Atheism–magical belief!

I ran across the image to the left recently. I guess this is in response to other banners around that mock the Christian belief of God being pissed so he sends Jesus to live on Earth and Jesus gets killed only to rise from the dead and that some how makes God (the Big Daddy) happy. It all ends with “makes perfect sense.”

Now if you examine the verbiage in this image closely you’ll see that who ever wrote this doesn’t, it seems to me, understand atheism. First of all, atheism is by definition the LACK of belief in a supernatural being or God. Beyond that, atheism doesn’t promote anything. Christians are non-believers when it comes to other gods such as Zeus, Apollo, Allah, etc. Atheists don’t believe in just one more god than them.

But let’s look at what this says - “…there was nothing and nothing happened to nothing and then nothing magically exploded for no reason.” Notice how “magically exploded” is introduced. The writer of this image has to read up on the issue of nothingness in science. For example, Lawrence Krauss explains in his book “A Universe from nothing” that through the known laws of physics we have today, it can be demonstrated that nothing is unstable and that something (i.e. matter) will be created without the need for a supreme being. It isn’t “magical”, it happens!

Further the image says that nothing created “everything and then a bunch of everything magically rearranged itself for no reason.” Notice the word magic again. Once again science has demonstrated how matter evolved over the vast periods of time forming stars, galaxies and eventually life. Nothing magical about it. It’s all explained by the many disciplines of science if one wanted to educate themselves about the topic.

I will concede one thing though. There is no reason for the universe. There is no reason for us. We humans, as does the universe, just happen to be. Why? Who know and who cares? We know we are here now so lets make the best of it as there is nothing beyond our life. Going through life fretting about whether you’re going to heaven or hell is a waste of time. Use the only time you got.

Finally, it’s interesting that “magical” is introduced when most of religion is all about “magic.” They don’t say it’s magic but that’s what they are peddling. Consider the talking snake in the Garden of Eden. Isn’t that magic? Or the fact that the Bible says that God picks up some dirt and breathes on it, and puff there’s Adam. Or in present day where the Catholic Church still clings to “transubstantiation” of the host where a priest says special words and Jesus’ body is now in the wafer. You can’t taste Him but he’s there!

If Christians really thought about their magical beliefs, they’d find it doesn’t make perfect sense. But they won’t think about it and that’s the problem!

“Why Atheists can’t be real Americans”

My Google Alert pointed me to an article at the World Net Daily (WND), a “news” outlet catering to right wing Christian conservatives who would like nothing better than to have America as a white Christian country with all others out.

The WND, sometime referred to as Wing Nut Daily, is the brain child of Joseph Farah who has a less than stellar record in the newspaper business. Anyway he writes that he agrees with something the good Pastor John Hagee, senior pastor of San Antonio’s Cornerstone Church, said recently.

Pastor Hagee - “This nation was not built for atheists or by atheists. It was built by Christian people who believed in the Word of God. To the atheists watching this telecast, if our belief in God offends you, move. There are planes leaving every hour on the hour, going every place on planet earth. Get on one, we don’t want you and we won’t miss you, I promise you.”

Farah writes that he agrees with Hagee saying further “Atheists can’t be real Americans in the truest sense of the word ...”

Referring to the founding fathers and others at that time, he says they “were Christians who believed in the One True God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They weren’t referring to any other god. They rejected Allah. They rejected paganism in all its forms. They rejected atheism.

America was thus founded as a Judeo-Christian nation, tolerant of other views, but with the understanding that only a moral people governing themselves to the best of their ability under God’s eternal laws were capable of maintaining the liberty established uniquely under this covenant.

Likewise, at the end of the day, anyone who doesn’t believe in the Creator God of our founders is, at best, enjoying the blessings established by that national creed without acceptance of it.

There’s an old saying: “America: Love it or leave it.”

Interestingly he goes on to quote Thomas Jefferson, one of the most free thinking founder and the writer of the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson didn’t believe in the kind of God Farah or Hagee talk about. Jefferson was a Deist who believed in a God that plays no role in the daily lives of individuals. In fact many of the founding fathers were Deists. Jefferson didn’t think Jesus was anything special. Jefferson went to great pains to separate church and state, not wanting any religious involvement in government. Jefferson would be appalled at what is happening in America today.

Farah conveniently forgets that Madison said specifically in the Treaty of Tripoli that America was NOT a Christian country.

Of course Farah and Hagee and their kind want the U.S. to be just white Christians everywhere. They’ll want to get rid of the blacks, the Jews, definitely the Muslims, the Buddhists, the Hindis, the Atheists and for good measure throw out the gays too! Can you image if that was to take place how long it would be until one Christian faction starts fighting another Christian faction. You’ve seen how nice sectarian wars can be when we “liberated” Iraq. Maybe Sunnis or Shiites could be brought in as consultants? Think about it.