Wednesday, January 09, 2008

unsceptical, unscientific unreason

Following on from reading The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, I decided to learn more by visiting his official website. Some brief browsing has given me the sneaking suspicion that this is a haven of freedom of speech and freedom from religion.

A quick scroll reveals links to important resources online championing reason and logic, such as the complete work of Darwin. It is also the place to visit and discuss these important human virtues with a bourgeoning forum, copious comments and a lively chat room. The first thing to catch my eye here was a film wittily entitled The Four Horsemen; a 2 hour, in-depth, lively discussion between 4 prominent and active atheist/writers namely: Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, and, my new pin-up, Richard Dawkins. The film is free to view on the website and so I took full advantage.

It was fascinating, consciousness-raising and poignant.

Witnessing men of their intellectual calibre, wisdom and zeal was a pleasure. Hearing their extended arguments in favour of atheism was thought-provoking. It is a film I would encourage anyone to watch, whatever their opinion of existence, because these atheists deserve to be heard; they are genuinely concerned about unreason and its consequences for civilisation. The thought that has stuck with me since watching the film centres on this concern - a vision of the future where reason and secular civilisation loses out to religious theocracy after some sort of nuclear exchange. A bleak vision indeed, I think you'll agree.

I hope for the sake of humanity and civilisation that this does not turn out to be the case, but I am now more worried about the conflicts that religion is so inexorably woven into than ever before.

Secularists, humanists, atheists and others need to be more critical of religion and more vocal in all forms of media. Ignorance and appeasement doesn't address the fundamental difficulties religion inflicts upon the world with its indoctrination of children, its claims over "holy" land, and the wanton murder of tens of thousands of innocent people. The arrogance with which each religion claims to be right in all things, all other beliefs being wrong, because of "faith" in some form or other (unsceptical, unscientific unreason) is a genuine threat to freedom and reason.

I don't seek to offend when I link to this video and explore my deepest concern that it has raised, but if I do offend, I cannot apologise. Atheism is my "belief", a belief that gets no respect from the religious, who expect a great deal of automatic respect for their religious beliefs. This respect is expected to be of such a quality that important searching questions are treated with offence and reasonable criticism with contempt, yet all the while great questions are asked of atheists and criticism is piled on in the highest order. Thankfully an atheist is glad of these questions, enjoys the debate and greets criticism, not with contempt, but with further enquiry and deeper discussion.

Our world has only benefited from logic, reason, and the unwillingness to accept the unknown as unknowable. Science gave us medicine and the internet, and so in turn it has provided increasing health and longevity, freedom of speech and expression and the first steps to a real global community. If the unknown was left as unknowable, would we have such things? I think not.

Science has further to go, more questions to answer and more questions to ask. There is more to be discovered. Reason and logic will take us there, blind faith will not.

These discussions need to be had, more often and more openly. So I, like Dawkins, beseech religious sceptics to be more openly critical and analytical of the religious where it is possible, and I ask that the religious simply engage and try not to be offended, as surely you must agree that these deep discussions are important ways of exploring your belief and extolling what you actually believe for yourself and others. If it is too deep a test, perhaps you are as sceptical about religion as reasonable and logical people across the globe and are unwilling to risk losing your religious life-crutch. I say try out scepticism, reason and real questions, they are far more powerful and effective than any prayer or ancient piece of fiction will ever prove to be.

Sunday, January 06, 2008

ecstatic to embrace logic

Belief is a controversial topic but it is one that should not be ignored. It deserves discussion at length, whenever possible, and it should be challenged in all its forms. I recently gave my beliefs a good old think about and considered the beliefs of others, at length. This was due, mostly, to the incredibly important book The God Delusion
by Richard Dawkins, which I recently finished reading.

For those of you who have not heard of him, Richard Dawkins is an evolutionary scientist, chair for The Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University, and a popular science writer. He is also a staunch atheist and Humanist with strong views against religion. It is these personal positions of his that he explores in the book.

I shan't go into great detail as to what the book contains, all I shall say is read it, and read it soon. It is a fascinating and compelling treatise on belief and its implications for humankind that is written very well remaining very accessible despite its academic bent. Dawkins' arguments are well formed, explored, and evidence based and I couldn't help but nod enthusiastically throughout the book. He spoke to me and raised my consciousness on many levels.

Having finished the book, I can now feel happy in describing myself as an Atheist. Before, I guess I was a closet atheist using a coat of agnosticism to hide it. I felt that belief in belief was a good thing, and despite despising organised religion in all its forms, I was willing to accept that some people can believe in a force we generally call God. I myself was open to the idea, but to be completely honest had not really thought about it enough.

Now that I really have thought about it, God is nonsense, a shrug of the shoulders, the most improbable theory of existence. The theory of evolution, coupled with other scientific theories satisfies so many questions. Yes, there are gaps, and the religious enthusiasts throughout the world will evoke God to account for those gaps, but the gaps slowly but surely get filled with scientific discovery, logic and reasoning.

Dawkins has helped me to realise I don't need religion to be moral, happy or inspired and so, I don't need it at all.

I am ecstatic to embrace logic, rational thought and scientific evidence whilst reacting quite negatively to lies and nonsense. I am thrilled to call myself an Atheist.

The God Delusion is a book I would recommend highly to people from all walks of belief, especially the intelligent sceptics (religious or not). It is worth the read, if for nothing else, the section exploring the indoctrination of children, something that now worries me greatly.

If the idea of atheism interests you, Dawkins' official website is a good place to start. I am going there now to watch a recent debate he was involved in.