The War Against Theism

This Post Is Rated: O for May be deemed Offensive. But it's not, really, not unless you want to be offended. Side Note: This is my first post using Microsoft's new Windows Live Writer, which works almost effortlessly with Blogger! It's amazing, Microsoft is actually embracing third party and open source?! It's actually pretty decent and so far was the easiest to configure amongst the ones I tested. I consider myself a fairly moderate/progressive Christian, someone who believes in all the tenets of the Christian faith, but also someone who you could have a pint down the pub with and talk about current events. But I started to notice that some of the bloggers whose opinions I both read and respect have made negative reference to the Christian faith, both passively and directly. The basis of their arguments usually consist of the old Science vs Religion argument, but it can sometimes degenerate into the usual "religion is dangerous/evil/fault of the worlds problems". I therefore felt I should make a direct comment on the rise of anti-theism that is being led by fundamentalist atheists such as Richard Dawkins. It's not just a point of discussing scientific theories, if that was the case most people would not have heard of him, it's gets much more personal than that. The reason being is that Dawkins and people like him are hostile towards religion, specifically Christianity, and consider believers like myself to be infected with a "virus of the mind". Before I continue, it is important to separate atheism from anti-theism. An atheist is someone who disbelieves in the existence of a God or gods (some atheists prefer to be referred to as 'normal', but then we would have to call theists not-normal, and if these statistics are to be believed, theism is the norm. Whatever, lets avoid the neologisms for now). In contrast, an anti-theist is someone who not only disbelieves in a God or gods, it is someone who is opposed to that belief in others. Many readers of this blog may be atheist, but they do not spend their days trying to disprove God or rally against believers, they simply live their lives as we all do. I made a rational choice 10 years ago to become a Christian (and continue to believe against the difficulties that present themselves). I can understand why someone would make a rational choice to become an atheist, or would be an atheist simply because they have not had a religious upbringing. So if you're confident in your beliefs, it should mean that there's no real reason to feel threatened by someone else's. Yet after suffering the intolerance of the religious right for years, we now must now also face the intolerance of the militant anti-theists. I have a theory on anti-theists. You see a true atheist really has nothing against God, since they don't believe God exists. They do not feel the need to fight against something that isn't there. This makes me think that anti-theists are people who have either been hurt in the past by the church, or hold some sort of grudge against God and/or believers. After all Dawkins himself flip-flopped between Christianity and atheism in his early years. You can't tell me there isn't some bitterness there towards the church. I know because I've been in the church for 10 years, you just don't come away without some scars! But before I'm accused of being obsessive. It's not all about Dawkins, he is merely a figurehead, easy to reference. There are many evangelists on the side of anti-theism. The thing that bothers me most is the lack of intellect and common sense in the arguments against faith. This is observed in the often used platitudes and aphorisms, when arguing against theism: "Religion is not only wrong, it's evil" - New Atheism "Theism and its corresponding religions are harmful to society and individuals" - No God Network "[Religion] teaches us to be satisfied with not understanding the world." - Richard Dawkins But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion." - Steven Weinberg "Religious moderates are, in large part, responsible for the religious conflict in our world, because their beliefs provide the context in which scriptural literalism and religious violence can never be adequately opposed." - Sam Harris "The Nazi policy of genocide was based on premises quite similar to those in the Hebrew Bible." - Hector Avalos "[Religion] is consistent with crime, cruelty, envy, hatred, malice, and uncharitableness." - American Atheists "Religion kills." - Christopher Hitchens So according to the proponents of anti-theism, religion is: evil, harmful to society, uneducated, responsible for violence, comparable to Nazism, criminal, cruel, envious, hateful, malicious, uncharitable and it kills. As the Americans would say, that's a long rap sheet. Shouldn't we start rounding up theists and executing them for the good of humanity? It's clear that by choosing to be a Christian I am aligning myself with the mythological Devil of the scriptures! I have sold myself to the ideological Satan of the post-modern world. I'm fine with that description if that's what you want to use to define my set of beliefs. Here's a list of other deluded individuals like myself from past and present, who have caused harm to society through their theistic beliefs: A List of Evil Religious Oppressors Martin Luthor King Leader of the civil rights movement for blacks in America. Dietrich Bonhoeffer Led a movement against the Nazi regime in Germany. William Wilberforce Led the movement to abolish slavery in the UK. CS Lewis Author of The Chronicles of Narnia and wrote many apologetics for the Christian faith. Jim Wallis Leader of Sojourners for social justice and peace. JRR Tolkien Author of The Lord of the Rings. Johnny Cash Famous singer. Alice Cooper Famous singer. George Washington American President. Isaac Newton Scientist and mathematician. First hypothesized the law of gravitation. John Milton Author of Paradise Lost. William Booth Founder of the Salvation Army. Galileo Galilei Astronomer and physicist. Theorised that the Earth moved around the Sun and not the other way round. Blaise Pascal French mathematician and physicist. Inventor of the hydraulic press and syringe. One of the early fathers of modern computer engineering. Charles Spurgeon Founder of Spurgeon's charity for children and young people. John Adams American President. Helped draft the Declaration of Independence. Obviously this is just a small list of criminals who have committed crimes against humanity. But what about anti-theists and their wonderful contribution towards humanity? If we're going to define theists as evil, ignorant and murderous, then it's only fair that we establish a definition for all atheists and anti-theists. Here is a list of atheists and anti-theists who have brought enlightenment and peace to the world, through their atheism: A List of Enlightened Humanitarian Atheists Pol Pot Ruler of Cambodia, Responsible for the genocide of one third of Cambodia's population since being in power in his orchestrated 'Year Zero'. Josef Stalin Russian dictator, 'purged' his party of political rivals and organised assassinations of political opponents. Responsible for Ukrainian genocide and various atrocities against Eastern Europeans after WW2. Jeffrey Dahmer American serial killer. Robert Mugabe Leader of Zimbabwe, a 'corrupt dictator' who has oppressed political opponents and ruined the economy with his land reform policies. Mao Zedong Led a 'violent revolution' of China, executed political opponents and committed acts of genocide against people branded 'counter-revolutionaries'. Kenneth Parnell Convicted sex offender and kidnapper. Larry Gene Ashbrook Disturbed and paranoid spree killer. Armin Meiwes German cannibal who killed and consumed a willing victim he met on the Internet. Karl Marx Philosopher whose works have inspired many communist regimes including Maoism, Stalinism, North Korea, Russia and Cuba to name a few. Harold Shipman British serial killer. Gary Glitter Former glam rock singer, convicted pedophile sex offender. Jean Kambanda Leader of Rwanda inciting genocide of ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutu sympathisers. Of course, there are more atheists that can be added to the list. These are people who unlike religious bigots, being atheists, have obviously had a good impact on society. Model citizens wouldn't you say? For what it's worth I detest the hate speech of Richard Dawkins as much as I detested the hate speech of Jerry Falwell. Richard may be more eloquent than Falwell but the underlying derision is there. My question to the anti-theists is this: Isn't it about time we have a reasonable open dialogue rather than this fundamentalist dogma? What exactly do you hope to achieve by constantly deriding religion? What are your goals? Be honest, what would it take for you to be satisfied you no longer felt threatened by people like me? Make us wear a band identifying our faith? Bar us from certain jobs and careers? Introduce regulations to limit the practice of our faith? Make us attend re-education camps? Wipe us out- convert to Atheism or die? I await a coherent response. EDIT: The original tables were giving my layout problems, if anyone else experienced this, my apologies- I've reduced the width to fit at least 800x600 (hopefully). Technorati Tags: atheism, theism, religion, anti theism, militant atheism, fundamentalist, faith, richard dawkins, christian, virus of the mind