Jul 03 2008
Pleased to Meet You
Chuck Colson claims he’s never met an atheist. I thought I’d introduce myself. Hey Chuck, how’s it hanging? My name is Kara.
I’ve studied a load of religions in depth. I’ve studied groups you probably don’t even consider religions. They interest me endlessly. Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Pastafarianism… and then all the cults you probably don’t pay a second thought to, even though they tend to derive themselves from Christian tradition. I’ve never, ever found a religion that encompasses my world view.
Can I deny categorically that there is a God? No, but I can certainly say that I find it extremely unlikely there is one.
I used to be “religious”. I used to pray. These are habits most of us have instilled in us by our families, our communities, our friends. These habits become traditions and we attach them to places and feelings and memories and not so much to God over time. This is true even for religious people. How many Catholics really think about why they’re taking communion every Sunday? Do they just do it because it’s habit, because the whole group is doing it? I never had my first communion and as an adolescent, I used to be pushed into taking communion without any understanding of why we did so when I attended church services. Eventually, I stopped taking it because it was meaningless to me.
I refused to be married in a ceremony that would be tainted for me by being defined by any religion. When I’m close to dying, I will fight like hell, just like Dylan Thomas wanted. I won’t baptize or indoctrinate my children. When I get in a shitty situation, I reassure myself about the inherent slack of the universe instead of praying. I am in control of my life and ultimately, the world (albeit a small portion of it). The good I do is reflected in the world, and in my heart. I don’t need a specter to threaten me or a benevolent being to reward me for my actions, the actions themselves are their own punishments and rewards.
The absolute, broad-brush approach to treating atheism as an impossibility for humans is hypocritical. I respect that people believe in God, that they may, in fact, be right. I don’t need to prove my disbelief in God any more than you need to prove your belief (because you couldn’t prove it, you know that, right?). What matters most is how we treat each other, something that too often gets lost in the flood of people trying to prove they’ve picked the right religion.
So now we’ve officially met. I look forward to your retracted statement.
Mr. Colson’s approach isn’t hypocritical; it’s just plain ignorant. His gross ignorance of human nature and human history shines through that entire article in ways I won’t bother to enumerate.
I’m sick of hearing the same insinuations about atheists time and time again. Self-righteous, amoral people no more represent “atheism” than Pat Robertson does Christianity. Most of the 15% of us (in the U.S.) who don’t conceive of Chuck’s kind of God do so quietly and unassumingly.
And when will people stop talking about “atheism” as though it’s some crazy affirmative religious belief? Repeat after me, Chuck:
Atheism does not necessarily imply the active assertion of the non-existence of God. Most atheists merely reject a theist worldview.
As long as I’m addressing you in the second person, Chuck, do you know what the worst part is? Kara and I are married — that’s right, we’ve co-opted your “sacred institution” — and there’s a decent chance that one day we’ll have little children and do Satan’s work by not forcing religion (or non-religion) on them. They’ll probably grow up to be functioning members of society like Kara and me, and if they choose to take up evangelical Christianity they won’t have to wait until they’re facing a prison sentence to do it (ooh, burn).
Now STFU.
Ha ha ha. This guy is so crazy. “Studies” have shown that the image of God is implanted in us (which means that god/s exist/s, of course). Yeah, I’ve heard about that idea. RICHARD DAWKINS wrote about it in the “The Selfish Gene.” Also, Colson’s assertion is more epistemological than theo-psychological. Even Dawkins asserts that he is technically an agnostic because you can’t REALLY know of there’s a god or not. But how do you really know what you know, and if you know it? All this proves is that Colson has been smoking a ton of weed.