David Cameron, and the dangers of being agnostic.

It's a sad time for atheist. Christopher Hitchens, one of the finest minds of his generation, has died. And now we've got this bullshit.

So David Cameron has explained that he thinks that the UK needs to revert to it's "traditional Christian values" in an effort to "counter Britain's "moral collapse" ".

Interestingly, and pleasingly, 2 of my friends who don't know each other both reacted with the phrase "Fuck Off Cameron" to this news story.

Depressingly, however, I worry about whether he is wrong or not. Or at least whether the majority of the UK would perceive him to be wrong.

In the most part my Facebook is well educated and enlightened. I would hope that it is also mostly atheist (or at least agnostic, but we are about to get to that) and the absolutely crucial thing is that it understands why it is, and needs to be, atheist.

See, I worry that while a high majority of the UK might consider itself to have "no religion", that it's not because they are enlightened.

It's simply because they can't be bothered.

See having a faith means quite a lot of hard work. There is praying. There is attending services. There is abstaining from the world's finest pleasures.

I think a lot of people who now consider themselves to have no religion do so because they can't be bothered to go through the rigmarole and effort.

They still want to get into heaven though. They still think their dead grandparents have gone to a 'better place'. They still want there to be something else beyond us.

That's what worries me. These people are not atheists. They want to believe. And that is dangerous.

I always think that the aforementioned Christopher Hitchens actually presents a much more convincing case for why you shouldn't want to be religious, rather than why religion is incorrect. Detractors from him would often point out that much of his argument rested on God being a terrible thing and bad for humans, but that regardless whether he was right about that, he couldn't disprove that God was actually there.

Hitchens articulated anti-religious sentiments in a far more effective way than I ever could. And I would highly recommend watching any of the many videos on YouTube to any agnostics. (For full on Christians you can't beat a bit of Dawkins or Sam Harris).

Just as a simple example, David Cameron notes that we are built on Christian values, but ethically that argument never stands up. I mean, we can talk about the ten commandments telling us not steal or kill people or covet our neighbours stuff.

But come on, you're saying the human race just thought murdering and stealing was OK before God came down and said "don't do that"?

If you want their to be a higher power always aware of your thoughts and judging you because of them, then you might as well be a slave.

It is not enough to be agnostic. Being agnostic means you are always going to open to the lies of religion.

The UK needs to understand that we only have this one life. And it is fleeting, so make the most of it. And make it as pleasant as possible for yourself and everyone else. We don't need a religious moral code, we just need to be decent human beings. We are all we have.

Religion, again.

I'm due a Christianity rant, so here we go.
In this rant I am targeting full-on Christians, who believe the Bible, this rant probably doesn't apply to the lackeys spouting their "I believe in God, but..." excuses.

There is a brilliant quote from Ben-Stiller-lookalike atheist Sam Harris. It reads:

“Tell a devout Christian that his wife is cheating on him, or that frozen yogurt can make a man invisible, and he is likely to require as much evidence as anyone else, and to be persuaded only to the extent that you give it. Tell him that the book he keeps by his bed was written by an invisible deity who will punish him with fire for eternity if he fails to accept its every incredible claim about the universe, and he seems to require no evidence what so ever.”

It's true. And I'm afraid to say that in all likelihood (unless you're a "born again Christian"), the following is also true:

The only reason you believe in God, is because when you were a child, your parents, or other adults that you trusted told you that God existed, and told you things from the Bible.
It's the same reason you believed in Father Christmas.

(I remember believing in Father Christmas, I can't remember ever believing in God. I think it might be because there is actually a lot more practical evidence for the existence of Father Christmas, you see him most Winters hanging out in shopping centres)

When your parents told you Father Christmas doesn't exist, that it's just a silly story to protect your innocence. Well, Christians, I'm doing the same thing for you now.

Sorry. You cried when mummy told you Father Christmas wasn't real, and it'll hurt just as bad: God just isn't real.

Like Sam Harris says, in any other case, if someone asserts something you will ask for evidence. If I tell you I can fly, it's pretty reasonable for you to expect me send a couple of minutes suspended in mid-air to prove it.

But what's that you say? On the surface it doesn't matter if I can fly or not. Even if you believe me without evidence it's not doing you any harm to believe that I can fly.

So, how about I say: I can fly. Now worship me because of it.
Will you require evidence then?
I can fly. Now donate money to me.
Will you require evidence then?
I can fly. Now go to war and die because of it.
Will you require evidence then?

An argument I hear regularly from Christians is:
How did it all start then? If there is no God to create the universe, no divine architect, how did the universe go from not being, to being.

Well, let's start by saying I'm not a scientist. There are many theories. But in all probability, the answer right now is: we don't know.

That doesn't mean we won't ever know.
I'm willing to bet that there are a lot of people who, for example, would know if you asked them:

How does an electric guitar's sound come out of an amplifier. (Many people do know, but I bet there are a lot of people who don't).

Just because they don't know doesn't mean there isn't a scientific explanation. The fact that you don't know about amplifiers doesn't mean you can't ever know. And it's the same with science.

We haven't always known everything we know now. We'll probably never know everything. But that doesn't mean we should stop trying and just say: God did it.

God didn't do it. There is no God.

A Christian atheist?

This might not be the kind of words you would expect to read on the blog of an atheist, so brace yourself:

I like Christianity. I like it very much. In a sense, I feel I am mildly Christian.

Don't get me wrong, I also hate Christianity, and in many ways, I cannot stand religion. So let's clear a few things up.
I certainly do not believe in God, but contrary to what an irrelevant, ancient book suggests, I doubt that really matters.  

See, at the heart of Christianity, and indeed most of the mainstream religions, there is a message that I could not agree with more strongly.
It is a message that preaches kindness, generosity, loyalty and compassion.

I think that's excellent. I hate the way the world has become a selfish, money obsessed cesspit with a disgusting mainstream culture of greed and narcissism.
I think we should all make an effort to be kind, and selfless and generous.
At the moment, if you try to be always kind and selfless and generous, it will get you nowhere, because people find it far too easy to take advantage of you. So instead we all have to descend into the same level of cynicism, and we all have to look out for ourselves, and ourselves only.

So, morally and ethically, I fundamentally agree with the message of Christianity. Help people. Be kind. Be generous.

But what I don't understand, is why these concepts have to be tied into the idea of a God.
The Bible and the teachings of Christianity often offer wise advice, strong moral stories and the uplifting idea that humans doing good to each other can only be a good thing.

Why does there need to be a power-hungry Santa Claus figure at the top of the pyramid who demands that the most important thing that you do in your life is believe in him?

Why would it matter if you believe in him or not?
Say you live a kind, selfless life but you don't ever believe in God, you don't go to church and you don't pray. You don't do those kind selfless things because you want to improve your chances of getting into Heaven for eternal bliss. You just do them because it's the right thing to do, and you feel good when you do good.

Why would it matter if you're wrong at the end. You die, and God pops up and says "yeah, I do exist, you were wrong not to believe in me".
It wouldn't change the fact that you lived a good, kind, selfless life.
If anything it makes it more noble.

Christians who believe in God (and it works for most religions) can justify their good deeds because they are getting something out of it.
I'm not expecting to get anything out of being nice to people.

I don't believe in God. But I think that if he does exist he would rather I do good things and not believe in him, than do bad things and completely believe in him.

Professor Richard Dawkins, and how he is Hermione.

I knew there was a reason I found Emma Watson attractive.

Questioning the questions.

I'm an atheist, but I'm not entirely sure why.

My parents certainly weren't staunch atheists, my mum is a Catholic in principle, but doesn't attned church or really believe anymore, but when I was younger we went to the church every Sunday.

My beginnings were pretty Christian. I went to a junior school that said prayers every morning, and had discussions about God and the bible in the evening.

It wasn't even that I felt smothered by a Christian upbrining or anything like that. I said prayers quite happily. I went to church but never had it thrust upon me unwillingly.

I don't remember ever believing it, though.

I can remember believing in Father Christmas, when I was very young. We used to leave milk and carrots for Rudolph, and a little glass of brandy for the jolly fat man himself. Unsurprisngly, the brandy was always gone, so too were the milk and the carrot, although I find it unlikely that my parents cos-played a reindeer; they almost certainly ended up back in the fridge.

I digress.

I don't remember believing in God, or heaven, or miracles. Even at a very young age I don't recall ever being taken in by it. I don't know why. I don't remember disbelieving it, as such, I just never bought into it.

It's funny, because given my upbringing, one would assume I am prime, good little Christian boy material. But I suspect it's true for a lot of people I know. Maybe kids are just getting smarter, learning to question more what they are told rather than believing it blindly.

I don't really have a reason to not have believed. I am not what you could call a scientist who felt overwhelmed by the evidence for evolution. I didn't have a powerful atheist figure in my life telling me what not to believe. I just never believed.