The Crack that lets the Light In

Just as believers don't need evidence to believe, atheists don't need a reason for not believing. However, in my eighty years I've come to the following understanding.

One

When you get up every morning you know what's going to happen all day long. That is, you don't expect people to walk on water, the sun to stand still in the sky, or to suddenly be able to move faster than a speeding bullet. No magic will happen and you don't expect it to. And yet if somebody asked, you are possibly conditioned to answer, "Yes, the magic could happen." Nevertheless, you don't expect to wrestle with an angel on the way to the bus stop. You know the sun will cross the sky, the result of two heavenly bodies in their respective positions relative to one another.

Reasonable people know that evolution is a fact. I refuse to grant credence to anyone who opposes the truth of the evolutionary theory. Some would posit that a creator is necessary to the process, but the same rule that You know when you wake up what will happen all day long is much more reasonable and there is no evidence contrariwise. From the Big Bang until now there is no measurable evidence of divine intervention.

Death seems a necessary component of evolution, allowing for adaptation to occur. Also, the fact that almost every single organism is food to other organisms. The human notoriously will eat almost anything that doesn't eat it first. What's intelligent about a system that depends on death for survival?

Early humans had no libraries or Einstein from which to draw information. By the time their minds developed so that they could question their circumstances they had to already believe much that entered into legends and myths. Emotionally they could not bear to let go of departed loved ones. They saw enough death they had to know of the inevitable in their own case and like Woody Allen would prefer not to be there when it happened. So all the mysteries became the myths and notions that became codified into religions. Whatever could toss that dislodged boulder onto your house has the power to alter other circumstances. The whatever being invisible like your dearly departed, therefore they all likely live together in invisibility. Anthropomorphism. If you don't know the word look it up.

Science has debunked the myths and fantasies of the religious doctrines, leaving raw faith to sustain the gods.

The evolution that gave the world humans delivers a blurred demarcation between animal and human intelligence the more we know. The same force that causes a human to love a dog can cause a cat to love a chicken. Animals can solve problems and manipulate the environment. The problem is, the human is an insatiable problem solver and a greedy manipulator. He is making the other species go extinct. He is currently like two species intermingled, in that a sizeable portion has essentially adopted the golden rule, while a great many others follow the eye for an eye principle. The greedy eye for an eye crowd appears to be in command because the golden rulers are too polite or too few in number to successfully resist. It is becoming more recognized by the minute that humanity will likely soon make itself extinct.

Those who hold onto notions of divine benevolence can make all the excuses they wish, but when on a daily basis toddler children and other humans get blown to smithereens simply because they are there when the totally unnecessary wars gravitate in that direction, I have to scoff.

Christians holding onto Jesus have virtually no evidence the physical man existed. Even if they could place him in history there is no evidence of his miracles. Another situation for You know what's going to happen all day long.

In conclusion, I don't have to prove there is no god to be right. All you need do is provide one scintilla of evidence to make me alter one word of what I have ever written on the topic. God is not dead, because he/she/it never existed.

TWO

Most discussions of atheism center on evolution. It is a fertile territory to explore. But we don't even need evolution. Atheists actually don't have to have a reason to be atheists. Most discussions and arguments are thrust on them by believers who feel an atheist's existence is a threat to their own, striking at the core of their very existence if religion can so easily be nullified. The human, being a territorial animal, will defend a territory with any means at its disposal in extreme cases. Hence, racism (territorial ethnicity hatred), wars (territorial aggression), gods (territory inside the imagination, the greatest territory of all to deists). It is a fear of personal annihilation driving the faithful to attack atheism with so much energy.

THREE

Some would seek to transcend the argument, saying the universe itself is god. Pure anthropomorphism. The instant you inject "god" into it you are seeking to inject human ego into the fundamental clockwork of all existence. Humans and Earth are not that important. We once had a potential for riding out the remaining lifespan of the universe until we willfully destroyed our habitat. There is no future in self destruction.

FOUR

About myself: I have always been an atheist since long before I began my education. I have kept it to myself unless cornered. I only learned to speak out in self-defense. I respect your right to disagree with me. All I ask of you is to allow me the same courtesy.