RE: How Can Atheists Can Be Good Without God?

The other day my friend came up to me and said to me "you're an atheist aren't you? How can you be good without following God? He teaches right from wrong. Without religion you must have no moral compass". I feel that this question is asked way too often to atheists by those of religion and therefore I have chosen to address this question in this blog post. 

Last Saturday, as I was walking to my part time job at a pub, an elderly woman fell at the side of the street. Instinctively I rushed over to her and helped her up and made sure that she was okay. My point of this story- my act of altruism, was instinctive. 

Of course, religion may encourage morality but I really believe that people know what is right and what is wrong without religion. Since the time of philosophers such as Plato people have realised that morality does not come solely from religion. Plato questioned "do actions become moral simply because they are dictated by God, or are they dictated by God because they are moral?" Obviously the second option is the answer as if God commanded people to do something immoral it wouldn't automatically make the thing moral. This makes it clear that God cannot be the source of morality. 

When, in the bible, god made bears rip 42 children to pieces for making fun of the prophet Elisha, was he being moral? (2 Kings 2:23-24). Or in the New Testament when Jesus preaches things of questionable morality such as barring heaven to the wealthy and damning sinners to the torments of hell (Luke 12 and Mark 9).

Similarly there are sentiments like this in the Quran. 

Stoning and genocide are immoral, aren't they? So Christians and Jews often just stay quiet about those bits of the bible- Christians and Jews know that this is immoral because there is another source of morality other than the bible. This is my point. Religious people pick passages from scripture because of extrareligious notions of what is moral!  

Churches once defended slavery because of religious reasons. Now people are appalled by slavery. People did not change their view on slavering because god changed his. These changes came about from secular changes in morality. 

So we have deduced that morality does not come from god. Now I will address where morality actually does come from. I believe morality comes from reasoning and evolution. I will now explain what I mean by this:

Scientists have studied chimpanzees and have found traces of morality in them. Chimpanzees are our primate relatives based on the theory of evolution. Scientists have noted altruism, sympathy and sharing amongst chimps. So from evolution we have become moral.

Sweden and Denmark have many atheists and both places have great liberal social views, aid for the sick.

Evidently it is possible to be good without God. 

Non-Religious People Are (generally) More Intelligent?

Recently, I have been doing a lot of research on the correlation between religiosity and IQ. From what I have found online, from word of mouth and from books I feel that I can safely make the general assumption that those of no religious faith GENERALLY have higher intelligence than those of faith. Here are the reasons for this:

1. For the most part, intelligent people are extremely analytical. Religion makes many claims that completely contradict science (e.g. Man was made from dust, Jesus walked on water, the world is 6000 to 10000 years old etc). Due to this many intelligent people disregard religion as it seems completely implausible and illogical to them.

2. People of high IQ do not normally conform to society. By this I mean that intelligent people are less gullible; in many societies there are many more religious people than there are atheists.

3. Intelligent people desperately crave answers to their questions. God, to the logical mind, does not seem like an answer to their questions- they see religion as more of an unstable bridge across the void of unknowing; something that is unsafe, and impermanent- eventually a more substantial bridge across the void will form but science is laying it's bricks slowly and carefully. Until the day that the metaphorical scientific bridge is built, intelligent people will have to remain on their quest for truth as they help to lay the path of reason (I'd just like to point out now that atheism in the world is growing quickly- due to more easily available access to knowledge, better education and scientific advancements?).

Personal factors such as environment and personality also play a huge part in determining ones faith or lack of faith.

I am sure there are also many more facts regarding this correlation, if you know of any more please feel free to comment them.

I hope this post made sense and is of interest! Sorry if it's not very on point, I am writing this in the midst of my IGCSE religious studies revision as my exam is tomorrow! Hope you're all good, what do you think of this correlation? Opinions would be great to hear.

Evangelism- my views

Whenever I go shopping I am approached by Christians demanding to know if I am a Christian or not. When I tell them that I am an atheist I am then bombarded by questions and bible verses in the hope that they will convert me to Christianity.

"You do realise that atheism is a sin and you will go to hell?"

"I will pray for you"

"You're young, you'll find God one day"

"It's okay, God still loves you."

"Everyone in their heart knows that God is the truth."

"You're only 16? You're probably just confused about your beliefs right now."

These are just some of the many things I hear from Christians. 

Personally, I find it annoying. I don't go into town to be questioned by Christians, I go into town to see my friends and go shopping. I find it especially annoying when evangelists shout their beliefs at me through megaphones. In fact, just last week when I was in town I experienced such an event. During the Christian preaching a woman fell to the ground as she was having a seizure.  The Christian preacher looked at the woman then turned to the crowd of people surrounding him (most atheists trying to counter argue what he was saying) and told everyone that the woman was having a seizure because she was possessed by the devil. 

I was with my friend at the time, and we both turned to each other in disbelief. We found it outrageous that he had the nerve to say such a despicable thing.

What do you think about that? Do you think it's right? What is your view on evangelists?

In my life I have never seen atheists trying to dissuade people from faith in a public place. I find it quite offensive when religious people attempts to convert me to their belief. It's my life and I would appreciate it if they let me live it the way that I would like to live it. With my own beliefs.

NEWS

Looking for a co manager of ATeenageAtheist blog and twitter account. Direct message @ateenageatheist on twitter if interested.

New forum

A forum has been created where debates and discussions will be scheduled. Anyone can post in it. The forum is still undergoing maintenance so as of yet does not have much posted. Keep your eye on it though!

Www.ateenageatheist.createaforum.com

Religion is a disease of the mind?

Re: Religion Is A Disease of the Mind?

I recently read something online which linked religion to being a disease of the mind. I believe that religion and the concept of God hold many similarities to diseases of the mind but I would not say that they are the same. However, there’s very few other ways to describe how people, some of whom are presumably are intelligent, can be afflicted by something completely illogical. The concept of God has evolved to explain the unexplainable and provide people with a false sense of hope to support them in times of need.. It would seem that God is actually a beneficial construct of the human mind rather than a disease, which by definition is contradictory. I believe that people should strive for truth by and the notion of a God construct defies this search for truth; clouding many peoples view on the world. God interferes in people obtaining truth by creating a crutch whenever a situation beyond their control presents itself. Similarly, when an event that has us evade some horrible fate occurs, people are quick to credit God or another deity being as opposed to chance. The concept of God is for all intents and purposes harmless by itself. People are entitled to give credence to things as they see fit. Each to their own. However, the real disease aspect comes from organised religion; where a select few share their value system of what God is with others in a massively distributed system.  The most vulnerable are those of weak mind. The idea of coalescing and unifying rather than fending off the tide of peer pressure is far more appealing when confronted with such choices. Organised religion does have its role in society. From a spiritual sense, people need religion to engage in society when otherwise isolated. Even if the guy next to you has absolutely no relationship whether by interest or biology, sharing the same religion will provide a social bond. The most obvious danger though is when we return to the idea of how people manipulate the concept of God for their own ends, but this time in mass. This is the point of contention that is the most pernicious in religion. To sway the weak willed to a few’s bidding to me stinks of politics as usual. However, the masses being unable to desire for truth any longer now assault those who want to obtain truth. But it’s not a point of negotiation in this; they will impinge on others to suck them in and here the analogy of the disease is complete.

Below are a few videos that explain in depth the concept of religion being a disease of the mind.

Religion is a mental disorder:

Religion is a parasitic belief complex:

Religion is a mind disease:

It's makes no sense...

Contradictions