Atheism - The Absence of Belief

Articles

2009-12-04T18:23:00.000-08:00

Open Your Mind!

The Happy Atheist

As Atheists we know that atheists are often happy ethical people just like anyone else. It is our goal to help dissolve negative stereotypes currently held towards atheists and facilitate productive dialogue with those of differing viewpoints.

The Spiritual Atheist

A spiritual atheist? Perhaps it's a strange concept if you only think spirituality has to mean a belief in a god. Do the two have to be related? Many people think of the historical Buddha as a spiritual person, but most don't know that he never expressed a belief in a god. He even discouraged his followers from such "speculation," preferring that they work on their salvation in this world.

Contentment in not Believing

Human beings are psychologically very fragile, as what I have observed during my life in this ball of dirt we call earth. We tend to be very dependent on set boundaries and rock solid, written “truths”. The human mind has its obsessive compulsive tendencies, always trying to justify and find explanations for everything. Since the birth of our intelligence we have tried to make sense of our world.

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Love and Hate

Indulgence Instead of Abstinence

Life After Death

MAN is aware that he will die, someday. Other animals, when nearing death, know they are about to die; but it is not until death is certain that the animal senses his coming departure from this world. And even then he does not know exactly what is entailed in dying. It is often pointed out that animals accept death gracefully, without fear or resistance. This is a beautiful concept, but one that only holds true in cases where death for the animal is unavoidable.

The Spiritual Atheist

2009-12-04T18:12:00.000-08:00

Computer Spirituality

Imagine a computer that has begun to get so complex and powerful that it starts to ask questions "outside the box." It starts to become conscious. The first thing it would realize is that for all its computing capacity, it is still very limited. The humans who use it, most of whom can't begin to understand it's complicated algorithms, still are more powerful. They see the world more clearly.

The computer could recite a million facts, perhaps, and yet not know what to use them for. It could describe human psychology, and yet not understand a smile. It wouldn't even know why it existed, or what it was being used for. If it came to understand these limitations, and to actually wonder about the world outside its circuits, and to desire to see more, and to grow - that would be computer spirituality.

Atheist Spirituality

An atheist simply doesn't believe in a god. There isn't sufficient evidence, so there is no belief. Contrary to what many think, there is no need for an atheist to disprove that a god exists, anymore than a Christian needs to disprove that the world is ruled by intelligent termites. The burden of proof is always with the person making a positive assertion.

An atheist can recognize the mystery of life, and marvel at how everything learned deepens that mystery, pushing "final" causes further into the distance. An atheist can recognize his or her own limitations, and seek to grow, perhaps even by developing contact with "higher powers." This is an atheist spirituality. How is it different from "regular" spirituality?

The difference is that an atheist feels no need to pretend to understand the mysteries - no need to create gods and religions to explain them. Contacting "higher powers" can simply be tuning into subconscious resources through meditation or other means. Are these "higher powers" nothing more than electrical patterns in our brains? We don't know, and we don't have to know to tap into them.

Is it that atheists don't want to know? It is the opposite. "Understanding" by forcing religious explanations on things short circuits any search for the truth. How can you understand and integrate new evidence when you are no longer questioning? Better to simply use spiritual tools like "intuition" and let them be understood - or not - with time and real evidence.

Look to the past, and we see how narrow-minded people were, and how little they understood compared to us. We will appear that way to people in the future, as they will to people further into the future. We are growing in our knowledge and power, but like that spiritual computer, our circuits are in a box that we need to grow out of. Seeking the way beyond that box is what makes one a spiritual atheist.

by Steve Gillman

The Happy Atheist

2009-12-03T05:25:00.000-08:00

As Atheists we know that atheists are often happy ethical people just like anyone else.

It is our goal to help dissolve negative stereotypes currently held towards atheists and facilitate productive dialogue with those of differing viewpoints.

"An Atheist loves himself and his fellow man instead of a god. An Atheist knows that heaven is something for which we should work now - here on earth - for all men together to enjoy. An Atheist thinks that he can get no help through prayer but that he must find in himself the inner conviction and strength to meet life, to grapple with it, to subdue, and enjoy it. An Atheist thinks that only in a knowledge of himself and a knowledge of his fellow man can he find the understanding that will help to a life of fulfillment. Therefore, he seeks to know himself and his fellow man rather than to know a god.

An Atheist knows that a hospital should be built instead of a church. An Atheist knows that a deed must be done instead of a prayer said. An Atheist strives for involvement in life and not escape into death. He wants disease conquered, poverty vanquished, war eliminated. He wants man to understand and love man. He wants an ethical way of life. He knows that we cannot rely on a god nor channel action into prayer nor hope for an end to troubles in the hereafter. He knows that we are our brother's keeper and keepers of our lives; that we are responsible persons, that the job is here and the time is now."

- Madalyn O'Hair

Contentment in Not Believing

2009-06-11T05:58:00.000-07:00

When the mind does not understand, it becomes creative. It begins to conjure up wild and unreal explanations to everything and how it came to be, we create deities and all powerful beings to place blame and create reason.

When faced with the question of our existence, we are terrified of not knowing. People go crazy with the thought of not knowing, left hanging, and constantly questioning. We simply need reason and purpose, to drive us, to move us through life. We need goals, something to aim for. Hmmm... Perhaps a place where our “sacrifices” and “kindness” are rewarded with the promise of eternal life... Or better yet 72 virgins waiting for us at the end of a life lived right, what creativity, what childish dreams.

In our modern world we are faced with a plethora or gods, a mountain of “truths” we can choose. Countless books written by primitive, medieval men, instructing us how to live life! Most of us don’t even have the choice to begin with, as babies we are thrown and baptized, forced to believe in fairy tales of giant bearded men living in the stars who control everything, about make believe hocus pocus, and down right crazy claims of unbelievable events. What next? Unicorns and hobbits turning water into mead!?

I might sound bitter and angry, and I am. These heavily marketed and forcibly embedded as-a-matter-of-fact “truths” just insult my intelligence! If that’s all people can come up with, I’d rather say no, and just leave it blank for now, until something better and believable comes up.

Choosing a religion is like having an exam, where you’re given one multiple choice question. But the correct answer is not in any of the choices, so what people normally do is select the one closest to what they think is the correct one.

Heck, if the choices available are the ones that we presently have then...

I’d rather choose “NONE OF THE ABOVE”

Author: C. L. 6/11/09

LOVE AND HATE

2009-05-27T17:27:00.000-07:00

You cannot love everyone; it is ridiculous to think you can. If you love everyone and everything you lose your natural powers of selection and wind up being a pretty poor judge of character and quality. If anything is used too freely it loses its true meaning. Therefore, you should love strongly and completely those who deserve your love, but never turn the other cheek to your enemy!

Love is one of the most intense emotions felt by man; another is hate. Forcing yourself to feel indiscriminate love is very unnatural. If you try to love everyone you only lessen your feelings for those who deserve your love.

Repressed hatred can lead to many physical and emotional ailments. By learning to release your hatred towards those who deserve it, you cleanse yourself of these malignant emotions and need not take your pent-up hatred out on your loved ones.

There has never been a great "love" movement in the history of the world that hasn't wound up killing countless numbers of people, we must assume, to prove how much they loved them! Every hypocrite who ever walked the earth has had pockets bulging with love!

Every pharisaical religionist claims to love his enemies, even though when wronged he consoles himself by thinking "God will punish them." Instead of admitting to themselves that they are capable of hating their foes and treating them in the manner they deserve, they say: "There, but for the grace of God, go I," and "pray" for them. Why should we humiliate and lower ourselves by drawing such inaccurate comparisons?

This is so only because people are afraid to face the truth--and the truth is that human beings are not all benign or all loving. Just because the people admit that he is capable of both love and hate, he is considered hateful. On the contrary, because he is able to give vent to his hatred through ritualized expression, he is far more capable of love--the deepest kind of love. By honestly recognizing and admitting to both the hate and the love he feels, there is no confusing one emotion with the other. Without being able to experience one of these emotions, you cannot fully experience the other.

Based on "The Satanic Bible" by Anton Szandor Lavey

INDULGENCE INSTEAD OF ABSTINENCE

2009-05-26T18:35:00.000-07:00

People often mistake compulsion for indulgence, but there is a world of difference between the two. A compulsion is never created by indulging, but by not being able to indulge. By making something taboo, it only serves to intensify the desire. Everyone likes to do the things they have been told not to. "Forbidden fruits are sweetest."

Webster's Encyclopedic Dictionary defines indulgence thusly: "To give oneself up to; not to restrain or oppose; to give free course to; to gratify by compliance; to yield to." The dictionary definition of compulsion is: "The act of compelling or driving by force, physical or moral; constraint of the will; (compulsory, obligatory)." In other words, indulgence implies choice, whereas compulsion indicates the lack of choice.

When a person has no proper release for his desires they rapidly build up and become compulsions. If everyone had a particular time and place for the purpose of periodically indulging in their personal desires, without fear of embarrassment or reproach, they would be sufficiently released to lead unfrustrated lives in the everyday world. They would be free to plunge headlong into whatever undertaking they might choose instead of going about their duties half-heartedly, their creative urges frustrated by denying their natural desires. This would apply in the majority of cases, but there will always be those who work better under pressure.

Generally, those who need to endure a certain amount of hardship to produce to their full capabilities are in basically artistic vocations. (More will be said later about fulfillment through self-denial.) This does not mean to imply that all artists fit into this category. On the contrary, many artists are unable to produce unless their basic animal needs have been satisfied.

For the most part, it is not the artist or individualist, but the average middle-class working man or woman who is lacking the proper release for their desires. It is ironic that the responsible, respectable person-the one who pays society's bills--should be the one given the least in return. It is he who must be ever conscious of his "moral obligations," and who is condemned for normally indulging in his natural desires.

It has been clearly established that the majority of all illnesses are of a psychosomatic nature, and that psychosomatic illnesses are a direct result of frustration. It has been said that "the good die young." The good, by Christian standards, do die young. It is the frustration of our natural instincts which leads to the premature deterioration of our minds and bodies.

It has become very fashionable to concentrate on the betterment of the mind and spirit, and to consider giving pleasure to one's body (the very shell without which the mind and spirit could not exist) to be coarse, crude, and unrefined. Most people who deem themselves emancipated have left normalcy only to transcend into idiocy. By way of bending their behinds around to meet their navels, subsisting on wild and erotic diets like brown rice and tea, they feel they will arrive at a
great state of spiritual development.

"Hogwash!" He would rather eat a good hearty meal, exercise his imagination, and transcend by means of physical and emotional fulfillment. It seems that after being harassed with unreasonable religious demands for so many centuries, one would welcome the chance to be human for once!

The Eastern mystic is even more preoccupied than the Christian with avoiding animalistic actions that remind him he is not a "saint", but merely a man--only another form of animal, sometimes better, more often worse, than those who walk on all fours; and who, because of his "divine spiritual and intellectual development" has become the most vicious animal of all!

Having to use religion as an excuse for their masochism is bad enough, but these people actually have the effrontery to feel superior to those who are not bound-up in self-deceitful expression of their fetishes! These people would be the first to condemn a man who found his weekly release with a person who would beat him soundly, thereby releasing himself from the very thing which would, if unreleased, make him--as they are--a compulsive church-goer or religious fanatic. By finding adequate release for his masochistic desires, he no longer needs to debase and deny himself in his every waking moment, as do these compulsive masochists.

Indulge in the seven deadly sins, as they need hurt no one; they were only invented by the Christian Church to insure guilt on the part of its followers. The Christian Church knows that it is impossible for anyone to avoid committing these sins, as they are all things which we, being human, most naturally do. After inevitably committing these sins financial offerings to
the church in order to "pay off" God are employed as a sop to the parishioner's conscience!

If all attempts to sell something (be it a product or an idea) have failed sex will always sell it. The reason for this is that even though people now consciously accept sex as a normal and necessary function, their subconscious is still bound by the taboo which religion has placed upon it. So, again, what is denied is more intensely desired.

There is certainly much evidence that past religions are, every day, lifting more and more of their ridiculous restrictions. Even so, when an entire religion is based on abstinence instead of indulgence (as it should be) there is little left when it has been revised to meet the current needs of man. So, why waste time "buying oats for a dead horse"?

Based on "The Satanic Bible" by Anton Szandor Lavey

LIFE AFTER DEATH

2009-05-24T22:25:00.000-07:00

When an animal is sick or injured he will fight for his life with every ounce of strength he has left. It is this unshakable will to live that, if man were not so "highly evolved" would also give him the fighting spirit he needs to stay alive.

It is a well known fact that many people die simply because they give up and just don't care anymore. This is understandable if the person is very ill, with no apparent chance for recovery. But this often is not the case. Man has become lazy. He has learned to take the easy way out. Even suicide has be come less repugnant to many people than any number of other sins. Religion is totally to blame for this.

Death, in most religions, is touted as a great spiritual awakening--one which is prepared for throughout life. This concept is very appeasing to one who has not had a satisfactory life; but to those who have experienced all the joys life has to offer, there is a great dread attached to dying. This is as it should be. It is this lust for life which will allow the vital person to live on after the
inevitable death of his fleshly shell.

History shows that men who have given their own lives in pursuit of an idea have been deified for their martyrdom. Religionists and politics leaders have been very crafty in laying their plans. By holding the martyr up as a shining example to his fellow men, they eliminate the common sense reaction that willful self-destruction goes against all animal logic. martyrdom and
non-personalized heroism is to be associated not with integrity, but with stupidity. This, of course, does not apply in situations which involve the safety of a loved one. But to give one's own life for something as impersonal as a political or religious issue is the ultimate in masochism.

Life is the one great indulgence; death the one great abstinence. To a person who is satisfied with his earthly existence, life is like a party; and no one likes to leave a good party. By the same token, if a person is enjoying himself here on earth he will not so readily give up this life for the promise of an afterlife about which he knows nothing.

The Eastern mystical beliefs teach humans to discipline themselves against any conscious will for success so they might dissolve themselves into "Universal Cosmic Awareness"--anything to avoid good healthy self-satisfaction or honest pride in earthly accomplishments!

It is interesting to note that the areas in which this type of belief flourishes are those where material gains are not easily obtainable. For this reason the predominant religious belief must be one which commends its followers for their rejection of material things and their avoidance of the use of labels which attaches a certain amount of importance to material gains. In this way the
people can be pacified into accepting their lot, no matter how small it may be.

Only if a person's own ego is sufficiently fulfilled, can he afford to be kind and complimentary to others, without robbing himself of his self-respect. We generally think of a braggart as a person with a large ego; in reality, his bragging results from a need to satisfy his impoverished ego.

Religionists have kept their followers in line by suppressing their egos. By making their followers feel inferior, the awesomeness of their god is insured.

Religious martyrs have taken their own lives, not because life was intolerable for them, but to use their supreme sacrifice as a tool to further the religious belief. We must assume, then, that suicide, if done for the sake of the church, is condoned and even encouraged--even though their scriptures label it a sin--because religious martyrs of the past have always been deified.
It is rather curious that the only time suicide is considered sinful by other religions is when it comes as an indulgence.

Based on "The Satanic Bible" by Anton Szandor Lavey

Every Human Beings Ten Commandments

2009-05-24T22:00:00.000-07:00

1. Do not give opinions or advice unless you are asked.

2. Do not tell your troubles to others unless you are sure they want to hear them.

3. When in another's lair, show him respect or else do not go there.

4. If a guest in your lair annoys you, let him/her leave.

5. Do not make sexual advances unless you are given the mating signal.

6. Do not take that which does not belong to you unless it is a burden to the other person and he cries out to be relieved.

7. Do not complain about anything to which you need not subject yourself.

8. Do not harm little children.

9. Do not kill non-human animals unless you are attacked or for your food.

10. When walking in open territory, bother no one. If someone bothers you, ask him to stop. If he does not stop, retaliate if practical and applicable.

Based on "The Satanic Bible" by Anton Szandor Lavey

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2008-05-03T07:11:00.000-07:00