Knowledge and existence.

With the advent of the telephone, internet, and other means of transporting information, it’s certainly a wonder that myths are still alive and bounding today. What’s worse, and even more mind numbing, is that they’re obtaining new converts daily – probably primarily through conversion for food methods in third world countries. 

However, did these willfully ignorant missionaries take into consideration the damage they would be doing to illiterate people? Let’s examine this for a second, taking Africa into focus…

1.) They burn and maim children (and adults) accused of witchcraft.
2.) Massacring homosexuals.
3.) Islam vs. Christianity (need I say more?)
4.) That picture floating around of the Christians who crucified the cat.

By the way, this isn’t just happening in Africa. Religion has fueled world-wide rife in its path.

From this point of view, atheism looks a little more like the messiah in disguise. It must be such a tempting state of mind to come to, yet so many never do. They remain wrapped in a little god bubble, safe inside from the evil world they unintentionally created.

This reminds me of the recent interview between Richard Dawkins and Bill O’Reilly. Bill grew up probably affluently. He probably always had access to information through books, television, etc. Yet Pascal’s Wager seems a fit enough argument to throw at any atheist who dares to call his precious religion a myth. But has Bill ever considered his own rejection of every other god that the human mind has derived? Isn’t it slightly hypocritical of him to attack Dawkins over such a futile and dim belief? You see, Bill rides a stallion. His stallion is much bigger and faster than all of the other horses. Because of this, he thinks his horse is somehow different from the other horses. However, he doesn’t realize that his horse is just another ass – like all the rest of them. Oh Bill, if you need an invisible man in the sky to tell you how to behave so that you don’t commit heinous crimes, I am sincerely afraid of you.

We place such an enormous amount of our being on symbolism. Christians eat symbolism (Jesus’ body, blood), and so do many other religions. We have this need to understand “being,” and place meaning on it. And I get that. It’s rather mind boggling to conclude that the universe popped into existence from seemingly “nothing,” if you will. In fact, I spend way too much time contemplating my own existence. I find that when I think as far back as I possibly can, all I see in my mind is this ball surrounded by a dark grey color. That’s it. So I can see how it’s pleasantly comforting to believe that your life is surrounded by this buffer that everyone so tenderly calls “god.” When I think about my place in the universe, I feel humbled. Special. How was I so lucky to be here today?

When you use the argument that the world could not exist without first being created, then you immediately defeat your own argument. Who created god? For the reason of this very unanswerable question, I can’t be privileged enough to assume I am so special that an omnipotent being breathed life into me. It would be unjustifiably ignorant to postulate an existence for something that has never appeared to me, or any other witnesses, except in the desert thousands of years ago.

My opinion is that if people took the responsibility of the world into their own hands, with the knowledge and understanding that they control their own future, the world would be a much better place. We wouldn’t see suffering and say, “It’s god’s will”; but rather, we would do something about it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/28/world/africa/28uganda.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/18/african-children-denounce_n_324943.html
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/africa/03/07/nigeria.violence/index.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVWxo3fspew