This Field Can Be Edited Later

Recently a thread started on my Facebook page pertaining to my lack of a belief in god. While discussing varying definitions of god with a friend I pointed out that I personally have a hard time believing in a creator god because there is no evidence that directly points to an intelligent creation.

In fact things like the human eye that appears complicated enough to require an intelligent origin are, upon examination, very flawed. For example, staying with the eye, the nerves and blood vessels that connect to our eyes obstruct the light sensitive retina leaving us with a blind spot, while other animals like squid don’t have this problem. This leads me to believe that an intelligent force was not responsible for such sloppy mistakes; especially when lowly humans can engineer much better cameras.

In response to this my brother- in-law posted:

[XR4-IT], I wonder where this thinking came from, knowing how you were raised, and the things you have accomplished in your life. EVERYTHING DENOTES THERE IS A GOD!!!! Every living, breathing thing. Even the plants and the sun in the sky proclaims, and testifies of the presence of a Supreme Creator. If everything were perfect in this world, how would we progress? How would we learn? How would we come to understand the laws that make this world possible? I urge you to return to that which you were taught [Mormonism]. Your family prays for you [XR4-IT], every night, to that God that you have rejected.

To this I respond:

[My Brother-in-law],

I understand your concern in my lack of belief in god, and I know that on the surface it may appear perplexing that someone who was once a deeply committed adherent to a religion would walk away from it, but as I have received and investigated new information over the years concerning the universe and world we live in I have had to weigh the manner in which I understood reality against all the information I have available to me. Because I would much rather know the truth than follow after some myth or fable I must always shape my perception of existence to what makes the most sense.

To you the existence of everything around you makes you sure that there is a god, but to me simply seeing that something exists is too ambiguous to be evidence to know how it came to be. I cannot look at the sun, the earth, and life and assume that these things were placed here artificially by some god; especially because I understand the processes by which these things may have formed naturally. Also no god has left us with evidence of its existence, no way to know that the world was formed by any other means then natural gravitation. In examining the biological patterns of life intelligent engineering is absent. Instead we find a phylogenetic tree where complex life is clearly the result of gradual modifications to less complex life, which appears to be the product of natural selection rather than intelligent engineering.

It has even been demonstrated that elements which are naturally abundant can in self catalyzing reactions spontaneously form RNA molecules which can replicate themselves naturally. It has also been demonstrated that the amino acids which are needed for the building of proteins will also form on their own in nature. These are the basic building block of life, and they all occur naturally. Demonstrating thoroughly that life could have formed on its own, not requiring a god for its formation.

Yet in all this knowledge I have not the evidence of a god, and I cannot bring myself to believe in something that I cannot justify to myself through evidence.

You urge me to return to what I was taught, but I find that I cannot bring myself to worship that which I don’t believe in, and have no reason to believe in.

To which my brother-in-law replied:

I feel for you [XR4-IT], and so does [your sister]. She cries for you. Your recent selfish decisions have hurt your family more than I think you will ever realize. We hope and pray that one day, the selfishness will end, and you will return to that which I know, deep down, you still believe. Otherwise, I guess your whole life, especially the two years you spent in California [LDS mission], was just a lie. Just think about that. You’re better than that, and you know it. I reaffirm my belief that God does live. We are here for a purpose. We are here to learn, progress, to have our rough edges smoothed with trials like a carpenter that transforms a piece of wood into a beautiful piece of furniture. One day you will realize this. Whether it be in this life, or the life hereafter. For your sake, I hope it’s sooner.

[My Brother-in-law],

Please don’t presume to know what I believe “deep down”, because you’re not in my head and you don’t know what I think except the things I tell you. I assure you that I do not believe in any of the religions I have encountered over my life. In fact I do believe that I was raised believing in a myth, and I often regret having served a mission. Not only do I lament the time and money spent on the endeavor, but I also mourn the fact that I brought people into a religion that I cannot bring myself to believe. I mourn that I convinced others to devote their lives and means to an idea that I believe to be false; something as unbelievable and unverifiable as the magik* that my Wiccan friends believe in.

While the fact that my sister and other family members are pained by my lack of belief in god saddens me, I cannot make myself believe something because others want me to. I can only believe things out of my own conviction, and due to my experiences in life, and the information that I have gathered over the years I cannot with an honest heart maintain such convictions.

I do not know if you have read this: http://volerum.blog.com/2009/10/31/god-unknown/ but if you want to understand why I think the way I do it is the most complete description of why I do not believe in a god, especially in conjunction with what I have written here.

You shape your own beliefs by your own experiences, and I do the same. My experiences have led me to view the world vastly different from the way you do and the way I was taught to believe as a child. You seem to think this is selfish, but I do not see how.

*For reasons that I’m not sure of many Wiccans will spell the word magic with a ‘k’ rather than a ‘c’.

Names replaced for privacy, and some clarification given in brackets [].

I saw this on my friend’s blog, here, and it reflected some of my thought on spirituality so I thought I would share it here.

I’ve been following the federal same-sex marriage trial where California’s ban on same-sex marriage is being tested against the United States’ Constitution. This first week of the trial has been devoted to the testimony of the plaintiffs (those in favor of same-sex marriage), and today they had a professor testifying that his research demonstrated that children raised by same-sex couples were just as well adjusted as children raised by opposite-sex couples. He also testified that children of same-sex couples were no more likely to be gay then those of heterosexual parents.

It was however argued by the defense (those opposed to same-sex marriage) that children should be raised by their biological parents (this he demonstrated by the fact that many adopted children often searched out their biological parents), and therefore same-sex couples shouldn’t be allowed to have kids and also shouldn’t be allowed to get married. Not only does the argument not make any sense, but I was outraged by the argument’s very premise. I was so shocked by this argument that I had to read the quote from the defense lawyer from several different news sources before I was willing to believe that it had been made.

What upset me wasn’t that the ability of me and Mike to raise children was called into question, but that the defense lawyer had delegitimized the ability of any parent to raise a child that wasn’t biologically theirs.

For you to understand how upsetting this was for me you have to understand that I am adopted, and to hear this rhetoric from that lawyer was not only an insult to me but it was also an insult to my parents as well as any parent who is selfless enough to adopt a child.

From my perspective, to even suggest that an adoptive parent couldn’t properly raise a child is completely ludicrous. My life has been much improved by the fact that my parents adopted me. It wasn’t long after the time of my adoption, when I was eight years old, that my life felt natural, and that I was simply part of the family that my adopted family had brought together. I was never in want of love from my adopted family for it was given in abundance. My parents cared for me and my younger biological siblings as if we were their own alongside their biological children.

Because I was adopted I was provided with a far more stable family environment, greater opportunity, and a family culture that taught me better social skills. I might not believe in god, but I would definitely call my adoption a blessing.

If it had simply been argued that children need to be raised by both a mother and a father, I would have almost understood; this argument has been made to me before. However, that argument would deny the rights of single parents to raise children and I have known several people who were raised by single parents.

In fact, my best friend growing up had been adopted by a single woman who became his mother, and while his circumstances may not have always been ideal, I can assure you that he was grateful to be part of the family provided by his single adopted mother, and what was most important to him was that he was loved and cared for. I can also assure you that his mother found great fulfillment in raising her family.

These are far from the only examples I can think of. I know many single mothers and fathers, or people raised by single or adoptive parents, and I could not disparage their ability to raise children any more than I could disparage the ability of the defense lawyer’s “ideal” set up. And you know what? I think Mike and I have just as much capability to raise a child as anyone else.

Of late I often find myself discussing with others my lack of belief in any form of a god. During these discussions it is often pointed out to me that I can’t prove that no form of a god or gods exist, and I normally concede the point that it is possible for there to be a god or gods.

Because I see no demonstrative evidence for a god I choose not to believe in one or any despite my concession of the possibility of their existence. Some people however have offered the argument that because the universe is infinite a god must exist sheerly because it is possible. After all I have conceded the possibility and so, they say, I should then agree that a god must exist on that premise of logic.

There is at least one flaw to this logic, and that is that is possible that the universe operates according to set rules, and it is possible that these rules exclude the possibility of anything that we would define as a god.

You see when I or any atheist grants the possibility of a god it is only because our own understanding is not sufficient to rule out the possibility while in all actuality we may be offering a false possibility simply because we can’t know. This is because it is all but imposable to demonstrate something’s non-existence.

Let me illustrate an example. Someone might believe in magic—in fact I know a good number of people who do—but I think most of my readers would agree that magic doesn’t exist or at least don’t believe in it because it can’t be demonstrated in any sort of consistent testable way. Like god, it can’t be proved not to exist and it could be argued that magic must exist somewhere in the universe because of its sheer vastness. Yet if the universe does conform to rules, magic, as the average person understands it, likely doesn’t occur anywhere in the universe.

Similarly when I was in high school I was reading series of books called the Wheel of Time. Sometime while I was reading these books I was introduced to the idea that there may be an infinite number of universes. I had concluded at the time that the world of the Wheel of Time must, or at least likely existed in one of those universes. I would dream of traveling to that world, and perhaps even learning to use the powers available to the people there, or even tapping the powers of that world in my own. As far as I know however, the rules that apply to our universe would also apply all universes or perhaps if the rules are different they are still only flexible within certain constraints; bound by some greater natural limitations. Nevertheless without a way to demonstrate the existence of such a world one way or the other my teenage hopes were likely little more than vain musings, although fun.

So while I may concede the possibility of a god, or any number of other things, they may indeed be impossible propositions.

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XR4-IT

Every so often I have had discussions with friends and family members about the meaning of morality. This video explains a possible natural origin to what we as humans call morality, and how natural selection would promote an ethics system.

I still hope to write I bit about Humanism in the future, but for now I’ll let you enjoy this bit of morality in the would of non human animals.

I saw this on a friend’s blog and after a discussion with my brother on the subject of religion I couldn’t help but want to post this video to my blog as well.

This Field Can Be Edited Later has been added to The Atheist Blogroll. You can see the blogroll in my sidebar. The Atheist blogroll is a community building service provided free of charge to Atheist bloggers from around the world. If you would like to join, visit Mojoey at Deep Thoughts for more information.

Great is the evil of the tyrant of old
The world he commands his powers untold

He brings destruction to people and lands
Women and infants are slain by his hands

He is called great by those who would follow
But those who resist in his wrath he would swallow

He oppresses the mind, the will, and desire
Those who would think he consumes with hell fire

As god of darkness he rules men
For investigations of wisdom are unlawful to pen

He offers confusion rather than light
Adherents destroy knowledge for fear of his might

Under confusion his power is strengthened
Holding dear to his lies men never awaken

On bended knee they serve their master
In belief he will save them from some fearsome disaster

They enslave themselves to he who was born in a stable
losing their lives to service only a fable

I have thought a lot of things about religion over the years. I would like to believe that there is a god who loves me and is here to give aid to humanity; it is a beautiful idea. However I have found that I can no longer bring myself to believe in any of the religions that I have encountered and learned about. The reason that I have come to disbelieve is because of the means by which one comes to know the truth of any religion.

Most people find their religion because they were raised with that religion form birth, it being the tradition of their parents, while others are introduced to a new religion later in life. In both these cases however the thing that binds someone to their religion is the same: the thing that is generally called a spiritual experience.

I was raised in the Mormon faith, and Mormonism is a religion that strongly emphasizes the importance of the spiritual experience; it even has a scripture in its cannon that states you may know the truth of all things by the power of the Holy Ghost. I’ve had powerful spiritual experiences with Mormonism; I served a mission and felt the rush of the spirit as I testified of it or when I gave a blessing to the sick. I prayed to know the truth of the Book of Mormon and had a strong feeling enter into my heart telling me that it was true. I know what it is like to remember some scripture like a flash of light at a time when it was needed for the person whom I was teaching. I have felt the warmth and comfort gained from praying when I was troubled. I have however had spiritual experiences outside of the Mormon faith, some of which come into conflict with the teachings of that church.

When I first came out as being gay I was implored by my parents to resist the urge to engage in homosexual activity. For their sake, and the sake of my belief in God, I obliged them for a time. However after a few weeks, the pain of loneliness set in once again and I searched out someone online to try dating. It wasn’t long before I had found someone to go out with and not long after that we met and went on a date. I was anxious yet excited.

During the date I felt comfortable and natural, as if this was the way my life was meant to be. By the time I got home however the reality of what I had done set in. I became immediately concerned about my standing with God, and being a good Mormon I decided to kneel down and pray so that I could ask God what to do.

I started by explaining to God my feelings, and how I felt dead without even the option of pursuing a relationship. I then asked if it were right for me to seek after a relationship with a man. When I asked this question immediately I was filled with a warm good feeling. Just as I had before I had prayed and received an answer. Indeed it felt the same as it had when I prayed to know the truth of the Book of Mormon, or of any other religious principle.

This was odd to me because I knew that homosexuality was against the teachings of the Church which I also knew by the spirit was true; a church that supposedly had the teachings of an unchanging God. While this contradiction of spiritual witnesses troubled me, I continued knowing that I had an answer from God.

When I told others of my spiritual witness about homosexual relationships, they told me that I must have been deceived. However I was unable to judge one as true and the other as false, for I could not tell the difference between the two witnesses. I was left to believe that they were either both true or both false together. Someone then suggested that I felt good about having homosexual relationships only because I wanted to feel good about them.

I have since explored many other religions and I have had the same or similar experiences with other gods as I did with Mormonism. I have felt the power of god while taking part in pagan rituals. The feelings produced by these rituals were so strong and powerful that I could not tell the difference between them and the experiences I had with Mormonism. Similarly I felt as if I had a spiritual connection to the divine as I pondered the teachings of the Buddhists or of Taoism.

All this time I reflected on the fact that these new spiritual experiences conflicted with those I had when I had been an adherent to the Mormon faith, and I was reminded of the suggestion that I only felt good about pursuing homosexual relationships because I wanted to. Had I only wanted to feel good about having a same-sex relationship and therefore made myself feel as if I had a spiritual experience? If so could all of my spiritual experiences be explained the same way? This introspection held me for some time but eventually I came to the conclusion that I could not know if a god had influenced my experience or if the feelings I had during spiritual experiences only came from myself.

In the end a witness from the spirit is really just a good feeling, and a feeling is not a way to know the truth of something. You may let your feelings guide you, but in the end is that really substantive evidence of a claim? Can we expect someone to believe the claims made because we tell them we have a good feeling about them?

I am often asked something similar to the question, “How can you know a god didn’t create the universe? Can you prove gods don’t exist?”

The fact is we don’t know; however, we have no evidence that there are gods, and a claim that can be made without evidence can be dismissed without evidence. Why should we assume that anything happened by supernatural means; especially when everything that our sciences have probed have functioned by natural means? On top of this, simply attributing something to a god doesn’t answer any questions. It might give us a who, an assertion that is made without evidence, but it doesn’t give us a how.

When a claim is made of the existence of something it is left to the one making the claim to provide evidence of that thing’s existence. When no evidence is found, the claim can be dismissed. Aside from strong emotional “spiritual” experiences I have no evidence of any religion I have investigated. The spiritual experiences can’t be shown to have come from anywhere but myself, so I have no evidence to even prove to myself that any religion I have followed is true.

Could some new information come along that may be conclusive evidence of some sort of a god? Sure, but the idea of a possibility of new evidence coming sometime in the future is still not evidence and is not a reason now to give credence to any claim that is yet unfounded.

So the question for all those who encounter the idea of a god, or some other supernatural concept is: do I have enough evidence to prove to myself that this is true? If not, why then should you believe it? When we are searching for truth it is only safe to believe things that can be shown to be true by evidence of their truth. Otherwise we would be left open to following after any fairytale.

Many people have brought to me stories of miracles reporting them as evidence of a god, such as an item being found or arriving in time to prevent a tragedy shortly after being prayed for, or events seemingly playing to the advantage of someone after a prayer or blessing, and many more similar stories can be brought forth upon asking most faithful. Many would tell you that such a miracle was nothing more than coincidence, but the faithful will tell you that these stories are nothing short of evidence of the divine.

I’ve never seen a miracle—most miracles I’ve heard of are unverifiable, and beyond that, all of them are unspectacular. Never do I hear about a flashy grand miracle like those in the bible or any other holy book. Instead I see people clinging to any story that remotely validates their way of looking at the world.

Not only are these miracles unspectacular, but they are the same types of miracles reported by the people of any religion, and people who follow any god. Why would the Christian god perform miracles for a Wiccan or a Hindu when this would lend evidence to the gods that they follow? Or would a god purposely try to confuse people? Even people who don’t believe in a god but still practice some sort of other supernatural belief report similar miracles. Above that this same sort of pleasant happening still happens to atheists and agnostics regardless of their disbelief in a god.

No, these trite happenings are not a reason to believe in a god, especially in a specific god. Show me the power of god in a substantial repeatable testable way. Does any god have power to do that?

Like I said before if we do not have the evidence to know the truth of a claim, but believe it anyhow, we may as well be chasing after myths or fables, and that is no way to know truth.

If a god wants us to believe in him he should provide evidence of his existence, but he does not, and we have no reason to follow any of the supposed gods or mythologies. If a god would then punish someone for not believing in him when he hasn’t provided evidence for them to know him he is an unjust god.