could define the “insuperable perfect being” in any way other than “insuperable perfect being”. Insuperable how? Perfect how? Surely if the idea arrived in your brain via the being in question you will have a very specific ideas about exactly what the insuperable perfect being is when it’s at home.
But that isn’t the funniest part. Trying to get people to identify what, exactly, God is is a guaranteed way to get a bunch of variations on vague themes of “good” and “love” and “powerful” and “perfect”, depending not only on the religious convictions of the individual but on the individual themselves. So if the insuperable perfect being put the idea of a insuperable perfect being in our heads, why are all the ideas of a insuperable perfect being so different?
But which God is he an atheist against? Thor? Zeus? Ahura Mazda? Magna Mater?
Okay, he won’t be an atheist. Who cares? I care that he has nonsensical reasons for that, but not that he believes in Mr. Ultimate Sky Fairy.
I’m pretty sure there was in fact a discovered tribe of aboriginals somewhere (Amazon basin?) that had no concept of supernatural.. including god figures?
DONT know it it makes a difference
11. I shall not be atheist because the society doesn’t accept me, I am a born misfit; theres a very thin line of belief that I cling onto. And I know if everyone believed in what I believe, I will no longer be clinging to the line…………………………and also………………….
religion goes deep into a practitioners mind…. and it is hard to convince a foolhardy….rather let the fool his own way n even better if you could help him in his way. ……Jay Shamboo