So I wasn't going to post a blog post about God and the end of my belief in him. I made a silent promise that such a thing would not exist, because I didn't want to risk contributing to the largely ego-driven bickering between believers and atheists which gets way too much "air-time" on the internet. But, whatever. Atheism is taking up too much of my thoughts to possibly blog about anything else. Except possibly Chris Colfer, but that would be even worse.
Here goes, then. I've gone from a state of ambiguous not-really-caring-either-way to one of fully-fledged atheistic humanism. There are a number of reasons for this, many of which are probably too tied up in the psychology of the subconscious for me to really fathom. I've been inspired by various verbal and written works by Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, and Stephen Fry, and have basically been able to abandon the pro-God arguments still inhabiting my brain.
I won't go too much into it. But essentially, the creation and growth of the universe is a continuous process. Stars burst into existence from the build-up of billions of chemical reactions. Planets and continents shape themselves gradually, organically, at the cross-section of the necessary physical laws. Life colonises worlds by an endless sequence of natural processes, and bigger and better species develop through the trial-and-error of natural selection. There is no room in the universe for a designer. The only place you can fit God, in my opinion, is at the beginning, to kick-start the chain of reactions which gradually built the universe up into what it is. But the problem with putting him there is that you don't need an omnipotent, omniscient conscious being just to flick the first pebble of an avalanche. And it certainly doesn't follow that the pebble-flicker should be the source of our morality.
Yes, it's incredibly unlikely for life and DNA to exist. But we've had all of eternity and all the endless expanse of space for that unlikely thing to happen. That is to say, given all the billions upon billions of stars and planets there are, the low probability of life happening somewhere seems a hell of a lot less daunting.
To summarise, I don't think the nature of the universe implies a creator or designer. I also don't think we need religious revelation to teach us morality. As the aforementioned Christopher Hitchens puts beautifully, if we didn't know before the dawn of the Abrahamic faiths that murder and theft were bad and that human solidarity was necessary, we wouldn't have got anywhere as far as Mount Sinai. And anyway, if we only know or think that an action is good because God or his messengers tell us so, then we and our actions don't deserve the title of "moral". There is no point in doing something you consider the right thing unless you know for yourself that it is the right thing.
So how is life without God? Well, there is a mourning process which comes from giving up something as huge as Christianity. There was for me, anyway. But I've finished grieving and I'm ready to accept my brand new perspective. And it's kind of freeing. There were things that I thought were bad for no other reason than the bible told me so, but now I look at them and I cannot see what is bad about them. And I realise that finding your own morality is the most empowering and fulfilling thing possible, even surpassing a perceived identity as a child of God.
Many people who are still Christian will tell me that I hadn't really accepted Jesus into my life, that if I had I would not be able to make this change. But, I did. There was a time when I believed in a Heavenly Father and the Living Lord Christ with all my heart and without a shadow of a doubt, and there was a time when their perceived love was the single most important thing in my life. But all things come to an end. I have moved on and I realise now that accepting something without doubt is unhealthy and hindering, and it's not a mistake I plan to make twice.
So here we are.
RIP Christian Me, 1998-2011.
Here goes, then. I've gone from a state of ambiguous not-really-caring-either-way to one of fully-fledged atheistic humanism. There are a number of reasons for this, many of which are probably too tied up in the psychology of the subconscious for me to really fathom. I've been inspired by various verbal and written works by Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, and Stephen Fry, and have basically been able to abandon the pro-God arguments still inhabiting my brain.
I won't go too much into it. But essentially, the creation and growth of the universe is a continuous process. Stars burst into existence from the build-up of billions of chemical reactions. Planets and continents shape themselves gradually, organically, at the cross-section of the necessary physical laws. Life colonises worlds by an endless sequence of natural processes, and bigger and better species develop through the trial-and-error of natural selection. There is no room in the universe for a designer. The only place you can fit God, in my opinion, is at the beginning, to kick-start the chain of reactions which gradually built the universe up into what it is. But the problem with putting him there is that you don't need an omnipotent, omniscient conscious being just to flick the first pebble of an avalanche. And it certainly doesn't follow that the pebble-flicker should be the source of our morality.
Yes, it's incredibly unlikely for life and DNA to exist. But we've had all of eternity and all the endless expanse of space for that unlikely thing to happen. That is to say, given all the billions upon billions of stars and planets there are, the low probability of life happening somewhere seems a hell of a lot less daunting.
To summarise, I don't think the nature of the universe implies a creator or designer. I also don't think we need religious revelation to teach us morality. As the aforementioned Christopher Hitchens puts beautifully, if we didn't know before the dawn of the Abrahamic faiths that murder and theft were bad and that human solidarity was necessary, we wouldn't have got anywhere as far as Mount Sinai. And anyway, if we only know or think that an action is good because God or his messengers tell us so, then we and our actions don't deserve the title of "moral". There is no point in doing something you consider the right thing unless you know for yourself that it is the right thing.
So how is life without God? Well, there is a mourning process which comes from giving up something as huge as Christianity. There was for me, anyway. But I've finished grieving and I'm ready to accept my brand new perspective. And it's kind of freeing. There were things that I thought were bad for no other reason than the bible told me so, but now I look at them and I cannot see what is bad about them. And I realise that finding your own morality is the most empowering and fulfilling thing possible, even surpassing a perceived identity as a child of God.
Many people who are still Christian will tell me that I hadn't really accepted Jesus into my life, that if I had I would not be able to make this change. But, I did. There was a time when I believed in a Heavenly Father and the Living Lord Christ with all my heart and without a shadow of a doubt, and there was a time when their perceived love was the single most important thing in my life. But all things come to an end. I have moved on and I realise now that accepting something without doubt is unhealthy and hindering, and it's not a mistake I plan to make twice.
So here we are.
RIP Christian Me, 1998-2011.
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