Many people believe that an atheistic (godless) world is void of justice, and allows for many bad people get away with their crimes; that if everyone was an atheist, there would be no morality etc. Anything and everything would be permissible (e.g. murder, rape, stealing) in an atheistic world. But it seems that this sort of world would exist regardless (as it does/has with religion).
While religion perhaps may scare some individuals into behaving morally, it doesn't seem to be enough for many. In-fact, from what I've seen, atheists are often less violent/confrontational than believers. This is, I believe, because atheists tend to be more rationally-minded, and a more rational person will be more likely to behave morally. It is when we put all our eggs in the basket of emotional-reasoning that we do things that we regret (doing things in the "heat of the moment"). A more rationally/logically based world would lead to a world with less crime and more justice. It's hard to justify things like war and inequality without religion. Look at Bush for example—after 9/11 he used a lot of religious-rhetoric to stir people up in-order to invade a people that had different a set of religious beliefs (if it were a German-born terrorist organisation we would not have invade Germany). If we were thinking with more logic/rational, we would never have invaded Iraq. It is emotional-reasoning that typically gets us into wars. This is why an atheistic-world would be better in my opinion. Emotional-reasoning comes from the primitive parts of our brain, and when people are tapping solely into that area they tend to act Neanderthals.
It seems that an atheistic world would be more inclusive of individuals vs. having the strong in-group/out-group mentality caused by religion (like it does with sports teams, but in a much larger way). Bush, for example, was a very religious person, and he did a good job at dehumanizing our "enemy". Obama is not that religious (possibly a closet-atheist) is much more sensitive to these issues, which is why he has changed up some of the labels (like "terrorist" etc.). It seems that atheists are more empathetic (empathy requires logical-thinking). Perhaps I am wrong, but it seems in all wars we had to have dehumanized our enemies in order to wage it. It is very easy to dehumanize someone using religion and religious labels (they are Muslims! etc.). An atheist-world would see the nonsense of labeling someone as being a belief (it is impossible be a belief). Using logic, it is easy to see that people are people, and should not be devalued in any big way based on their beliefs alone (unless they believe in things like pedophilia, or cannibalism). A religious person often will view someone of a different religion as being sub-human. I remember hearing a Christian (obviously doesn't represent all Christians) talking about how we should just nuke the entire middle-east, that Muslims follow a demonic-religion, and shouldn't be considered human etc. And this is why a religious-world is filled with violence and war. Dehumanizing people causes humans to treat other humans like non-humans.
Obviously not all dehumanization is caused by religion, but dehumanizing has been caused by religion, and I am arguing that for a war to be waged a people must dehumanize their enemy. It it logically impossible to dehumanize humans (for obvious reasons), and I believe it takes certain distorted, emotionally-based beliefs to cause dehumanization (which is the greatest cause of injustice in the world).
Long story short, the world is becoming more of a just place because it seems to be becoming less religious. Look at the most unjust places on earth, and those places are probably very religious, and vice-versa. Religion does not offer a sense of justice. Like I just bought a chicken-club sandwich, and it doesn't even have mayo on it, it's drier than a desert. A less religious world would be much better it seems. Obviously in an atheistic world we still have problems with teaching/continuing to define morality, but religious-morality is a bit dated. And if atheists go with concepts like moral-relativism, then we are in trouble as well. How we define morality is very important, and if any behavior can be considered permissible given the perspective, then we as a species will see a decline. Defining what behavior is moral and what is not, not only should be done, but needs to be done. It is difficult to get some people to behave morally without a fear of hellfire, sadly (but that's a topic for another blog post).
An atheist world I believe would be more empathetic, and more inclusive of all humans. Given the current trends, the world will probably have a majority atheist population in a relatively short time. I believe, if we are able to effectively teach morality without religion, the world should be a more peaceful place. God is the greatest divider of people that we have ever seen, nothing else other than religion can cause such dehumanization to occur. Will the world ever be totally atheistic? It's a mere matter of time...
While religion perhaps may scare some individuals into behaving morally, it doesn't seem to be enough for many. In-fact, from what I've seen, atheists are often less violent/confrontational than believers. This is, I believe, because atheists tend to be more rationally-minded, and a more rational person will be more likely to behave morally. It is when we put all our eggs in the basket of emotional-reasoning that we do things that we regret (doing things in the "heat of the moment"). A more rationally/logically based world would lead to a world with less crime and more justice. It's hard to justify things like war and inequality without religion. Look at Bush for example—after 9/11 he used a lot of religious-rhetoric to stir people up in-order to invade a people that had different a set of religious beliefs (if it were a German-born terrorist organisation we would not have invade Germany). If we were thinking with more logic/rational, we would never have invaded Iraq. It is emotional-reasoning that typically gets us into wars. This is why an atheistic-world would be better in my opinion. Emotional-reasoning comes from the primitive parts of our brain, and when people are tapping solely into that area they tend to act Neanderthals.
It seems that an atheistic world would be more inclusive of individuals vs. having the strong in-group/out-group mentality caused by religion (like it does with sports teams, but in a much larger way). Bush, for example, was a very religious person, and he did a good job at dehumanizing our "enemy". Obama is not that religious (possibly a closet-atheist) is much more sensitive to these issues, which is why he has changed up some of the labels (like "terrorist" etc.). It seems that atheists are more empathetic (empathy requires logical-thinking). Perhaps I am wrong, but it seems in all wars we had to have dehumanized our enemies in order to wage it. It is very easy to dehumanize someone using religion and religious labels (they are Muslims! etc.). An atheist-world would see the nonsense of labeling someone as being a belief (it is impossible be a belief). Using logic, it is easy to see that people are people, and should not be devalued in any big way based on their beliefs alone (unless they believe in things like pedophilia, or cannibalism). A religious person often will view someone of a different religion as being sub-human. I remember hearing a Christian (obviously doesn't represent all Christians) talking about how we should just nuke the entire middle-east, that Muslims follow a demonic-religion, and shouldn't be considered human etc. And this is why a religious-world is filled with violence and war. Dehumanizing people causes humans to treat other humans like non-humans.
Obviously not all dehumanization is caused by religion, but dehumanizing has been caused by religion, and I am arguing that for a war to be waged a people must dehumanize their enemy. It it logically impossible to dehumanize humans (for obvious reasons), and I believe it takes certain distorted, emotionally-based beliefs to cause dehumanization (which is the greatest cause of injustice in the world).
Long story short, the world is becoming more of a just place because it seems to be becoming less religious. Look at the most unjust places on earth, and those places are probably very religious, and vice-versa. Religion does not offer a sense of justice. Like I just bought a chicken-club sandwich, and it doesn't even have mayo on it, it's drier than a desert. A less religious world would be much better it seems. Obviously in an atheistic world we still have problems with teaching/continuing to define morality, but religious-morality is a bit dated. And if atheists go with concepts like moral-relativism, then we are in trouble as well. How we define morality is very important, and if any behavior can be considered permissible given the perspective, then we as a species will see a decline. Defining what behavior is moral and what is not, not only should be done, but needs to be done. It is difficult to get some people to behave morally without a fear of hellfire, sadly (but that's a topic for another blog post).
An atheist world I believe would be more empathetic, and more inclusive of all humans. Given the current trends, the world will probably have a majority atheist population in a relatively short time. I believe, if we are able to effectively teach morality without religion, the world should be a more peaceful place. God is the greatest divider of people that we have ever seen, nothing else other than religion can cause such dehumanization to occur. Will the world ever be totally atheistic? It's a mere matter of time...
And sir, we must act out, we must DO SOMTHING to get the word out(more like you do with this website)and write our senate or congress or even petition by going to secular coalition for america website and suppoting them. We must get the word out how ever we can. We are good, we have good to offer, and more people should know it!
ReplyDelete