angelsdepart posted an atheist survey. I have not had the chance to air out my views on various topics. Perhaps I can utilize this venue to give a general description for each topic covered.
1. Why do you not believe in God?
I do not subscribe myself to various versions of deities, such as the God of Abraham or those of the Hindus, due to lack of historical accountability of the various myths espoused by their holy books, priests, shamans, etc., failure for consistent reproducibility of outcomes for specified rituals, and the gods possessing the faulty attribute of pure self-interest. There are also unique and general philosophical questions and faults possessed in analyzing each dogma.
I do not subscribe myself to a form of agnostic deism for pragmatic reasons. It is impractical, in my opinion, to state that some unknown and unknowable entity is involved in the underlying mechanics of the universe, whether the mechanics involve solely creation of the universe, shaping the universe into its current state or form, or being completely involved in every function within this universe. I simply do not find this approach any pragmatically different than the metaphysical naturalism with which I ascribe to. That is, the questions of our existence and life in general yield either similar answers or the answer is completely impractical. I will expand on this thesis at a later date.
2. Where do your morals come from?
I am human. Despite the push for individualism in modern society, our physiology is not that much different from person to person. So my morals and ethical decision making stem from not a static list of rules in a handbook but a living document of human experience and human empathy.
3. What is the meaning of life?
This question always makes me ponder a similar question: "Does life really have a meaning?" If the answer is yes, then the question above is asked. But what if the answer to my inquiry no?
The answer is yes or no depending on what one means by "meaning". Does life have an extrinsic definition or goal? No. There is no universal goal to life. Biologically speaking, this generation's goal is to continue the species via reproduction. But is that really a universal goal or a consequence of evolution and the history of the phyla? Socially we have goals and terms to meet and exceed, but are those really universal? No, not at all. So, no, there is no extrinsic, or rather platonic, meaning to life.
However, there is a particular pattern or certain reduced formalism we all undergo during our living. Thus, my answer is a cliché; the meaning of life is to live. What I mean by to live is this pattern with which we experience: growth. We grow physically due to biological processes. We grow emotionally from social experiences. We grow in knowledge through experience. These three avenues of personal growth is life. How one wishes to involve themselves with each arena (eg. with life) is solely up to their own.
4. Is atheism a religion?
No. It is a view on/of religion, but religion is often defined by ritual practices concerning a belief in divinities and higher entities. Atheism could be viewed as a religious opinion or religious point of view, but in and of itself it is not a religion. Nor is deism based on my definition above, as deism typically does not involve rituals or dogma.
5. If you don’t pray, what do you do during troubling times?
I take as much command of myself and attempt to maintain as much order as possible. As a result, I often find myself volunteering and taking action to fix or ease the tensions created by the troubling situation. From a personal account, when Hurricane Katrina made landfall and devastated the coast of Mississippi and the storm surge laid waste to New Orleans, while everyone was praying for a solution I was attempting to act out a solution. I became a Red Cross volunteer and worked the shelter established at the local conference center (the Rivercenter of Baton Rouge) during the day. During the evening and "graveyard" hours I volunteered at the temporary triage set up at my university (Louisiana State University) as an orderly/nurse practitioner. Essentially I used what resources I had available (my physical strength and manpower) to help ease the suffering of the victims. I have also volunteered several times to help clean up the hardest hit portions of New Orleans and Mississippi, regions which to this day are still wastelands and ghost towns.
Thus, I do not pray nor do I hope. Those do nothing. I act, and my action depends on the situation in question.
6. Should atheists be trying to convince others to stop believing in God?
Should atheists in general do so? No. But for those who believe that the development and retention of religion is the worst thing to have occurred in human history, then I think they are obligated to discuss the reasoning behind their viewpoint. It is their job to convince people that their position is valid. Validity does not always imply conversion.
7. Weren’t some of the worst atrocities in the 20th century committed by atheists?
Yes, but not due to their atheism. People should be measured by their actions not their thoughts. Besides, only the individual truly knows what they believe; others can only guess and weigh the words of individual testimony.
8. How could billions of people be wrong when it comes to belief in God?
Ironically, this question is spot on. But I would phrase the question more like: "how could anyone know anything about God?" There are reported ways of how the nature of the divine can be determined (eg revelation), but the sheer amount of differences amongst individual revelations questions the reliance of such methods.
Simply put, people can be wrong due to flawed methods of determining what they seek.
9. Why does the universe exist?
Is there a platonic reason for the universe's existence? No. The universe exists because the universe exists. This simple tautology is the logical truth of the matter. Everything else is a conjecture, a guess, or an attempt to rationalize opinions with this truth. Though conjecturing can be fun and even lead one to defining and learning more about oneself or the world we experience, it does not give a finite or satisfactory answer to this question. But we do know how the universe exists and why it is in its current form. That is nothing particularly special to this question, though.
10. How did life originate?
Based on current understanding, the organic molecules of life were synthesized and collected on Earth to form the first cell-like blob of chemical mass. Eventually, these chemical mechanisms began constructing structures and patterns we recognize as being patterns found in living organisms.
11. Is all religion harmful?
One cannot make a general statement that encompasses all forms of religious belief. Conviction and piety via asceticism may prevent the individual from experiencing what human culture and nature offers. However, that is the individual's choice. In social settings, religion tends to be more harmful than good. Mob mentality comes to my mind when church services gather. The unquestioning attitude exhibited by some dogmas also illicit more harm than good.
In general, the question cannot be addressed. Specifics need to be specified for a complete analysis.
12. What’s so bad about religious moderates?
From my experience, they do not address the fundamental problem that plagues fundamentalism: the failure to practice what one preaches. Moderates tend to tolerate their highly deluded and misinformed brothers and sisters in this aspect.
13. Is there anything redeeming about religion?
Personal reconciliation with the individual and his/her environment is the only redeeming quality I can think of.
14. What if you’re wrong about God's existence?
Which one's existence, though?
15. Shouldn’t all religious beliefs be respected?
On an individual level, sure. I don't dislike a particular person because of their personal belief system. However, religious groups that attempt to qualify their political stake from sectarian values as opposed to secular ones deserve criticism.
16. Are atheists smarter than theists?
Atheists are definitely smarter than the theists who insist and argue through dogma that their religion is the One and Only TruthTM. Comparisons to theists of other persuasions require specifics.
17. How do you deal with the historical Jesus if you don’t believe in his divinity?
Basically, it has not been historically verified that he rose from the dead and was lifted into heaven. But even if he had done and said everything in the Bible, the possibility of Jesus being a ploy for the archetypal "god of evil" to dissuade everyone from the archetypal "god of good" is a possibility (see answer to 8 for why). I guess, though, this is when faith comes into play.
18. Would the world be better off without any religion?
In my opinion, yes.
19. What happens when we die?
I have the view based on my little knowledge of neurochemistry that an hallucinogenic compound is released during the time the brain lacks oxygen to continue cellular metabolism. Essentially, during the time period preceding absolute death, our sensory data become significantly distorted between our consciousness and the sense organs. We see, hear, taste, feel, smell things which do not exist. We drop unconscious right before absolute death (eg. no sensory data is able to be processed) and then our brain is completely dead. Every thought, emotion, and memory is destroyed. Thus, our metaphorical soul or spirit physically dies.
Immortality is obtained through being retained by the memories of future generations; nothing more or less.
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