Atheists

Atheism
 When many people think of the word atheist, the first though that comes to mind is an immoral person who does not go to church and is condemned to an eternity in hell because of their beliefs, or lack of. However, some atheists portray themselves as rocket scientists and geniuses of the world. Neither of these generalizations is very accurate. Atheists are often perceived as arrogant people who are blind to the “truth,” but in reality, with a deeper understanding of science and a belief away from religion, they often understand the world around them and, with this knowledge, they improve their lives and the lives of others around them.

 I was raised in a relatively nonreligious household. My parents never really got into religion, but we did go to church around once a month. As I grew older, many of my friends began to go to church more and more often and invite me to go with them. I would follow them to church because I enjoyed being around people. I was still young, so I have not read the bible yet, or understand the full implications of it- mostly because I was more concerned with talking to my friends. When I turned fourteen, I took a real look at religion and asked myself the question that everyone comes to eventually- what do I believe in? To find my answer, I read the majority of the Bible. When I finished, I thought to myself, “If God really is loving and forgiving, how can he condemn people who do good to a lifetime in hell because they did not believe in him?” I’ll admit it. People have told me to go to hell because I am an atheist, and when if the implications are fully understood, there really is no greater insult or punishment. An amount of time longer than hundreds of thousands of lives spent in a burning hell being tortured? How can any person wish that upon someone without feeling the least bit of remorse? This was the clinching point that pushed me to become an atheist.

 Being an atheist is relatively simple. Most people believe atheism is a line, with one end being a Christian or Muslim and the other end being an atheist, but this common misconception is wrong. The truth is, belief is like the graph below this paragraph. Broken down, the graph says that a person can be an atheist or theist (person who believes in God) with varying forms of strength in belief. Agnostic means that someone has the belief that there will never be any conclusive proof of the existence of God. While many people think an agnostic theist does not exist, it just means that they believe there is a higher power, but they cannot prove the existence of God. On the other hand, someone who is gnostic believes that the existence of God can be conclusively proven or disproven. Personally, I identify as an agnostic atheist. However, there is much more to being an atheist than just not believing in God, just like how there is much more to being a Christian than just believing in God. The core essence of an atheist is that an atheist does not believe in God because of the lack of proof. An atheist has to have a solid understanding of major scientific ideas, like evolution (see __On the Origin of Species)__ and at least a general idea of how we got here (see Big Bang Theory and B2FH Paper). An atheist has to have not only an understanding of science, but also a good understanding of the major religions. To be an atheist, one to understand the core of major religions and what drives them, like the Bible.



[|Atheists are a minority] in the world, especially in the United States, and even more so in Texas. Although the United States was founded on the principles of separation of state and church, there are trends that want to stop that. Just recently, presidential candidate Rick Perry released a video stating that union of a Christian church and state is the ideal situation. There are constantly less than five percent of atheists in the United States at any given moment. Many of them are portrayed as immoral and persecuted because of it. An example of how unpopular atheism is with the general population is this [|poll]that was recently conducted. More than half of America would not vote for an atheist president. Keep in mind that the president’s views on anything and political party have not been revealed, only the religious affiliation. This shows that at least half of America would not trust an atheist to lead the United States, no matter how much education they had or how long they have been in politics.

Christians persecute atheists when they tell atheists that they are destined to spend eternity in hell. Personally, I have been told that I was going to go to hell at least five times by various Christians. Spending an eternity in hell being tortured is bad enough, but to actually condemn someone to it means the person must have a lot of hate for the atheist. If you think about the implications, sending someone to hell is much worse than killing them or their family. Wishing someone to spend even a day in hell means there is a lot of hate in the person. This response [|here] summarizes up many views of Christians to atheists. Religious people also see atheists as having no morals or standards. There is not much love for the people who are “broken from God.” This [|picture from a blog] portrays it.

 Although the popular view of atheists is not positive, the reality is that they aren’t much different than Christians- they just don’t go to church on Sundays and they don’t believe in God. Having morals is an integral part of every human being. While I do believe that many religious people have very strong morals, I also believe that atheists have just as strong morals. Famous atheist Richard Dawkins, author of __The God Delusion__, does lots of charitable work. He started the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science. His [|mission statement] can be viewed here. Bill Nye, commonly referred to Bill Nye the science guy, also is a very famous atheist that has the intention of supporting and strengthening the education of the United States of America. Both Richard Dawkins and Bill Nye focus on improving the school systems of the United States, a very noble cause. Bill Gates, who at one time was considered the richest man on the planet, is also an atheist. [|He donates huge sums of money to Universities, foundations, and AIDS research]. Although some might argue that Bill Gates donates so much because he is rich, the fact still remains he donated a huge sum of money. With donations ranging up to 10 billion dollars, he had the option to not donate, yet he still did. The atheist community from a [|popular news sharing website called reddit donated more than a 150,000$.] Although this amount of money to Doctors Without Borders seems small compared to Bill Gates, the people that donated the money are mostly the younger generation- many of them college kids. They have little money to spare, yet they still donated 150,000$ to a good cause.

 A world without religion, or a world of atheists, can be hard to imagine, but [|Richard Dawkins sums it up well]. Although religion is good because it gives people faith, the negative aspects can be detrimental to the world. A world with only atheists would have less fighting. Unfortunately, wars would still exist as the largest reason for war is nationalism or resources, but a world without religion would be far more advanced and peaceful. Atheists have always turned to science to innovate and further technology, and without the crusades and oppression of science, the world would be much more advanced. Also, the world would be improved in [|ways listed in this blog.] It has been seen that secular (separate state and religion) nations have higher amounts of atheists, and these countries have a higher income, better education, and lower crime rates when compared to the United States. In a world run by atheists, there would be no 9/11, no suicide bombers, and most of all, no rifts in culture because of religion. Being an atheist has never directly been the cause for a tragic event recognized by United States.

 More and more atheists are showing up all over the world, and the negative view of them stretching thousands of years ago is starting to fade. Overall, atheists have a very strong understanding of religion and the world around them, despite being negatively perceived by the majority of religious people.

By Ben Chi

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