The Atheist Blogger

Ray Comfort tried very hard to show that atheists are unreasonable but inadvertently highlighted the same method Creationists use to try and disprove Evolution. Ray claimed that atheists simply do not like the idea of Hell and therefore do not believe in it. He then goes on to say that we use this kind of logic on God as well. We (apparently) don’t like the idea of God and so choose not to believe in it.

You could carry this further if you didn’t like gravity, history, the wind or love. Those things can’t be seen, and therefore wouldn’t exist if you didn’t believe in them either. Anything that you don’t like will not exist if you just say that you don’t believe in it.

Before I continue it should be stated quite clearly that the reason atheists do not believe in God or Hell has nothing to do with not liking either. In fact, my disbelief in Hell came as a direct consequence of my disbelief in God. I do not believe in God for multiple reasons, none of which are simply because I “don’t like the idea”.

Secondly, whilst Ray is quite correct that gravity, history, wind, and love cannot be seen (although given his past allusions about sight I have no idea how he came to this correct conclusion), he fails to mention that such things can be observed and tested based on their interactions with the rest of the universe. History is the one exception because it is simply the human expression for what has happened in the past, but this can too be observed by its affect on the present.

What is really striking is Ray’s last sentence. Anything that you don’t like will not exist if you just say that you don’t believe in it. Ray reckons this is exactly how atheists live their life. I wasn’t too concerned with his ridiculous argument though. I was more wrapped up in the obvious irony of such a statement.

As a Creationist, Ray Comfort subscribes to the same idiotic idea that he is trying to oppose above. Namely, that they do not like Evolution (it goes against the Bible) so they say they don’t believe it in, and they reckon that is a good enough argument to refute it. They don’t look at the evidence, and simply use the same arguments over and over, even though they have been refuted so many times by science.

The subject of existence, belief, and reality can be summed up very easily.

Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away. ~ Philip K. Dick

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Angelpuriran recently posted a few questions in a comment to an old post about Questions for God.

Why you decided to become an atheist..? WHAT gives you benefits to become an atheist? does it makes sense? what if you died and you proved that there is hell, eternal death in hell and the only way to go to heaven is to believe to Jesus, what would you do? will you repent?

I don’t know if “decided” is the correct word to use. I would have said it was more that I “realised” I was an atheist. I did so because I saw that whilst I had believed in God and Jesus for many years, I didn’t have a valid reason for believing in them. There was no evidence for God existing apart from in a book which is claimed to have been inspired by him. Such circular evidence went against how I came to know reason. I also saw problems with the whole form of a God that created the universe, because it doesn’t answer the questions about what created God. Why did something so natural like the universe have to be created by a non-natural phenomenon, especially when there have never been any recorded supernatural phenominon in science.

I guess the major benefit to being an atheist is the freedom from the constant worries about death. I believe that when I die, that will be it. My mind will cease to function and I will become a non-concious entity. This is actually one of the hardest things to wrap your mind around, and I think it might be why some people have problems with atheism. Trying to imagine no life after death is akin to trying to think what “not thinking” would be like. It is a mental impossiblity to do because such an action is a contradiction of itself.

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As reported earlier this week, 41 year old Brazilian Roman Catholic priest Adelir Antonio di Carli was confirmed dead after his ballooning attempt when badly wrong. The priest was trying to beat a record 19 hour flight, attached only to helium balloons. A day after he made an emergency call to say he was crashing into the ocean, a mass of balloons were found in shark infested water.

Now, the priest has been entered into the 2008 Darwin Awards for removing himself from the gene pool. The great thing is, since Roman Catholic priests enter vows of celibacy, he had already removed himself from the gene pool, resulting in the first “double Darwin” award.

A lesson should be learnt from all this. If you are attempting to do some kind of world record balloon trip, at least learn to use your GPS before you set off!

Two weeks ago I wrote about the epic failure that was the new BBC archaeology drama “Bonekickers“. It attempted to combine CSI and Indiana Jones which is a fair combination if you get it right. Unfortunately, the first episode concerned religion and went about it in a very bizarre way. The second episode was much better, focusing on an American Presidential election which included a black candidate (foreshadowing anyone?), and a conspiracy to prevent black people from becoming the leader of the USA. I found this episode to be very watchable and entertaining.

The third episode aired a few days ago and was concerned with the Roman Baths at Bath, which was great and brought back fond memories of visits to the city. The episode was centred around a Roman inventor Marcus Quintanus (fictional) and Boudicca, the English warrior queen. Quintanus invented what were essentially hand grenades, a simple small clay pot that separated two volatile liquids inside. Once the pot is thrown and broken, the two liquids mixed and exploded. The story went that Quintanus was enlisted to help find Queen Boudicca who was in hiding after losing a battle. He was so upset that his weapons had caused so much death and destruction all for finding one woman that when he eventually found her in Bath, he hid her under the Celtic springs that would eventually become the Roman Baths. They fell in love, etc. etc.

It was a fun story to follow and the episode was great, but I have one tiny complaint concerning the character of Quintanus. The character was an atheist as revealed by a member of the archaeology team, and when the details of his life were discovered, including his disgust at the massacre he had a hand in, one of the team, Professor Gregory Parton remarked

No wonder he was an atheist. Who would want to be judged by god after that?

This seems to me like a very poor description of atheist attitudes and a common misconception among non-atheists. The concept that we don’t believe in gods because we don’t want to be judged is the most idiotic argument ever. Its the same as not believing in cars because you don’t want to be hit by one. At the end of the day, if cars exist (which they do) then you will get hit by one if you cross the road without looking, nomatter your beliefs.

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I have to say, this video might just be the new spark atheists have been waiting for. Ray Comfort held the top spot for a while with his famous banana argument, but this guy could have him beat. “Grandpa John” presents the amazing power of God…and pickles.

Comparing converting to Christianity to electrocuting pickles…I think that idea is best summed up in the closing statement

Don’t try this at home

Religion is dangerous…connect to God and you will get electrocuted. I have to say though, that Christian pickle looked quite different to the atheist one. For one, the atheist pickle wasn’t smoking and dribbling all the time…and it certainly wasn’t on fire…

Thanks to Atheist Media Blog for the video!