Why am I an Atheist?

Author: Peter Taylor "An unexamined life is not liveable for a human being," said Socrates in his own defence when charged with impiety. I agree, and lament the lack of philosophica l studies in Australian schools. Questioning our personal attitudes and ideas fr om time to time, and consciously subjecting them to the spotlight of reason and logic, can prevent us lapsing into lazy acceptance of corrupt and dogmatic ideas and values imposed by those who would rule and control us. My unbelief began at the age of four, when I caught an uncle slipping out of his Father Christmas costume. Having learned there was no Santa Claus, it was no gr eat leap to also dismiss fairies, elves, goblins and other supernatural creature s. This was somewhat of a relief, I recall, as it increased my enjoyment of Grim m's Fairy Tales, Superman, Captain Marvel and other tales involving magical phen omena over the years, because I wasn't obliged to believe in them. Such fables a re a painless method of instilling values, certainly more exciting than the Meth odist Sunday school and bible class which, to please Mother, I attended until I was 12, despite considering the teachers to be somewhat pathetic. As Nobel Prize -winning author Andr Gide wrote: "The closer you get to religion, the further you get from reality." Luckily, I had honest, decent, hard-working parents who used commonsense, not dogma, as a guide to living. By the time I was 22, mere unbelief had become full-blooded atheism because I'd realised that the purpose of religion is control, and the earlier the indoctrina tion starts, the more mind control religions have. "Give us a child until he is four and you can do what you like with him thereafter; he will always be ours!" say the Jesuits with good reason. Religions control their flock' by the use of fear - psychological and physical.

1. Psychological fear: - By taking natural instincts such as sexuality, dancing, pleasure in eating... and declaring them to be sins', control is asserted. This is psychological torment for those who believe, and in the worst cases can resul t in self-abuse and suicide as the "guilty" attempt to propitiate a demanding, f rightening and jealous god. This guilt is reinforced through fear of excommunica tion and punishment after death in hell, all at the whim of an ever-watchful and omnipotent god who knows everything - even what you're thinking!!! "Be afraid be very afraid. You will be tortured by the devil for eternity unless you obey god's will." The fact that god's will is by no means clear, having been interpret ed' in a multitude of ways by imperfect humans, and that there's no basis either in reason or reality for these scenarios doesn't bother the priests and ministe rs. "Have faith!" they cry. "God works in mysterious ways...." "god will be angr y if you question his commands." You have to admit it's a very cunning trick. Not only is everyone born sinful, b ut they can never liberate themselves from that dreadful state. Even death doesn 't secure release. Unless one has abided by the church's rules, after death ther e will be torture, pain, and misery for eternity. Truly, the Judeo/Christian/Mus lim religions are among the most sadistic creeds ever invented for the psycholog ical enslavement of humankind. 2. Fear of physical force: - Those who weren't taken in by fear of an invisible warlord in the sky, have to be persuaded with less subtle means through the real and present fear of torture, burning at the stake, the imposition of fines, con fiscation of property and goods, physically painful penitence, ... It is a damning indictment of humanity that with few exceptions the fear of forc e has been the major method of control used throughout human history by both rel igious and secular rulers, and remains the preferred - indeed virtually the only method of people control' in all countries of the world.

Two other methods of control, Temptation and Reason, are seldom used by either r eligious or secular governments. * Temptation: The makers of consumer goods use temptation to make people consume their products, but revert to fear of force when dealing with their workforce. * Reason: It was hoped by [mainly French] thinkers in the 1700's that if people were educated they would use Reason and Logic and Commonsense to see the world a s it is, and would behave well' because that's the sensible, kind, non wasteful, peaceful, productive thing to do. For various reasons, not least among them the overweening influence of religion, that hasn't worked. There are and always have been a small percentage of humans who have used reason , logic and common sense to govern their lives, and invariably [inevitably perha ps] they have denied the existence of supernatural gods and monsters. Everything existing in our world must be considered "natural", therefore the sup ernatural cannot exist on earth because if it did then it would be natural - not supernatural - and available to our senses - we'd be able to see or hear or sme ll or touch or taste it. This proposition holds no sway with more than half of t he citizens of the USA [and probably Australia] however, who, according to surve ys, believe in the reality of witches, spells, vampires, angels, and extraterres trials living among us, despite there never having been a case where they have b een seen, heard smelled etc... In other words despite a total lack of believable evidence. The following quote has been attributed to Charles Darwin's father: W hoever wrote it, it makes excellent sense. "Man is an eating animal, drinking animal and a sleeping animal and one placed i n a material world, which alone furnishes all the human animal can desire. He is gifted besides with knowing faculties, to practically explore and to apply the resources of the world to his use. These are realities. All else is nothing; - c onscience and sentiment are mere figments of the imagination. Man has but five g ates of knowledge, the five senses, he can know nothing but through them; all el se is vain fancy. And as for the being of a god, the existence of a soul, or of a world to come, who can know anything about them? Depend upon it... these are o nly the bugbears by which men of sense govern fools; nothing is real that is not an object of sense. My metamorphosis from a live and let live' atheist to a rabid antagonist of relig ion came with the realisation that the objective of all religions is a desire to create a state in which their prejudices are enforced. Anyone who thinks the Ta liban are unusual in this regard should think again. Blood is spilt daily all ov er the planet in the fight for religious control over the minds and bodies of th e inhabitants. Ireland; Philippines; Ivory coast; Nigeria; USA; China; Afghanist an, Israel, Lebanon... And past atrocities perpetrated by colonialists on the in digenous inhabitants of all countries with the tacit approval of religion, conti nue to haunt society in broken lives, drug abuse, impoverishment and misery. Every year in Australia dozens of men are murdered and thousands suffer abuse ra nging from bullying to grievous bodily harm and permanent maiming as a direct re sult of Christian teaching. And hundreds, if not thousands of boys are thrown on to the streets to live rough' by parents who are simply obeying the homophobic te achings of religion. Many succumb to disease, brutality, prostitution... Both the Australian and the USA governments are controlled who see nothing wrong with lying to their constituents and t people, destroying civilisations, murdering, maiming and with lethal radiation that will last a billion years - for by devout' Christians waging war on innocen polluting their land economic gain. And it

is the Fundamentalist Christian/Zionist certainty that heaven will not arrive o n earth until there's a Zionist state encompassing most of what we call the Midd le East, that ensures ongoing horror in Palestine... History offers us a continuum of atrocities in the name of religion - wars; tort ure; murder, maimings, witch-hunts; incineration; the "Children's Crusades" when thousands of homeless, unwanted kids as young as five were forced to walk, bare foot to Mediterranean ports from all across Europe, piled onto leaky ships and s ent to the holy land' to fight the heathens. All died horrible deaths of loneline ss, starvation, drowning, disease, rape, abuse, slavery... in the name of a lovi ng god. And anyone who cares to look at the lives of such sadistic monsters as S t. Dominic and his henchman Torquemada, Calvin, Knox and the Borgia popes, or th e perfidy of the Jesuits and Martin Luther, to mention only a few of the million s of treacherous men and women who, in the name of their god have committed ghas tly crimes against humanity, must, if they have a heart, weep. And when I consid er the unimaginable oceans of misery heaped on the indigenous people of The Amer icas, Africa, Australasia... with the blessing and assistance of the churches, m y flesh creeps. Christianity is a death cult - you must die to attain everlasting life. Human sa crifice on crosses... Sacrifice yourself for god! Inevitably and tragically this will end with the sacrifice of all life because of religious insistence on huma n supremacy/dominion over nature. People who have spent time with animals in the ir natural state know that humans are simply animals. We are not better at provi ding for ourselves. We are not happier, more contented, more peacefully inclined . We do not respect other humans more than other animals respect each other; we are not more generous, caring or thoughtful. In general, human marriages are no longer-lasting than the matings of many other animals and birds. We do not treat or educate our offspring as well as most animals. And, instead of living in har mony with the natural world, our tool-making skills have enabled us change it to the point where there are hundreds of extinctions daily and it is more than lik ely we will soon render ourselves extinct. Christians insist that theirs is a "God of Love". When asked why this loving god allows dreadful things to happen to his children', they answer: "It's to test yo u. To see if you can overcome your affliction and be worthy of god's love." In o ther words, god allows people to go around maiming, laming, murdering and spread ing dread-diseases, and sends plagues, pestilence, war and death - to test his f lock! To see if they are worthy of his love... A god that organises his own snuff ' movies - chilling! Perhaps "believers" should exercise their minds on the following proposition rat her than condemn a raped woman for having an abortion... * If god is all-wise and all-powerful he has the power to arrange things better. If he chooses not to, then he's the personification of evil. A creature so horr ible that only the truly depraved would follow. * If, on the other hand, he isn't all-wise and all-powerful, then he's not worth following. Those with minds uncluttered by fear of gods and monsters can accept that life' h as no meaning' per se. Life' simply is, and we can either accept it gratefully and make the most of it, or waste it in the pursuit of false desires. Without gods there's no imposition of right' ways to live, but that doesn't deny good' and bad'. There are universal values for good such as decency, fairness, compassion... bu t they've been common to all humans in all ages. They are not the invention of r eligion. I am responsible for my life and I'll make it as worthwhile as I'm able. It's up

to me. And when I die, that's it. That's what makes life precious. That's what makes life bearable. That's why it's important to live as good' a lif e as possible.