Following on the theme of my last post, theists also love to claim that our godless lives are meaningless. Meanwhile, their lives have purpose because they’re serving god. I plan to show that this argument is no less absurd than the atheists are amoral nonsense I addressed a few days ago.

The obvious point to be made here is that you can’t claim your life has meaning because you’re following someone else’s orders unquestionably; even if those orders actually come from a celestial overlord. Quite to the contrary, if you’re main goal in life is to please god than your life is meaningless. Unless you want to claim that living life as a slave is a worthwhile existence.

Your purpose in life must be your own. Serving the needs of another, to whom you’ve surrendered all decision-making power over your life, makes you nothing more than a tool for someone else’s pleasure. Your life is purposeless, since you’re no longer pursuing your own needs and desires.

And make no mistake about it, this kind of servitude amounts to a form of slavery. It’s the surrender of your rational mind and your sovereignty to a fascist dogma whose goal is to simply turn you into a mindless zealot in service of the faith. And no matter how much you might delude yourself into believing otherwise, this kind of life has no real purpose, for you.

But hey, if you think graveling at the feet of an invisible friend and spending all your days worshiping and following his ever arbitrary rule gives your life meaning, then knock yourself out. But don’t expect me to sit there and accept the BS that my life as a freethinker is meaningless while you live yours in servitude to an invisible fascist dictator.

It’s way past time we atheists turned the tables on the religious and their claims to a monopoly on morals and purpose in life. When the truth is that it is they who have no basis for morality or purpose in their lives. They’ve surrendered both to a totalitarian anti-human dogma. Even their ultimate reward, heaven, sounds like a prison with strict rules, severe brainwashing and no means of escape.

They’re the ones who should be put on the defensive when these issues come up. I am sick and tired of it always being the other way around.

We’ve all heard the claim religionists love to make: atheists have no basis for morality. That without a ‘law giver’ we can’t possibly know the difference between right and wrong, or have any justification to be good to our fellow humans. But they’ve got it all backwards.

In truth, it’s theists who have no basis for morality.

Following orders unquestionably doesn’t equate to being moral. It’s just doing what you’re told. How can you call yourself moral if your values aren’t your own? If your behaviour is dictated entirely by a celestial overlord? And by what standard can you judge gods’ commands to be moral? Quite to the contrary, you’re not even allowed to judge him at all! Your duty is to simply follow him.

And that’s why the idea of a moral lawgiver is so absurd.

Morality comes from within. If you haven’t decided for yourself what is right or wrong, if you can’t justify those values without appeal to authority, you’re amoral(w/o morals). It’s as simple as that.

It is indeed true that showing compassion towards others is hard if you’re an atheist. But there’s a good reason for that. It’s supposed to be hard, FOR ALL OF US!

Investing the time and effort needed to console someone in distress is extremely difficult. And no, repeating empty platitudes about god watching over them isn’t a substitute for true compassion. That requires listening to the person and showing sympathy; offering a sounding board or a shoulder to cry on. And that is not easy. Shallow pronouncements about god working in mysterious ways are no substitute for this.

If anything, religion diminishes our empathy. And not just by motivating us to deny fundamental rights to our fellow humans, as most religions attempt to do to some extent. Religion also convinces us that empty consolations about god’s oversight/goodness and the rewards that await the faithful in heaven constitutes compassion. Religion actually makes us less likely to make the effort required to show REAL compassion towards others.

And this is why the idea that religion leads to morality is laughable. Atheists are much more likely to be moral because we’re willing to make the effort, instead of relying on cruel primitive dogmas to dictate our values to us.

By convincing the faithful to choose dogma over compassion, religion makes devout believers the truly amoral ones.

Is religion a force for good or evil in the world?

This is a question often debated in our increasingly secular societies. Personally, as an anti-theist my answer to this question is obvious. But what I would like to argue here is that the question itself is absurd.

It amazes me that in our modern world (with all the historical/scientific knowledge we’ve accumulated about our past) we still feel the need to seriously consider the idea that religion is a force for good in the world. No other ideology with the history of oppression and barbarism attributable to religion would continue to be taken seriously.

How can I say this with such confidence? Simple. Look back through human history at the fate of similarly oppressive ideologies.

Consider just one example to illustrate my point. Soviet communism was a powerful political force in Europe during most of the 20th century. During its reign of terror the USSR spread misery throughout central and eastern Europe, engaging in propaganda and violent suppression of all opposition. Millions died and many more lived miserable lives thanks to the authoritarian Soviet regime. And because of the horrible historical record of the USSR, communism is now considered fully discredited as a political ideology in most parts of the world. So much so that to be considered a communist today tends to make a politician unelectable in many democratic countries.

And this virtually complete rejection of communism happened after less than a century of violent oppression. But religion has been doing largely the very same thing for millenia, and on a much larger scale. And yet it is still respected. How can this be?

But religion does good works, you say? Well, never mind the fact that those ‘good works’ often come with strings attached. That the harm done by spreading ignorance and hate while doing charity tends to cancel out any benefits(catholic charities preaching against condom use being the most egregious example). And lest we forget the countless stories of religious charities refusing to help those outside their faith, or who live lives they don’t approve of (i.e. homosexuals).

The truth is that Soviet communism could also be quite generous at times. Citizens enjoyed a free education, free health care and a guaranteed job. Women even had abortion rights.

So why the double standard? We’ve decided, sensibly, it isn’t in our best interests to support ideologies that result in the killing and oppression of our fellow humans. That these ideologies must be rejected, even if they might provide some other benefits. The sacrifice of free people for any reason is something we simply consider intolerable and inhumane. And yet our commitment to basic human rights is somehow forgotten when dealing with religious superstition.

It’s well past time we held religion to the same standard. We should treat this poisonous nonsense with the same contempt we show for other anti-human ideologies, and discard religion into the trash heap of history.

Theists are fond of asking atheists What does atheism have to offer?

Never mind that this question is ridiculous on its face. After all, atheism is simply the absence of a belief in god(s). But after seeing this youtube video I began to realize that despite the fact it’s devoid of any dogma or beliefs, atheism does have something to offer after all.

So atheism offers me everything that religion has stolen before.

It was that line at the end of the video which, after some thought, led me to realize that atheism does have something to offer. I now believe that atheism has freed me, and many others, from a life that isn’t fully lived. It has given us the opportunity to get more out of life by removing the arbitrary restrictions on our freedom of thought and action imposed by religious institutions, opening up a world of experiences that would otherwise be inaccessible to us.

Atheism has introduced me, through the online atheist community, to the wonders of science. And it has instilled in me a commitment to secular human rights that religion had previously convinced me weren’t worth fighting for.

Religion also convinces people to ignore that overpowering human desire to pursue their own happiness. By convincing us that many of the most enjoyable activities of this life(sex, alcohol, drugs, etc.) are evil, religion attacks our very humanity.

So atheism does have something to offer. It returns to us what religion tries to take away: our freedom. To live the life we choose. To do the things that make us happy. To pursue knowledge.

By freeing us from religious indoctrination, atheism returns to us our humanity.

We’ve all found the urge to satisfy our base desires irresistible at times. It’s a legacy of our evolutionary history. And therefore a critical part of what makes us human. It’s even been enshrined in the US Declaration of Independence as an unalienable right(the pursuit of happiness). Even Al Qeida(their Pakistani base had an impressive porn collection) and christian preachers(can anyone say rentboys?) have succumbed to these desires. And these fundies have the most to lose as the true believers of the eternal bliss and damnation so central to the Abrahamic dogmas.

So why would fundies engage in such activities? I mean, what’s a little fun in this short and insignificant existence on earth compared to an eternity in hellfire?

There’s really only one explanation: it’s human nature. After all, there’s no logical reason for them to value short-term gain over eternal bliss or torment. Unless of course these actions are a natural consequence of being human.

It’s one thing to tamper our animal instincts. We’ve done that through secular laws that protect us and punish those who can’t control their urges, to our great benefit as a species. But to insist that we must permanently deny ourselves these pleasures, even when no one else would be harmed in our pursuit of short-term happiness, is both unrealistic and unjustifiable.

I would say that by asking us to deny our very nature, religion is literally inhuman.