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A former boss of mine once joked, “What does the atheist say on his deathbed?”
“What?” I asked, knowing I was going to hear him spew spit-filled words of stupidity in my face.
“Please, God, save me!” he answered, releasing a boisterous laugh.
I replied, “What did the Christian say after they died? F—!” He did not laugh, but I had in me a feeling of accomplishment, for I stood up to a bully.
I have been receiving hate mail from my previous articles, which I expected and welcome with a big smile, although you are nothing but bullies. Do you expect me to stop my chastising? I would like to say that I will not apologize for my opinions; I will wear my bandana, study my biology and I will not hold back because of some fascist, ignorant people who cannot stand a view different from their own. On the other hand, I thank those who approach me in a mature manner and see my articles in the “Opinion” section as just that.
I am going to take a break from my normal pummeling of Christianity and focus more philosophically on the idea of faith. This is fairly unbiased and a topic everyone can relate to because despite your beliefs, you have faith in something.
I hate religion, which my previous articles have made blatantly obvious, but I do hold faith to a high standard. The only difference between my faith and the faith of someone who is religious is that mine is on something that is more tangible and realistic and not from books written thousands of years ago by people who heard voices.
Faith proceeded belief. You cannot have faith in something you don’t believe in, that’s obvious — but it’s our choice of what we believe that makes a difference in how we govern our lives.
Can you imagine believing in multiple gods like many people of the ancient world? No wonder religion evolved into a monotheistic institution. Believing in multiple gods requires so much work. It’s a lot easier to believe in, pray to, have faith in and love one god. Beliefs are easier when set in a hierarchy of faith: what you believe in most at the top to what you believe in least at the bottom.
Many kids believe in Santa Claus more than the Easter Bunny, but they still believe in both. These are not different from the beliefs in a god. God is simply Santa Claus for grown-ups. People who believe in a divine being tend to put said being on the top of their hierarchy of faith, especially when it’s relevant, like when some college student expresses his distaste for such perverse ideas.
I try to advocate that we shouldn’t believe in imaginary friends anymore and to simply believe in ourselves. I have no faith in any deity because it’s ridiculous, therefore I don’t believe, and my faith consumes me as a person because it’s in myself that I believe. If I am having a hard time, I don’t pray to a god. I have faith in myself to get through it. I do it on my own because that is what builds strength. I have heard people express issues and accredit their overcoming of them to a god. That is a whopping pile of genuine BS. It was not any deity that got them through, but their will. If people could understand that and channel their faith directly at themselves, they could achieve so much more.
Those people who go to a god first for support are basically saying, “My faith in my god undermines my faith in myself.” You don’t pray to a god to help you move one foot in front of the other and you don’t ask for your god to assist you in washing your hands when they’re dirty. You rely on yourself for these simple tasks.
Why is this mentality so different? Why do you need help from something else when it comes to difficult issues? That is why people are drawn to religion because when difficult times arise, it’s nice to have a crutch to lean on. Why not lean on yourself? It builds character and self-confidence.
Some wonderful atheist out there said, and I’m paraphrasing, the only way for humans to get rid of the ridiculous concept of religion is to eliminate fear of death. Is there no better tool of vulnerability than death? It’s scary! What is going to happen to us when we die? I don’t know and neither do any of you, but that’s the precious gift we have as cognitive beings and, therefore, we can live knowing death is the end of life, so we can cherish life right now.
So, stop running from death and stop going to your gods for support. It’s inevitable and probably nothing close to what we like to think. This ability of cognition is relatively new to our species, so it’s pretty clear we have blown many things out of proportion while still trying to understand how to use this new mental development. Read up on the philosophy of Ockham’s Razor and try to establish that in your life.
Matthew L. Campbell is a fourth-year biology student.
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