An Open Letter to Atheists, part 2

An Open Letter to Atheists, part 2

Ok, so maybe this isn't actually a letter... I just have some questions that perhaps some friendly atheists can answer for me.

I am writing this because I've noticed more Mormon bashing than usual in my online world of Facebook, comments on forums, and whatever humorous articles I feel like reading. Of course, general religion-hating is nothing new to me or mankind, but I've noticed a spike in derogatory comments towards LDS people and the things they hold sacred as of late.

While I am of course offended on some level when people belittle things I hold especially sacred, I try not to take it personally and will generally tell myself, "They're probably ignorant and have no idea what they're saying." That's my coping mechanism. I'm sure most of these people aren't really interested in any kind of theological discussion and will just say things that touch on "taboo" topics for the sake of humor. That's fine.

What I'm curious about are not the casual profaners, but the ones that appear to be really angry with religion in general, my church specifically. Lots of people hate the Mormon church. While many of these haters are Christian or religious, the ones I am curious about are the non-religious haters. I'm curious about the ones that are atheists and who feel religion has done more damage than good in this world.

I won't argue that religion is a powerful force that can potentially be used for evil. Why should I? My own religion teaches this very thing. Religion is used to enslave people and make them instruments of evil. I believe this can be true. When atheists talk about the atrocities committed in the name of religion, I always kind of feel like I'm the kid waving his hands in the air to get noticed. "Hey guys! Look at me! I'm just like you guys! I agree with you and I wanna be cool, too, even though I'm religious!" Any serious student of religion should agree that religion has been used to commit atrocities (and still is). The same could be said of alcohol, guns, mass production, sex, music, books, science, and bears. The trick is to not get so wrapped up in a single-minded worldview that you're missing the rest of the picture. Albert Einstein said, "Whether you can observe a thing or not depends on the theory which you use. It is the theory which decides what can be observed." If your theory is that religion is the cause of all suffering in the world, then you will, of course, be able to find ample evidence of that. It reminds me of certain talk radio shows or cable news commentators that attribute everything wrong with America to the "liberals." If your theory is that liberals are stupid, evil, morally base people, you'll always be able to find plenty of evidence for it.

I know that people can accuse the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints of the same oversimplifying of life. Critics ask, "Can't you people explain away everything by just saying 'Because God said so?'" It's an argument I've had put to me and people like me many times: we don't think critically because our religion has taught us not to question things. Well, I have studied my religion for years and I disagree. Mormonism, in my opinion, teaches that life can be an extremely complicated, at times mysterious, thing. While we base our lives on certain fundamentals we believe are true, our religion openly acknowledges that we are far from all-knowing and must seek out answers to things we don't understand. We are taught to research things, ponder them, and pray about them. I believe the Mormon world-view is a beautifully complex one, even if there are simple-minded LDS people out there.

***

What I want to know is this: what do atheists hope to accomplish in ridding society of religion? I realize not all atheists want to do this. In fact, I know some atheists that don't care about religion one way or the other. They may find it silly, but they do not care about it. Some even take the more patronizing point of view that religion is helpful because it eases the fears of death for the uneducated masses. On the other hand, many atheistic people I know are vocal about their disdain for all things religious. This is fine, because as far as I'm concerned, that is your right as an American citizen. If you want to criticize a religious institution then by all means, do so. That's what this country was founded upon! My question is: why?

Is it assumed that once religion is gone, wars will generally cease and most people will stop being greedy and oppressing one another? I honestly can't believe any well-educated atheist believes this. It seems like such an astounding jump in logic to presume that the absence of religion will put an end to human suffering. However, I can understand atheists' motivations if this is what they believe. After all, I don't think a religion-free society has ever been tried en masse before (I admit I might be wrong on this), so this idea could have merit. If this is their motivation, I have to admit it's noble.

Is it just a matter of getting rid of religion because it's all lies used to control people, and lying is a bad thing? Maybe atheists can accept the fact that people will still suffer without religion, but they shouldn't be lied to about a God that doesn't exist..? Again, I can get behind this idea, especially because it's not that far removed from teachings of my own religion. Teaching falsehoods about the nature of life and the universe is not as good as knowing the actual truth, no matter how comforting the falsehoods are. I believe that.

Is there some other goal in abolishing religion that I have not thought of?

***

My second question for atheists is: how do you plan on making mankind stop believing in religion?

What I tend to see from atheists is stuff like, "You people believe some magical bearded white man who lives in space gives you orders on how to live your life? CRAZY!" or something to that effect. Another one: "I love how the Old Testament God tells you to commit mass genocide, but then the New Testament God is all like 'Love thy neighbor'! You people are worshiping some homicidal maniac!" I could go on and on like this. Yes, it all seems quite insane. I'll be the first to agree to that. Why is God so interested in circumcision, anyway? Sounds creepy to me. Show your allegiance to the magical space-being by cutting off your baby's foreskin? Uh, ok... Oh, and whatever you do, DO NOT EAT PORK.

Making earth-shattering observations of this nature may work for an angsty tweener, but we're talking about an institution that has been around for quite some time. Setting up an eight-year-old's view of religion and then tearing it right down can be fun, but I don't think it will have much impact. Mostly, it's just insulting and puts people on the defensive. Like I mentioned earlier, ridiculing the absurdity of religion is nothing new, and has been done for millenia. (It may not be as edgy as you think.) If you really want to criticize religion, you need to do more than just point out how illogical it seems. Human beings, as I'm sure you'll agree, are not always logical creatures. Millions smoke, chew tobacco, text while driving, get herpes, do meth, and watch "Two and a Half Men." We have a propensity to do things that are harmful to ourselves. Ironically, this is another principle that is taught in my religion. We call this the "natural man." The natural man wants to hurt other people when angry, wants to have sex whenever and with whomever he feels like it, wants to take things that don't belong to him. These actions will probably cause him more suffering in the end, and yet he wants to do them anyway. Understanding something logically, from my experience, will not change a person's behavior. Try explaining to a bunch of hormone-driven fifteen year olds all the perfectly logical reasons to wait until marriage for sex. You might be surprised at how many will laugh in your face.

Think of that before you start explaining how silly it is to believe that a man being nailed to a hunk of wood two-thousand years ago somehow purges us of our sins. Again, I think this is taking a childish, simple-minded view of things, but I admit it does seem illogical.

Just looking at this statistically is enough to be discouraging. How many untold billions of people throughout human history have lived and died practicing religion, or at least believing in God(s)? It's almost as if it's a part of human nature (which I will get to in a minute). How can you change that?

***

Which leads me to my third question: what does it matter in the end?

If you are an atheist, I assume you do not believe in any kind of afterlife. This fact alone is what really baffles me about atheism. Genuinely baffles me. I'm going to pretend now that I am an atheist and I'm going to try to convince you to see things from my point of view here:

When you die, your consciousness is extinguished and all goes black. Forever. The reason for this is because your consciousness is just a state brought on by synapses and neurons in the organic matter inside of your own skull. Once your budy stops functioning, the illusion of self-hood will be erased and you will cease to exist. You will not float around as a soul or spirit, you will simply stop existing. This is because there is no such thing as a soul or a spirit, as those are religious concepts invented by primitive man to comfort themselves from the terror of death.

It doesn't change the fact that when you die, you will not remember anything that ever happened to you. It's just darkness, nothing. You will never come back, either. NEVER. You will just be GONE. You will no longer care about yourself or anything. You will no longer feel anything.

So why worry about whether or not people believe in religion? You will definitely not live to see the day that religion is universally rejected, and even if you did, so what? When you die you will forget any of this ever happened, and it will no longer matter. People will revert to believing in their magical gods and spirits eventually. You might say, "But I want to create a better world for the future." What future? You keep forgetting that when you die, NOTHING WILL MATTER ANYMORE. Human suffering will not concern you because YOU WILL CEASE TO EXIST. We are all just intelligent animals fighting for a short little existence and when we are gone, we are gone for good.

We get eighty years here. Maybe more, maybe less. It's all quite short. You will not live to see human beings travel to other solar systems and planets, and by the time they do you will be long dead and probably long forgotten. Your life is maybe one-fourth over, maybe one-third. Stop wasting what little time you have trying to change the opinions of other people. Nothing you do in this life will matter, because eventually the sun will burn out and this earth will be gone. All is utterly pointless, and there is no grand scheme in the universe. Even if there were, you will be dead by the time it is revealed, and your consciouness completely obliterated. That, and the idea that there is some sort of plan or orderliness to the cosmos implies that there is a higher power or force out there, which is not true.

Ok... I'm done pretending to be an atheist.

But do you understand my question now? What does it all matter in the end? If you really believe there is nothing after this, then who cares what people believe, or if they want to kill each other, or even if the human race dies out? When you're gone you won't know the difference. And you will be gone. Sooner than you think.

Look at it this way; I've heard it said that religion is just a natural part of evolution. Early man didn't understand certain scientific concepts about life and his surroundings and so he devised supernatural explanations for them, which became religion. Those rules goverened life, and because they are a natural extension of evolution, they also helped our species to thrive. They taught us things like monogamy and not to kill eachother, which in turn has helped our species become the dominant one on this planet.

Of course, I don't personally believe that religion sprang from natural evolutionay process. For one, I'm a believer, so I actually believe that there is a being we call God and that He directed the creation of this planet and has instructed our species on the secrets of the universe from time to time (and still does). For two, I think religion is so often completely contradictory to human nature that if it really started as a part of evolution, then evolution has incredible foresight-- which doesn't make sense when put in the context of an inherently pointless universe. Besides, religion could not have existed without language, and by the time language showed up there were enough humans already around to avoid extinction... Rendering religion useless from an evolutionary standpoint. I don't believe a small group of religious cavemen who practiced monogamy and pacifism would have outlived their thousands of crazy, killing, impregnating brothers. Evolution doesn't give a crap about right and wrong. It doesn't reward the moral, which is a religious concept anyway. It rewards intelligence and hotness, not high morals.

In the end, if your only theory is that evolution is the explanation for everything, then you will find an explanation for religion using it. I do not disbelieve evolution, but I like to think there is more to the universe than it. As Thomas Jefferson said, "Time, will in the end, produce the truth." I'm guessing fifty years give or take a decade ought to do it.

***

I hope I have not offended any of my atheist friends with this. Just because I do not agree with you does not mean I think you are a bad person or that you are stupid. I genuinely want to know what you think about these three questions (assuming they even apply to you):

What do you hope to accomplish in removing religion?
How do you hope to accomplish it?
Why does it matter in the end?

Here's a great Cracked article (really!) on atheism and religion:
http://www.cracked.com/article_15759_10-things-christians-atheists-can-must-agree-on.html

I'm outta here until December-- I'm going to seriously make an attempt at the great American novel. Wish me luck.