Recently, on a trip to Denver, CO, we ran into a young man and woman, probably in their early twenties, who were handing out literature on the sidewalk. Both wore black t-shirts which read, plainly, “Religion is a lie.”
Naturally, we stopped to hear what they had to say. The young man handed us a card, which said the following:
At the Cathedral of St John the Divine in New York City in 1995, Carl Sagan gave a speech about humankind’s place in the universe in relation to science and religion.
One of science’s alleged crimes is revealing that our favorite most reassuring stories about our place in the universe and how we came to be are delusional. Instead what science reveals is a universe much older and much vaster than the tidy anthropocentric proscenium of our ancestors.
We have found from modern astronomy that we live on a tiny hunk of rock and metal, third from the sun, that circles a humdrum star in the obscure outskirts of an ordinary galaxy which contains some 400 billion other stars, which is one of about a 100 billion other galaxies that make up the universe and according to some current views, a universe that is one among an immense number, perhaps an infinite number of other universes.
In this perspective the idea that our planet is at the center of the universe much less that human purpose is central to the existence of the universe is pathetic.
Prayer is not without its place. It can be comforting and bring people together for a good cause. But is someone actively answering our prayers? Or is more likely that ‘answered prayers’ are the products of hope and coincidence?
The following video does a good job of explaining this point of view. It is over a year or two old and used to reside on GodIsImaginary.com.
Video Runtime: 8min 45sec, sound required
I began reading Michael Shermer’s How We Believe. I didn’t even get to the end of chapter 1 before being taken aback.
Before Shermer converted to a religious skeptic, he spent several years as a born again Christian. Among other works, he was influenced by Hal Lindsey’s The Late Great Planet Earth. While attending Glendale College, Shermer challenged Richard Hardison, his philosophy teacher to read the book, hoping it would leave his teacher in awe. After reading the book, Hardison responded to Shermer with a two page report detailing the problems with the book. [ 1 ]
As Shermer reports this incident in chapter 1 of How We Believe, he mentions how Hardison concluded his report with the following thought:
Of all Lindsey’s statements, the one I most want to quarrel with is found in the introduction: “There are many students who are dissatisfied with being told that the sole purpose of education is the develop inquiring minds. They want to find some of the answers to their questions—solid answers, a certain direction.” I think I can offer some possible explanations for this “egregious” development. But even more, I feel impelled to propose that such a student is dead.
Why pick on religion? We skeptics/atheists are often asked. Sure, you may not like it, but come on - what harm does it do?
It is true that religion in the right hands can do some good (or at the very least, mind its own business). However, encouraging faith over reason can lead to disastrous, if not tragic, results.
Take, for example, the case of Madeline Neumann, the 11-year old girl who passed away from a very treatable but undiagnosed form of diabetes on March 23, 2008. Why undiagnosed, you ask? It seems that Madeline’s parents put off taking her to a doctor, choosing instead to pray for their daughter.
Shortly after Seung Hui-Cho killed 33 people (himself included) in the Virginia Tech massacre on April 16, 2007, the following email began circulating the web:
Folklore of a global flood among many religions worldwide, including Christianity. Not to say the Bible’s words do not carry important messages and morales, but not all of it’s accounts can be taken literally. The story of the Great Flood is one such story. The biblical account of Noah is impossible. One reason why is a problem with the Great Flood:
There is not enough water on the earth to cover the planet as described in the Christian Bible. Even if enough water were present to cover all land on earth, the conditions produced would have killed Noah and his family.To prove that the bible is the inerrant word of god, many Christians will point to supposed “scientific” truths found within its pages. According to AbsoluteTruth.Net,
The Bible is most definitely scientific–it is totally accurate and has often demonstrated that God knows more about science than man. (This would make sense, seeing that God is the One who invented science itself!)
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We are skeptics, first and foremost. When people ask why we do not believe in God, Bigfoot, UFO's, Sylvia Browne, etc, the answer is simple: we simply have not seen substantial evidence to back up those claims. We don't hate anyone, but we do strongly dislike unsubstantiated beliefs. When we are expected to believe, pay for and base important decisions on extraordinary claims, we expect some evidence.
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