Friday's Recap

Last Friday (8 August 08), we shared about the atheist's creed or the creed of a "believer of no-beliefs". We wonder what drives a non-believer in his or her daily grind in this world. We question the values that motivate a non-believer to get up in the morning for work and to get into bed at night for sleep. In short, the atheist's creed can be amusingly put as follows:-

We believe in Marxfreudanddarwin.
We believe everything is OK,
As long as you don't hurt anyone.
To the best of your definition of hurt,
and to the best of your knowledge.

We believe in sex before, during and after marriage.
We believe in the therapy of sin.
We believe that adultery is fun.
We believe that sodomy's OK.
We believe that taboos are taboo.

We believe that everything's getting better
despite evidence to teh contrary.
The evidence must be investigated.
And you can prove anything with evidence.

We believe there's something in horoscopes,
UFOs and spoon bending.
Jesus was a good man just like Buddha,
Mohammed and ourselves.
He was a good moral teacher although we think,
his good morals were bad.

We believe that all religions are basically teh same -
at least the one that we read was.
They all believe in love and goodness.
They only differ on matters of creation, sin,
heaven, hell, God and salvation.

We believe that after death comes the Nothing.
Because when you ask the dead when happens they say nothing.
If death is not the end, if the dead have died, then it is compulsory heaven for all;
except perhaps Hitler, Stalin and Genghis Khan.

...we believe that man is essentially good.
It's only his behavior that lets him down.
This is the fault of the society.
Society is the fault of conditions.
Conditions are the fault of society.

We believe that each man must find the truth that is right for him.
Reality will adapt accordingly.
The universe will readjust.
History will alter.
We believe that there is no absolute truth excepting the truth that there is no absolute truth.

We believe in the rejection of creeds, and the flowering of individual thoughts.

My view:-

The above is riddled with contraditions. I am glad that not all atheists subscribe to it. It appears more like an anarchist's creed than an atheist's. Or a fatalist's creed would be more appropriate. Just to pinpoint some contraditions...anyone who believes that everything is OK is a "promiscuitist". This squares with the belief in the second paragraph that writes, "sex before, during and after marriage," "sodomy's OK," and "adultery is fun." This attitude will surely leave a trail of broken relationships along one's random walk to the grave.

The third paragraph talks about "positivism" - that is, "you can prove anything with evidence." Can you? Till today, no scientist has discovered the unifying force that holds all other subsidiary forces together like forces of gravity and electromagnetism and the strong and weak nuclear forces in quantum particles. God cannot be scientifically proven. Quantum particles cannot be directly detected or predicted. The dark matters in the universe are beyond a scientist's grasp. Love and faith are real but they are not made of tangible materials - they can only be demonstrated in conduct. Even the causes of the common cold escape some doctors. In fact, the world and universe as we know it are the creation of superior forces unseen, and sometimes, unfelt. It is only from the snout of arrogance that a man can stand before the world and declare that what is not proven does not exist or should not exist since it is irrelevant.

Paragraphs 4 and 5 are confusing. It accepts all thoughts and religions with one hand and rejects it altogether on the other. It basically trivialises and marginalizes everything until its impact and influences are negligible. The doctrine becomes so diluted that it differs little from homeopathic therapy.

Death, as described in paragraph 6, is a joke. I think Hitler, Stalin and Genghis Khan would agree; and agree most viscerally where they are now.

The rest of the paragraph, for me, conjures up an image of the proverbial bee hitting against the glass window hoping to crack it or an all dressed-up man with a brief case walking on a treadmill and thinking that he is getting closer to his place of work by the minute. Don't even try to comprehend it!

The last sentence says it all - "we believe in the rejection of creeds, and the flowering of individual thought." It is more like "we believe in the acceptance of all creeds and the degeneration of individual minds." One common denominator in this atheist's creed is, "Do as thou pleaseth regardless." This is his defining creed or motto and one he will carry to the tomb and beyond...

Any thoughts...?