Am I finally exhaling atheism?

This morning I was sitting quietly on a chair at the reception of a tour agency waiting for my turn to get interviewed (long story).   There was another candidate in the chair in front of me.   Later a couple of women professing The Jehovah Witnesses came in with pamphlets.  I thought “oh no… here I go”, but then they limited to give a pamphlet to the other candidate and then said something about Jesus and left.  They didn’t even look at me.

Why is my country so green?

No I’m not talking about nature.  I like that kind of green, I’m talking about this:

Like the image says: the greener, the more religious.

For anyone who doesn’t know, my country is Colombia, right there in the north leftmost “corner” of South America.

 I didn’t think we would beat Mexico.   

Got the map at Pharyngula‘s, who also got the map somewhere else.

- Lonely Atheist.

Live and Let: Atheism Part 2

Hi! I made a post a few days ago which was basically about how I became an atheist after being raised in a place where Theism and specifically Catholicism are so spread that they are the default option.  This default option is considered to be the best or at least the most harmless one while atheism or agnosticism are considered deviations from the norm and should be justified if professed.

In my last post I considered my de-conversion as a relatively easy happening. It only took a little bit of the scientist nature that is somewhere in every human, a little more of thinking outside the box – that was facilitated by the fact that I was an outcast from the beginning-, some anti authoritarian way of thinking, and the chain of reactions was set. Now, if the formula for de-conversion can be achieved so easily (it seems), then what is keeping other people from discovering it, even by accident?

Faith

In The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, he writes about this spectrum of possibilities about human’s approach on the subject of God.

Strong theist. 100 per cent probability of God. In the words of C. G. Jung, ‘I do not believe, I know.’

Very high probability but short of 100 per cent. De facto theist. ‘I cannot know for certain, but strongly believe in God and live my life on the assumption that he is there.’

Higher than 50 per cent but not very high. Technically agnostic but leaning towards theism. ‘I am very uncertain, but I am inclined to believe in God.’

Exactly 50 per cent. Completely impartial agnostic. ‘God’s existence and non-existence are exactly equiprobable.’

Lower than 50 per cent but not very low. Technically agnostic but leaning towards atheism. ‘I don’t know whether God exists but I’m inclined to be sceptical.’

Very low probability, but short of zero. De facto atheist. ‘I cannot know for certain but I think God is very improbable, and I live my life on the assumption that he is not there.’

Strong atheist. ‘I know there is no God, with the same conviction as Jung “knows” there is one.’

In the biggest monotheistic religions, like Christianism, there’s no room for doubt. This is one of the most amazing tricks religion has to offer, as humans are always eager to ask questions, and try to discover how everything works. But no, religion demands their followers to be a 1, regardless of what they really believe in. Now, how many people are really a 1? I mean if they really allowed themselves to break out of the “faith” thing for a second, it is only natural that they start considering other points of view until they find their own. Then they might still decide to believe in a god, but more as a 2. At least a 2 would be open to the idea that other people might not believe in what they believe. It’s a big step really. It is not what people believe in what concerns me the most, but what they think they know, as the latter is potentially dangerous – of course being a 2 also comes with its own dangers as I’ll explain later.

Unfortunately, the thing that is keeping people in the 1 category is faith. This faith is the single most valuable thing one can have as a religious person. From what I know about Catholicism, there are hundreds and hundreds of tales about the value of faith, and how people with total and absolute belief in something for which there’s no real reason to believe in, are greatly rewarded.

When you are a 1, you are not likely to consider other ideas on the subject of god than your own, not even by accident – even if you like asking questions and following scientific methods in other areas. You won’t consider them because whenever you see them you are supposed to pretend you didn’t, immediately assume the ideas and the producer of the ideas to be wrong, and finally shrug the off as “temptation” and go back to your world of faith feeling very happy about your “strength”. Really, there’s no other way to stay a 1, being such an absolute position as it is.

Now, you’re going to say that most people you meet are not really that radical, I give you that. Maybe you’re a religious person who is also “cool” about other people having different ideas. You probably agreed with me in my last post when I mentioned the live and let live part. You’re not preaching or threatening other people, you simply hold your own set of beliefs and you’re entitled to have them, and other people are entitled to have theirs, and so on, and we all live happily.

Well, yeah, sure. Sounds nice, doesn’t it?

The problem here is that the demonization of atheism and agnosticism caused by faith and the ones who follow has a higher impact than that. For whatever reason, even if you’re not a strong religious person, you will still consider religion to be it a much safer and convenient way. After all, they’re threatening you with eternal damnation. Atheists on the other hand are not threatening you. So where will you go? Fear is one of the strongest motivators you will ever have. Of course then, to avoid cognitive dissonance, you will make yourself believe that there’s a higher reason, that after all it is your faith. Of course, other people can do whatever they want, but this is what you believe in. Right?

I wonder how many religious people have actually thought it through and not just followed the easier path that is laid there for pretty much everyone since they’re born. Going to the other side looks dangerous, demonic and evil after all. So, yes, the majority of religious people are probably not fundamentalist. But they don’t need to. A path has been set, and the rest have followed this way for so long, that now it is a very well carved road that now nobody even has to walk along, as they can just slide. I think for the most part humans really have good intentions. Most people probably don’t want any bad things to happen, they want everyone to get along – ok, maybe if everyone joined their faith it would be better, but if they don’t then that’s fine too. Everyone is happy. Or are they?

I think our biggest fault is to be too naive – both religious and non religious people. We want to follow our beliefs easily, without really wanting to consider the impact this passiveness has on everything.Withdrawing oneself from it all is not such an innocent position as you might think it is.

To be continued…

Live and Let: Atheism Part 1

Life:  Still insomniac.

Mood: Not too shabby.

Mind:  Thinking about this:

If you have been following my blog for a bit, you already know that I’m an Atheist.  How I got here? Well, it goes something like this:

I was born with no religious beliefs obviously.  Fast forward to the age of three months and I was officially a Catholic.  How? Somebody poured water on my head when I was trying to take a nap while sucking on my thumb and a bunch of adults around me were really happy for some reason.  I cried.

So nothing changed much; as I was growing up, it was part of life.  People get a shower and get dressed everyday, eat something called breakfast and go to school.  It’s what people do.  Oh, they also pray in school… it just happens.  EVERYWHERE.  You don’t talk about it because you don’t even know it’s there.  Sundays at church = a nice visit to grandma while looking at a rather impressive building with lots of shiny things to get distracted with.  After a session of sitting, standing and kneeling (kind of a dance, but much much slower and quieter), adults ate something that seemed to be made of sugar. I always wanted this but I couldn’t get it.  They said I didn’t need it.  I shrugged.

As consciousness increased, questions arose slowly and randomly.  Part of exploration of a mind in the making of course.   Some questions had interesting answers:  “Are we inside Earth?” – “No we’re on the surface.” – “Wow!”.    But some questions made adults produce answers that sounded like they had no idea about anything:

“Why am I supposed to pray out loud? If God knows everything then he can read my mind and know what I want and if I’m really sorry and if I’m up to something…  And he can stop it.  So I really, really don’t have to do anything!” – I said happily.  “You have to pray.” – They said.  “Why?” – I kept pushing my luck. “Well” – they said, kind of irritated – “You don’t really ask why.  It just is.  We all do it and so should you.”

It just is…

It just is…

Okay… well.  I was not a confrontational person.  But a seed was planted.  Soon more seeds were planted too.  And once they started growing, there was no way back.  I did this in secret while telling the other side of my mind that I wasn’t really serious, that this was just me being a scientist.  But the deluded part of my mind kept getting weaker until one day I looked down and saw it – very small, green and insecure – and realized I didn’t have to justify myself to it anymore.

Getting to this point took years.  After all, a deep sea of delusion was surrounding me.  But I was already used to be the weird one, so what the hell, this is just something else.  During high school it became stronger, and I felt more comfortable in my unique world, and as a young teenager I even had fun with it.  Eating a good meaty hamburger in front of the most catholic classmates during lent on a Friday made them nuts.  Asking lots of questions I already knew would bother them, using of course my very innocent face.  Being told I was going to hell if I didn’t change my ways.  Hm, okay.

This rather fun way went on for years too.  I was an atheist, but it was my own fun and free world that most people had no access to.  It removed the limits for my curiosity about everything which was an advantage.  It spared me from many fears people seemed to have about seemingly harmless things.  Perfect.  I wouldn’t get in their way unless it was for my own amusement.

So I admit it: It was not too hard for me to become an Atheist.  At least I don’t remember it like that. It sort of happened.  Despite the high levels of religious beliefs in Latin American countries like Colombia, I never had problems with my parents (they easily gave in to the idea of atheism like it had been something that just hadn’t crossed their minds before), I kept it from my grandmother with no effort, and I was already weird enough in school on my own; I didn’t blame atheism for it.

I love the Internet.  This is the first time I discovered I wasn’t the only weird one.  Turns out, many intelligent people had asked similar questions.  I found people who went through hell to get out of the delusion and were now all over the place, discussing it, trying to make people see what they see and the whole subject made a big part of their lives.  I also found people who had it easy because they never had religion imposed on them, they didn’t think much about religious people and if they did they soon shrugged and went back to their business.  I found real agnostics.  I wondered whether I was one.  I reasoned that the natural degree of passion about atheism was somewhat related to how hard was it for you to get there.  So yes, some people are religious, I’m not.  That’s all.  Live and let live right?  If I’m asking people not to impose ideas on me, then the least I can do is not do it myself.

To be continued…

Live and Let: Atheism part 2.