The Atheist Blogger

Many theists argue that atheism has caused only death and destruction, whilst their respective religions preach only peace and love. So what does the evidence look like? The Teapot Atheist did a load of research and counting and has reported his results.

His findings don’t bear well for theism, even with his extremely generous methodology in its favour:

Where deaths from theism are concerned, I have normally low-balled the estimates as a favor because the differential is so staggering and theism needs all the bones it can have tossed in its direction. For atheism, I go with the highest possible estimates.

To add insult to injury, The Teapot Atheist included in the atheism section, deaths caused by Pol Pots regime even though there is no evidence that he was an atheist (his regime was harshly anti-religious though), as well as Stalin, who has recently been considered a deist / closet-theist by historians.

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As an atheist I get told “You are going to Hell” quite often, whether it be from a person I know or in an anonymous email through this blog. I get quite offended by this which many might consider odd seeing as I believe that “Hell” doesn’t exist. My reasoning for my offense is quite simple though, and I suspect many atheists feel the same way about things like this.

If we go by most religious beliefs, Hell is a place where sinners are sent if they do not repent. A lot of religions believe that a murderer can get into Heaven if they repent their sins before they die, or sacrifice themselves to save another. In short, there are quite a few “get out clauses” that one can consider. My “crime” though, isn’t murder, nor is it rape or thieving. An atheist’s crime is simply thinking, or reasoning. So by this definition, I am offended that someone would believe that a murderer, rapist, or thief who has said they are sorry for their crimes would get into Heaven, whilst a person who has done nothing but think would go to Hell.

Conversely, if we take the religious belief that Hell is a place that all sinners go to regardless of whether they repent or not, I am still offended. It seems that whilst a god may or may not have given us free will (depending on what you believe), we do have it. Therefore it seems ever so slightly unfair that a person should be sent to Hell for using a mental ability that doesn’t cause harm to anyone else. By this definition, I am offended that anyone (gods included) would consider murder an equal crime to using free will.

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According to a recent poll organised by a Jewish organisation, Christianity could die out within a century. Only a third of those asked thought that religions like Christianity and Judaism would be practiced in 100 years time, whilst over 50% of people think the religions would have died out in the UK.

4 in 10 people say they would choose to be Christian which is countered by roughly the same amount saying they would choose to practice no religion at all. Surprisingly, 9% of people preferred to be Buddhist over Islam and Judaism.

Although the poll doesn’t mention atheism directly, it is safe to assume that a fair proportion of those people who choose to practice no religion are atheist, as well as those who subscribe to Buddhism. Apparently the drop in church attendance in both Church of England and Catholic denominations means that soon both will become financially unviable.

Whilst this is good news for rationalism and freethinking in Britain, the fall of Christianity is having a completely opposite effect on Islam. It is expected that the active Muslim population will double within the next 27 years, proving that Islam really is the more controlling and persuasive religion in the world today.

The Jewish organisation behind this survey commented:

…we know that Judaism provides real meaning and enrichment to one’s life. Whilst we have attracted many disinterested Jews back to Jewish identity it is clear there is much work to be done.

Which begs the question, if Judaism provided such real meaning to someone’s life, why are there so may abandoning it?

Just less than 3 months ago I reported on the arrest and presecution of the parents of Ava Worthington, a 15 month old girl who died because instead of taking their daughter to a doctor, they left her healing up to faith. Quite unsurprisingly, she died from a combination of bronchial pneumonia and a blood infection, which were both perfectly treatable by modern medicine.

The family were members of a large fundamentalist church know as “Followers of Christ”, and they have a dark history of child abuse, neglect, and manslaughter. Now Ava Worthington’s own cousin, 16 year old Neil Beagley has died from a heart failure caused by urinary tract blockage. Members of the same church, Beagley’s parents believed that the power of prayer would heal their son, and called on fellow churchgoers to a prayer session last Sunday when Neil’s condition worsened. He died two days later.

A 1999 Oregon state law prevented parents from using a religious based defense in court, and this law was first used to prosecute the parents of Ava Worthington. However, since by Oregon law people over 14 years old are allowed to choose the method of medication they receive, it is doubtful anything will happen to the parents.

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Make of this what you will, whether it is just my over-analytical mind working overtime, or evidence of secularization in action.

The UK is thought of as a very secular place, which historically is quite odd, as unlike America there are no direct laws that separate church and state. Also, the country has always been quite religious, although this was disrupted massively when King Henry VIII created the Church of England. Nevertheless, in recent years there have been polls showing the increase in atheism, and a poll last year which revealed 42% of a 2,200 person survey thought that “religion caused more harm than good”.

What I noticed the other day was on a more personal scale. I was visiting hospital, and as usual had to confirm my details on the system. They did a few updates, change of address, phone number etc. Then they got to the question of religion.

In a non-secular country the question one would pose is “What is your religion?”. In a secular one you would expect a more neutral approach, perhaps “Do you have a religion?”. However the receptionist asked neither of these questions.

In fact she took the latter and added two words, which to me made a massive difference. The question she posed was:

Do you have a religion at all?

It may not seem like much, but these two simple words impose a certain level of doubt or expectancy on a question. It’s the type of question you ask when you don’t expect the answer to be positive, but you ask anyway in the hope that it will be. In this scenario, the receptionist phrased the question as if she didn’t expect me to be religious at all.

Of course, my answer was the usual “No, I’m an atheist” since I am not concerned with what people think of my particular beliefs, especially those concerning the non-existence of gods. As far as I can make out, this event proves either:

1) Secularization is on the increase, and more people are aware of the separation of church and state, but moreover the general lack of interest and support religion gets in the modern world.

2) Students are considered to be apathetic about absolutely everything and she really didn’t expect me to go into details about any of my personal beliefs.

I hope hypothesis 1 is correct though, because if you believe for one second that students are “apathetic” about anything you have never been to a modern student rally. If anything, students are more fundamental about their beliefs than anyone. We have no money, no possessions, so our beliefs and what we stand for are all we really have to work with.

My apologies. This article seems to have turned into a defense of student activism, which really does prove that my mind is simply too overactive for it to stay on one subject for very long. I’d better cut off now, before I start talking about something I find more interesting than religion, and that’s coming from a guy who finds assembly language and logic gates “interesting”.

As I said at the start, make of it what you will…