Why I'm An Atheist (A Highway to Hell Paved With Reason, Logic & A Spirit of Open Mindedness)

I like most others became involuntarily exposed to religious beliefs from my earliest childhood, I was young and impressionable like most kids, at a time when we are most vulnerable and susceptible to input of any shape or form. My Nan who I looked up to immensely was a devout Christian only because she had been brought up that way, she had become predisposed to those beliefs because it had been passed down from generation to generation. Her father and my great-great grandfather Isaiah Davies was a lay preacher who obviously had strong convictions that could not be contested because he to had been brought up that way. His faith was steadfast and resolute because his upbringing was stringent and his parents had obviously imprinted there faith firmly on him because that is how it had been done for generations, now he had become involuntarily 'conditioned' to believe and not to question. This was a startling and rather unnerving revelation to me and would shape my later beliefs. Imposing your own belief system on anyone especially a child is profoundly immoral in my view and not only obstructs there free will but also hinders future cognitive growth, or as Richard Dawkins quite rightly put it in The God Delusion 'intellectual high treason'.

Luckily, in my case it wasn't forced on me as such, certainly not drummed into my head anyway. My nan and I would often recite a little prayer before lunch or she'd read me a few passages of the Bible before we went to sleep. I was about maybe 6 or 7 years old at the time and this occurred almost every time I stayed over, it became almost routine and I simply went along with it. She played a pivotal role in my early childhood and was a central figure, a role model almost up until I was 9 years old when she tragically died. I adored my nan deeply, she was my inspiration, we were inseparable and I worshiped the ground she walked on (pardon the slightly religious connotation). I was far too young to really understand the gravity of what was going on when she passed, but I took some comfort in the fact that she was going to a special place or 'Heaven', a place we had talked a lot about. I was curious and incredibly inquisitive like most kids that age and she would tell me everything. 'Heaven' was meant to be a place you went to when you died, a lush paradise that I would often try and depict in my drawings since I was quite the artist when I was younger.

After she had passed, there was a deep void in my life which could never be filled, and throughout my early teens I considered myself a Christian, it was like I was picking up the mantle if you like after my nan. I felt I had a responsibility, and my years in primary school also had a dramatic impact on me and how it molded me into adopting this belief system. Every day without fail we would all be gathered in the hall and sing hymn after hymn, I recall vividly us singing All Things Bright And Beautiful, Creation Song, Oh Lord I Thank You and He's Got the Whole World in His Hands on an almost weekly basis. Our headteacher was a very religious man, and even though I'm sure it wasn't there intention to force it on us almost it still had an impact on me. I had become fully exposed throughout my adolescence and I was indoctrinated almost like many millions of people still today. This belief system had been manifesting itself for years and years, gradually building to a point where it was almost without question. However, fortunately in my mid teens I DID begin to question, I had matured and instead of reverting back and accepting without question all of this outpouring of religious-laden input, I became very open-minded.

A famous quote by Carl Sagan in which he clearly highlights the rather unsightly and unbelievably constricted perspective 0f many followers of religions.

I was now 15 and secondary school education had opened my eyes and mind to science, and immediately I was given a fresh and new perspective on things. My father who actually went to the extremes of actually 'de-baptizing' himself also opened my eyes to the wonders of science and astronomy. He was shall we say quite expressive about his atheism almost vehemently, and would often chastise those of faith in the flat, particularly militant faith and berate them particularly if a certain topic cropped up or any news headline regarding the ongoing heinous actions of religious extremists in the Middle East today. So, being in my mid-teens I was often far too preoccupied with other things to really consider myself a serious or particularly passionate Christian. I certainly didn't propagate it, attend church every Sunday, read passages from The Bible etc. I merely labelled myself 'Christian' and didn't really ponder the ultimate question of how exactly the universe came to be. Did I believe that the universe was created by some almighty, omniscient supreme being? Maybe, after all I couldn't really disprove it. I guess you could have called me an agnostic in that sense, a 'Christian' on paper but it was very much written in pencil and could be erased and changed at any given time, again it was this spirit of open-mindedness that presented me with choices that my nan and great-great grandparents never had, a choice. Life after all is about choices, and having the liberty of making them.

My new-found agnosticism had stemmed from the fact that just because a large group of people, primarily authority figures from my early life (teachers, my youth club instructor etc.) wholeheartedly believed in a God or a higher power didn't necessarily make it true. My mind was open and receptive to new ideas, and gazing up at the magnificent night sky in all of its splendor and grandeur only reinforced my desire to explore every possibility. I hungered for the answers and science seemed to provide the perfect dish to sate my insatiable appetite for those answers. However, as broad and complex as science now is it still doesn't hold all the answers and that was what was so alluring to me from the get-go. Science is constantly evolving, always straying in a myriad of different and exciting ways, always branching out and never ever set in one place or stuck to the same path. Metaphorically, to me science is that never-ending road, that infinite stretch of road with no set destination or course, just a inescapable vastness that is both daunting and dazzling. Always moving forward, never back, it is that forward and progressive momentum that science has over backwards and stagnant religion, that is it's trump card and it's also it's greatest challenge. 

This so-called 'Wheel of Power' taken from a Christian website perfectly encapsulates this very fractured and circular belief system, in complete denial, an almost pertinacious adherence to something based on no factual evidence.

The central ideological foundation of science has always been to question, religion however is unquestionable and this startling realization had planted the seed that would eventually lead me to dismiss religion completely. I found it almost incomprehensible why those of a staunch religious belief system refuse to even take this bold and radical approach with a pinch of salt. They have regrettably become indoctrinated and there are many, primarily extremists who make a lifelong commitment in expounding there nonsensical and often pernicious dogma on vulnerable individuals. This act of dictating another human being's beliefs, and dressing it up in an ugly, often heinously narrow-minded and ignorant view of the world with this warped, pseudo-moralistic stance that encouraging violence in the name of there god or religion is completely 'justified'. It is truly the ultimate form of bigotry or intellectual high treason on a grand scale, not to mention being completely unethical on every level. I am of course referring only to the minority of extremists who continue to infect the world with there poisonous ideals, promoting and endorsing violence on innocent people all over the planet. What compelled those nineteen 9/11 hijackers to fly those planes into those buildings killing nearly 3,000 people? Simple, religion. Not the peace-loving and innocent sort that embrace tolerance, equality and a greater moral standing but a warped and truly malignant hybrid that needs to be vanquished and quick. 

Thousands of years ago during the rise of the first great pre-modern civilizations such as the Mayans or the ancient Egyptians, they used the rich mythology that they had fabricated to give meaning to what was going on around them. The ancient Egyptians believed that the sun was the manifestation of the sun god Ra who had become a major deity in ancient Egyptian religion by the Fifth Dynasty and one of the most revered. They believed that Ra traversed the vast skies on a solar boat accompanied by other the gods. Sun worship was particularly prevalent in ancient Egyptian religion, but they naturally had a very limited understanding of the wider scope of things. Religion back then served as both a primitive form of control and a purely fantastical and exaggerated conception of the world around them and beyond. This was completely understandable back then, but now in our modern society surely we would have all rejected those narrow, fantasized and primitive fabrications of our incredible planet and the seemingly infinite universe that we are in. Well, unfortunately that hasn't happened and the dominant force in the world today is still religion.    

This cartoon I think illustrates the clear divide in the thought process behind the two. The scientific method is far more logical and progressive.

So why has religion endured for so long and still continues to be widespread today? Well, there are many reasons why but I think the single biggest factor is the religious conditioning that seems to have been passed down through the ages. It has continually spread from person to person, generation to generation almost like a virus. Forgive me, I don't wish to sound improper or that religion is like an affliction, in many cases religion has had a positive impact on many people's lives particularly if it gives them comfort or perhaps a better understanding of themselves. Religion is a double-edged sword after all and can be used for good: generosity, promoting peace and equality, solidarity etc. or for ill: discrimination, bigotry, inciting and endorsing violence, fueling conflicts and so forth. However, regrettably these days it seems it is being primarily used for the latter and even though it is usually only a minority, it's still alarming to say the least. You need only turn your attention to the current and ongoing crisis in the Middle East to see the devastating effect that sectarian violence is having, and how our brave men and women are trying to bring about a new order under truly extreme circumstances. The American theoretical physicist Steven Weinberg once said: "With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion."

I discovered that what ever religious beliefs I may have had in my early life ultimately had no real basis, other than I wanted to simply follow in my Nan's footsteps. I have seen it from all angles and witnessed both sides of the argument, but I came to the conclusion that science, naturalism, evolution and the seemingly overwhelming evidence that supports it all has by far the better argument and the louder voice in my opinion. It not only opens our eyes to how unbelievably complex it all really is and the sheer grandiosity of everything and beyond our tiny little world, but also that it reinforces how incredibly fortunate we all in fact are. We should all fully embrace this fact and I'll end with a quote which I think sums it all up: "Atheism is more than just the knowledge that gods do not exist, and that religion is either a mistake or a fraud. Atheism is an attitude, a frame of mind that looks at the world objectively, fearlessly, always trying to understand all things as a part of nature." - Carl Sagan