2009/12/11

Hey - please don't judge. Just read, and respond if you wish.

http://www.alternet.org/belief/144354/hey_religious_believers,_where's_your_evidence_/?page=1


Just a quick note - when I said "don't judge," I wasn't referring to me - I was asking that people didn't judge the *article* simply by its title and choose not to read it. But thanks for the reassurance that you're not judging me, either. :)


Anyway - thanks to you guys (my Facebook homies) for commenting on this. In fact, in my experience, *most* theistic people who I know will value that everyone is entitled to their opinion; we accept that we can disagree and still lead lives of empathy and compassion for one another.


This article simply puts many of my slightly more militant feelings into words. These are real questions - they're not rhetorical. I really want legitimate answers to these questions because, let's face it - being an atheist leaves me without something that supposedly enhances the lives of billions of people around the world. If there's a real reason for me to join someone in their beliefs without being dishonest with myself, I want empirical evidence as to why I should do it.


The only somewhat compelling reason I've heard for people having their beliefs is from personal experience. But, this is not evidence; it's very subjective - every individual has a threshold to which they'll attribute an experience to the natural laws of our universe. Earlier in my life, I'd experienced things that convinced me that a God existed; however, as I grew, I started to understand that I could explain those things as fully natural events.


I have yet to hear of any legitimate event that could not be explained without the involvement of supernatural phenomena. Even so, I'm not trying to argue that people should change how they feel about those personal experiences; I'm referring to just about everything else.


On the other hand, I do see the appeal in exploring things like quantum physics, string theory, higher dimensions, etc. However, those are all speculation - entire complex ideas are based off of premises that are flimsy at best.


Just to add to what Andrea said - yes, mono- and poly-theistic religions are based on a faith principle, meaning that you believe something without empirical evidence. One may say they have "faith" that their car will start today or that the sun will come up tomorrow, but this is a semantic error. You're not talking about faith in these cases because you've routinely seen these things happen in the past, so you have a logical and evidential reason to believe they will happen again.


My issue is when people decide to make decisions based solely on their faith-based principles, that will affect other people. Of course, some of those decisions do good things for humanity, but I'd give those things up in a heartbeat if it meant we'd stop religious-based war and discrimination. I'd rather just see people do good things for one another based on compassion rather than sycophantism.


Again, thanks for the kind words. You guys are also awesome. If I'm attacking anything, it's ideas - not people.
~A