Let's talk about free will...

This was just supposed to be a comment, but it turned into a longer spiel than I expected it to. So I decided to blog about it. For this blog, we're going to discuss the christian concept of free will, and why it's not compatible with the christian view of god. I had a discussion about this with a Calvinist not too long ago and it left him confused and a bit irritated with me since he couldn't provide an answer that I would accept as logical. For this blog, we will pretend that a god exists. This is to point out how much logic is missing from christianity. You may ask why I even bother with this since I am an atheist. I have found that no one likes to have their security blanket ripped from them all at once. The trick to open eyes to reality is to do it slowly and in pieces.

Anyway, the christians believe that their god is omnipotent and omniscient. They also believe that the reason that this oh-so-powerful being won't do anything to clean up the shit on earth is because he has given us the freedom to do as we please and won't interfere in our choices. The problem with this idea is that it contradicts itself. If a being is omniscient, it means that he knows EVERYTHING. Which means that he already knows what's going to happen before it happens. To break that down further, if he already knows what's going to happen, then that means that it was predetermined. If the future is already predetermined, then there is no free will. Predetermination negates free will. You are going to do exactly what was already foretold and that makes us all puppets on a stage.

Now a lot of people don't like the idea that they are not in control of their own lives, so they invented the concept of free will to explain why they aren't robotic pawns in a supernatural chess game. Well, if you have free will, which is the ability to make your own choices whether good or bad, then god can't possibly be omniscient. At the very most, he can know every possible outcome to every decision that you could possibly make, but he can't know what will happen until you actually choose that course of action.

So, religion is a moot point either way. Either god isn't really omniscient or life is predetermined. If he's not omnipotent AND omniscient, then why worship him? If it's all predetermined, then it's predetermined who was supposed to be a christian and who wasn't and it doesn't matter what we do since it'll all be the same in the end. So live your life the way that you want to. Break free from the chains of religion and be good just for the sake of it. Why keep pretending that it's all real when you don't have to? All it does is add unnecessary stress to your life. For all that people say it brings comfort, the reality is: religion brings unnecessary pain, guilt, suffering and death. The sooner we get away from such archaic views, the sooner we can truly reach our full potential as human beings.

Nothing Fails Like Prayer...

"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?
Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing?
Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing?
Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing?
Then why call him God?"
— Epicurus

 

We've all heard it when something bad happens-"I'll pray about it", " It's God's will", "God is testing them", "God is punishing them". It irritates me to no end to be upset and to have someone tell me to "just pray about it and god will hear you". Especially to hear christians say "Praise god!" when it goes the way they want it to, and "Well, it was god's will, and who can understand or question god's will", when it doesn't. Prayer is the lazy man's solution. It is a way to do nothing and still feel productive. It is also a way to divert blame to something else. If your prayer isn't answered, you can just blame it on someone else.

Ok, so everyone that knows me knows that I am an atheist. Not agnostic, not fairweather faithful, not on-the-fence, but full-fledged, all-out, stauch ATHEIST. I make no pretences, I do not sugarcoat my feelings on the subject and I don't back down. So WHY in the world would you tell me to freakin' PRAY about a situation?

My dad was diagnosed with cancer about 7 years ago. I was still a christian at that point in time, and I prayed like I'd never prayed before. It took awhile, but after numerous chemo and radiation treatments administered by DOCTORS, after a lengthy stay in a HOSPITAL, he got better and went into remission. Sure we all prayed, but he didn't just sit at home and pray that god would perform a miracle. He relied on modern technology and science, and when that worked, I didn't attribute his recovery to a miracle, but to that science and technology.

 And now, 6 years later, the cancer is back. My parents are still just as devout christians as they have always been. I am not. When my mother told me the news, my first question was not "Should I notify the local church so they can put him on their prayer list", but "So what do the doctors want to do"? My mother said "I know that you...say things...but we really need you to pray for a miracle." She can't even bring herself to admit that I am an atheist. And as such, my prayers are utterly useless to her god, even if he did exist. I told her that I would not discuss the subject with her because it wasn't the time, but that no, I wouldn't pray. I would put my faith in the doctors and the treatments instead.

When I got off the phone and started to cry, a friend walked in, and to console me, said "Hey, I know you don't really believe, but it's all about prayer right now". Then he proceeded to tell me a story about someone that he used to know who had HIV, prayed and believed that god would answer his prayers and 6 months later was miraculously cured. As if an unconfirmed story about someone who may or may not REALLY have been HIV pos having "faith" and being healed is going to sway me. OMG! How could I NOT believe after that? Praise Jeebuth, I've seen the light! Right.

What I HAVE observed, is the inequality and unpredictability of the world. The people in my life that are the most devout christians that I know, suffer the most, while the most evil people (who, incidentally also claim to be christians) that I know live long and happy lives. What I've chalked it all up to is that shit happens in life. Good things happen to bad people, just as bad things happen to good people.  And sometimes, the world sets it all straight and good things happen to good people, while bad things happen to bad people.

So, it's on the christians to tell me how, if their god is real and so righteous, loving, and omnipotent, all of this can be. Explain to me why so many lives were lost in Joplin, Mo in a natural disaster, right here in the Bible belt. Do you mean to tell me that ALL of those people were evil and immoral? How about Japan? All of them immoral there too? Your god had a higher purpose, huh? What was it exactly? And on a more personal note, want to explain how my very devout and moral grandfather went to the hospital to have a quadruple bypass surgery, caught a staph infection, but then ended up dying of leukemia? Or why your loving god would let my other moral and good grandfather lose his mind to Alzheimer's? Or how about my god-fearing father, who has lived most of his life by "god's word",  served as a deacon in the church, and made sure that his kids were indoctrinated in the church at a young age, who is now dealing with his second bout with cancer. I have another friend going through the same thing, who is of the blind-faith variety. And yet, on the flip-side there is the greataunt who is one of the most vile, hateful, evil, lying, manipulative, gossiping bitches that I've ever known, who is still happy and healthy and going strong at almost 90.

 It's all a load of shit, but people are too unwilling to think for themselves to admit that. I realize that it sounds as if I am angry with god, but it's not god that I'm angry with. It's all of the people who use god as a crutch and an excuse and expect me to do the same. What it all really boils down to is that life happens. Shit happens. God did not cause or allow it, and he can't do anything about it because he doesn't exist. He's just a figment of the imagination. People need to quit worrying so much about what happens AFTER they die, and live their life NOW.

So now, we go through round 2 as a family, and hope for the best but prepare for the worst. And if by chance, he doesn't make it through this round, I will be heartbroken, I will be sad, and I will grieve. But I will not  be angry at god because god has nothing to do with it either way. You can't hate what doesn't exist. But if you walk up to me in my time of grief and stress and tell me how he's with god and how you'll pray for us, I will punch you in the face and you can pray for your god to stop me. We'll see if you walk out with a black eye or not. I'm willing to bet that you do.

Are We Encouraging Stupidity in our Kids?

So I was sitting here with my friend's kids, working on my computer while they watched tv. They happened to be watching Wizards of Waverly Place, then changed it over to Sponge Bob Squarepants, (a show that I completely hate, btw). As I stopped to watch parts of these shows, I couldn't help but wonder why so many shows glorify stupidity and laziness as great attributes to have.

I am a huge fan of The Big Bang Theory, which is a tv series. I love the geeky scientists, because I have friends like them, and I can identify with some of it, myself. What I don't like about the show is that they portray these very smart men as socially awkward and even childish in their understandings of normal human interaction. Even the highly intellectual women on the show are portrayed that way, except for Leonard's girlfriend Priya. She is portrayed as a know-it-all bitch. We are supposed to identify with the cute, but rather dumb neighbor, Penny as they try to make her the easily likeable one of the group. We are supposed to roll our eyes at the guy's antics and admire Penny for putting up with them.

Then you have our older shows, Happy Days. The hero of Happy Days was always The Fonz. He was portrayed as "cool and street smart". So what that he wasn't very well educated and didn't care to be? He was "cool". In Wizards of Waverly Place, the main character, played by Selena Gomez is lazy and has no desire to learn, yet she is the one that kids are supposed to admire. Her older brother is devoted to his education and is portrayed as a stiff, stuck-up jerk. Then we have SpongeBob. Do I even have to expound upon how incredibly stupid THIS show is? The only character concerned with higher education and the arts is Squidward, and again, he is villified as Spongebob's hateful and snobbish neighbor.

So my question is, WHY? Why in the world would be value stupidity and ignorance over education? The message that we're sending to our kids is that it's "cooler" to be substandard and uneducated. It's ok to half-ass it in life. You don't see our children looking up to intellectuals anymore. Instead it's all about the latest sports star or pop sensation or rich skank. The people that our children are looking up to are people like Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez, Derek Rose, Sarah Palin and Paris Hilton. Is that really the image that we want our kids to have of the world? Really? Derek Rose is the basketball player who lied to get into college by having someone else take his SATs. Then, he stayed just long enough to get picked up by the NBA and dropped out. Great role model there. I don't think I really need to say much of anything about Sarah Palin or Paris Hilton. They open their mouths and spew enough stupidity for themselves.

According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), out of 34 countries studied in 2009, the US ranked 14th for reading, 25th for math and 17th for science. As someone who values higher education, I cannot understand why we would glorify ignorance and stupidity, when we should be ashamed of it. It is not "cool" to be uneducated, especially in a time when an education is so easy to come by. You don't have to go to a fancy, Ivy-league college, you simply have to pick up a book and read it. So, you don't like to read? There are plenty of audiobooks out there on every subject. It's the lazy man's education, but it's still an education. The more you know, the less you can be taken for a fool. It's a sad day when our own political figures (targeting Palin again, just because she's such a prime example of stupidity in the public eye) don't even know that Africa is a continent and not a country.

So in a world where kids are admiring sports stars and music stars, I'll stick to my own list-Albert Einstein, Katherine Hepburn, Richard Dawkins, and Lawrence Krauss. Maybe that list will expand more, the older that I get, but I can guarantee that it will always contain highly educated and progressive minds.

An Angry Atheist...

Today, a friend commented on one of my Facebook posts. He started by asking why I've been in this mood lately and said that he didn't remember me being so aggressive about the atheist thing. Then he mentioned that I seemed kinda mad. It got me to thinking. Then I decided that yes. I am "kinda mad". I'm more than that. I'm just outright angry. Yes, I am angry.

 I am angry at the people who keep telling me that I'm going to hell and I can't live a moral and productive life without their god. I am angry at the fundamentalists that are trying to force their religion into our secular government. I am angry at the clergy, televangelists and all the like who swindle people out of millions of dollars a year in the name of god, then watch their people struggle to make ends meet while they are buying $3,000 suits and driving BMWs.

 I am angry at the people who deny others jobs and opportunities once they find out that they don't believe in a god. I am angry at the people who bully, harrass and degrade young atheist teens and kids in the name of god. I am angry at the people who fly airplanes into buildings, who kill each other, who abuse and murder their children in the name of their god. I am angry at the people who blow up abortion clinics and kill doctors in the name of god. I am even angrier at the cowards that stand back and piously agree with those actions.

I am angry at the people who belittle me, condescend to me and get all self-righteous because my opinion doesn't fit in with their views. I am angry at all of the "christians" who hear about the horrible crimes committed in god's name, but say "Well, they weren't REALLY christians". I am angry at all of the religious who preach to me that THEIR god is loving and kind, but still claim to believe in the bible because those two statement are not compatible and they know it.

Most of all, I am angry that this is all that I can do to change my world. All I can do is stand up and keep being angry, very loudly and hope that things change. I can join atheist organizations and work with them. I can write to my senators and congressmen and the president, but we all know that they cater to the religious.

So herein lies my dilemma. I can't do it by myself. But maybe, just MAYBE, if all of the atheists in America stand up and make their voices heard, we can change things for the better. We can make this part of the world just a little safer for the next generation. And that's all I really want. You can keep your myths and make-believe deities. Just keep them to yourself. I'll live my life with logic, thanks.