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Religion and Ethics
Influences of religion on culture
Religion and Ethics
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The best way to understand why atheism is so important to me is to start with a little background. I grew up and still live in Texas, the region other Texans regularly refer to as the religious part of Texas. So my experience has also been shaped by my environment. I don't want to focus too much on emphasizing how religious the culture is, but I do want to give an indication. For example, few people I know accept the theory of evolution or the Big Bang; non-creationist scientific theories are largely perceived as bullshit with the infamous “just a theory” argument. Perhaps an anecdote can help illuminate further:
I volunteer at a small place that helps low-income people without prescription insurance obtain medicine. I have no idea how much the director earns but the non-profit small business world isn't known for making people rich. In other words, the director is an extremely intelligent, ethical and hardworking person who chose to use her talents in a way that benefits others. One of the benefits of volunteering there is having good conversation during the rare times we're slow. In the midst of one conversation the director casually mentioned that there's no such thing as an atheist (with the implication being that no one can be truly free of religion in their “heart of hearts”). This was simply a casual comment by an otherwise intelligent person that was so culturally acceptable no one even batted an eye.
This is also the sort of culture that I exist in. Which means that I've had to learn how to walk softly around many people I want to maintain relationships with. There are exceptions, for example my closest friend who is training to become a Lutheran minister, but as a general rule I need to tread lightly or else the ...
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...had to discover it through difficult sustained introspection of some of my most cherished beliefs. It was a lonely journey, and in a lot of ways it still is. My sincerity in my opposition to religious faith hasn't wavered as I've matured, but my opposition has become much more nuanced and, one hopes, more reflective of thoughtful opposition. The journey wasn't always pretty, but the reward – a mental freedom from religious dogmatic oppression – was well worth it.
Once I accepted that god doesn't exist (or its corollary of allowing our beliefs to be exclusively based evidence and reason rather than faith) I was free to use my mind to the best of my ability. I'm free to find all the answers I can about everything imaginable. It was a scary feeling at first, I'm so incredibly ignorant of so much about the world, but embracing that ignorance is incredibly empowering!
H.J McCloskey’s article, “On Being an Atheist,” is an attempt to show atheism as a more practical alternative to the Christian belief. McCloskey reasons against the theistic beliefs of the cosmological argument, the teleological argument and design. He references the presence of evil in a world created by God and the absurdity of living by faith. This article is an attempt to reason that God does not exist because He is perfect and the world is not perfect; evil exists therefore God cannot exist. McCloskey’s article labels these arguments as “proofs” and concludes none of these arguments would be evidence of God’s existence. I find McCloskey’s article to lack logic and coherence which only serves to invalidate his arguments. I find this little more than an attempt to justify his own atheistic worldview.
In the article,"An Atheist Manifesto," by Sam Harris he discusses how God does not exisit because if he did exist there would not be any evil in this world. As I was reading this article I found it very intresting how Harris is so negative and believes that everything that happens is God's fault. "....at this very moment that an all-powerful and all-loving God is watching over them and their family. Are they right to believe this? Is it good that they believe this?No,.." stated Harris. He should understand that God gave us a gift called "free will," and with that gift it comes with a price that we should live with the consequeces by the descisions we make as human beings. I liked this article because it showed me the other side of the coin
Last year, I read Life of Pi, and its focus on spirituality and the analysis of Pi’s religious experience moved me and heavily affected my own spirituality. I was an agnostic atheist beforehand, and that did not change, but instead, Life of Pi pushed me to find my own beauty and wonder, not in religion as Pi did, or in a vague spiritual sense as some others do, but in nature, science, and
In today’s culture, the idea of there is perfect and divine designer that made the earth and everything that entails with it, really pushes people away. Not only has this idea been conflicted about in today’s culture. It has been especially trivial in past decades, an example of this is seen by H.J. McCloskey. McCloskey wrote an article about it called “On Being an Atheist”, which attempts to defeat the notion that there is a God. McCloskey first addresses the reader of the article and says these arguments he is about to address are only “proofs”, which should not be trusted by any theist. He then goes and unpacks the two arguments that he believes can actually be addressed, the cosmological and teleological argument. McCloskey also addresses the problem of evil, free will, and why atheism is more comforting than theism.
this experience has given me the courage to not be ashamed of wanting to gain more insight into
Throughout our short time on Earth, a very common thought and feeling that many people have is, “What’s out there? Why are we here? What made us?” etc. This natural human tendency to ask these questions lead some people draw conclusions that may or may not be there. A belief I’ve held for years is the atheistic one. Christians, as well as many other moral institutions would refer to an atheist as someone who doesn’t believe in God. Where this may be the case, I feel as though this definition is a lazy and non-intellectual one. Rather I tend to believe that atheism is the lack of a belief in a given higher power. To that, I will reference a quote from Richard Dawkins, “I am an atheist with respect to around 2700 Gods, you (a christian) on the other hand are an atheist with respect to around 2699 Gods.” This is a quintessential and distinguishable difference between the two beliefs, or lack there of. What’s interesting in what Dawkins was saying was that you could infer that with this definition, Christians are statistically about as atheist as atheists are. Now with that being explained, one would start to bring in to frame the probability and the odds that maybe in fact the Christian God is the one real God vs. the chances that maybe another factor has been played into this belief.
In his article, "On Being an Atheist" Mccloskey gives a few contentions that look to support the non-presence of God, Atheism. This he does utilizing a few cases made by theists on a general level and in addition centering all the more on the Christian God. The cases are isolated into a few segments whereupon he lays his countering contentions. At the presentation, he gives a concise review of the contentions exhibited by theists, who he alludes to as "confirmations," guaranteeing that none of the evidences make enough avocation to accept that God does exist. Despite the fact that one of the verifications may not indicate the presence of God, all the evidences together give a solid confirmation to the presence of God acknowledging their accord or absence of disagreement. In any case, if the presence of God is focused around such demonstrates, his verifications or complaints that God does not exist are questionable, too.
In James Martin’s book, The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything: A Spirituality for Real Life, he outlines the different paths through religion that people can take. In the chapter, “The Six Paths”, he outlines each path, describing how they work, and what the benefits and pitfalls to each are. The six paths are: belief, independence, disbelief, return, exploration, and confusion. I tend to view myself more closely aligned with disbelief, with a dash of confusion and exploration thrown in. Through my experiences in life, I end up finding the most disagreement, personally, with the Path of Belief, and Disbelief. I find the pitfalls heavily outweigh the benefits of those paths, and in such I have commonly found a non-welcoming, elitist environment among people on those paths of religion. Before explaining my positions on
“As of 1994 there were an estimated 240 million atheists around the world comprising slightly more than 4 percent of the world’s population, including those who profess atheism, skepticism, disbelief, or irreligion”(Michael). Disbelief in God might be considered arrogant, but as you can see the group we refer to as atheists includes not only simple-minded imbeciles, but also the great American diplomat, Thomas Jefferson. “Atheists are frequently asked what atheism has to offer as opposed to religion. To answer this question, I need to assume that there are no gods or supernatural entities to reward us with a peaceful eternity if we follow some established morality. If the reason for this assumption is proven false, then the question is meaningless, as atheism ceases to exist”(Goluboff). A strong one-sided statement that gives little attention the fact that we presently...
Religion and faith have been a part of my life since the day I was born. My grandfather has been a pastor at Selma Church of God for 39 years and my mom, along with my grandmother and aunts, run our churches worship team. One could only assume, I have spent much of my life in the church. From years of children 's church and Sunday school, I learned of God 's unconditional love for me and His constant willingness to forgive me of my sins. My family and teachers explained the crucifixion and resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ. As a child, I knew all these things, these wonderful things about my God and my religion, but it was not until my early teens that I began to thirst for more.
Every Sunday. Stares and disappointment. I sat with my grandmother at this big church. People would stare when they realized I didn't know the prayers or songs. I was trying to learn more about religion why did I feel so scared? Am I going to find where I belong? Will I have enough time? These are questions I sometimes have to ask myself. When I was little I explored many religions but now that i'm older I am frightened about faith.
Let’s start off by explaining what atheism is, it’s when you don’t believe in any form of an “Intelligent Creator” or God, as usually referred to as. The word atheism comes from the root word “theism”, which is when you believe in a God, or numerous Gods depending on the religion, and the prefix “a”, which means “not”. There are no set practices of atheism, or a set list of beliefs. To be an atheist you must believe what you would like and simply live your life without constraints based on what you believe is good or bad, not what you are told is good or bad. There is a constant debate against atheism from the theist side, because both sides’ arguments are polar opposites and each believes their side of the argument is 100% valid. I will state my view on some arguments, and clarify some common atheist stereotypes.
Religion has been an area of doubt for me for many years. My faith in the Christian religion has wavered so much, yet there was so much I did not know. So I took a Bible and Literature class this semester. It was the best decision I could have ever made. I learned so much from studying the Bible as a piece of literature rather than a faith. It allowed me to question the teachings I learned as a young child, and I did not feel guilty for disagreeing with what I had learned. It has made me want to learn more and question more in order to experience the true passions behind religious faith.
Raised by an agnostic father and a Catholic mother, I played religious tug-of-war. During my eight years of Catholic PSR study, I moved through the motions, much like a puppeteer commanding his rag figures on a string. I listened to hypocritical “teachers”, commanding me to cut ties with my Muslim friends for fear that they are most likely terrorists and to look down to gay members of our own community. Well aware of these prejudice intolerances, I said nothing, but I did I go home and continue my practices of Catholicism. Following the sacrament of confirmation, I broke away from the church and reverted to atheism - never could I support a cause that preaches intolerance and disgust towards another human being. I did not carry this ideology: I lugged it, I tugged it, I hauled it. I desired a relationship with the Lord, but I was infuriated with the way I was taught to connect with Him. After four interminable years of refusing to listen to the Lord’s calling, I took a leap of faith that I never envisioned possible - I visited a non-denominational Christian church with the man I love the most. Dressed in my Sunday-best on a Wednesday, I walked up four stairs in my tall wedges, heart pounding and stomach turning. My inner voice scolded me and said, “You turned your back on the Lord for four years, he will condemn you upon entering a holy place”. I opened my eyes and what I saw took me by surprise - men wore athletic shorts
As a student at the University of Portland, who has now spent a semester living amidst the Catholic culture, I have started to think about religion fundamentally different than prior to this year. Theology class has been enlightening. In class, a new external lens of how one can view faith while learning to think critically in the search of truth has been presented. The inquisitiveness in me has led me to ask hard questions regarding myself, my perceptions, my misconceptions, and even some heartfelt convictions while contemplating my faith. I have experienced legitimate struggles. I acknowledge I have ignorant barriers keeping me from totally living a life with God and for God due to the confusion of exactly what that means. “All truths are