January 24, 2012

Why Atheism is love?


Most religious people, groups, organizations and leaders see Atheism as a threat. That is a fact.

Many, if not all believers will attest to the fact that Atheism and love contradict themselves. This is far from the truth. In comparison to religion Atheists don’t judge anyone for anything except for the character and moral behavior of individual to others. An atheist parent will not disown his or her own child only because that child is gay. An atheist parent will not reject his or her child for an interracial relationship. An atheist will love their family members and any other human being under only one condition, if that human being is a good person. Nothing else matters. No race, religion affiliation, age, sex, or color. That’s love.


When I think of religion and the way it poisoned our planet and society, and when comparing it against atheism. The facts are there. Atheism is love. Religion is love under many conditions, ancient rules and superstitious beliefs. I will not say all believers and all religious people are evil or loveless. But its apparent that most hate and human separation in our beautiful world stems from religion. And what bugs me the most is that the good believers are not willing or daring to “zoom out” of their own bubble and to look at the whole picture globally. I am a former believer myself and I am very familiar with being brainwashed, programmed and closed minded. I know where my loved ones are and the tunnel vision they are seeing is just that. A tunnel vision.
A common reaction I get when I bring up the subject is; “I am a good person, my neighbor is a good person and everyone I meet in church or temple is a wonderful person, so why you atheists say were bad?” or “I am a strong believer and I am a free thinker. No one tells me what to think or do.” and that’s what I mean when I say “zoom out” a little. Don’t look only at yourself. Look, ask, study, research and see what goes on in your community. Look what goes on politically and globally. It wont take much (if you truly open your eyes) to see that religion is filled with racism, hate, women suppression, child molestation and lies, all in the disguise of love. Religion is responsible for more deaths then the combined casualties of world wars 1 and 2 combined. Religion is the only motivator for a human to end his life for the sake of killing others. But that’s not the zooming out I’m talking about. That’s just the appetizer. Its very simple (for atheists at least) to see that what you call “God is love” and you believe in an intelligent design and a loving merciful force who cares for us.
Let me take you out of your home and your church/ temple/ masque and zoom out the moral lens for you a little: 



Abrahamic religions

Judaism, Christianity and Islam will continue to contribute to the destruction of the world until and unless each challenges violence in "sacred texts" and until each affirms nonviolent power of God". The history of religious violence in the West is as long as the historical record of its three major religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, with their involved mutual antagonisms and struggles to adapt and survive the secular forces that threaten their continued existence.

Regina Schwartz argues that all monotheistic religions, including Christianity, are inherently violent because of an exclusivism that inevitably fosters violence against those that are considered outsiders. Abrahamic religions have a violent legacy, and that legacy is genocidal in nature.

Jews and Christians who smugly console themselves that Islam is the only violent religion are willfully ignoring their past. Nowhere is the struggle between faith and violence described more vividly, and with more stomach-turning details of ruthlessness, than in the Hebrew Bible. 



Christianity

The relationship of Christianity and violence is the subject of controversy because one view is that Christianity advocates peace, love and compassion while it is also viewed as a violent religion. Peace, compassion and forgiveness of wrongs done by others are key elements of Christian teaching. However, Christians have struggled since the days of the Church fathers with the question of when the use of force is justified. Such debates have led to concepts such as just war theory. Throughout history, certain teachings from the Old Testament, the New Testament and Christian theology have been used to justify the use of force against heretics, sinners and external enemies. Heitman and Hagan identify the Inquisitions, Crusades, wars of religion, and antisemitism as being "among the most notorious examples of Christian violence". To this list J. Denny Weaver adds "warrior popes, support for capital punishment, corporal punishment under the guise of 'spare the rod and spoil the child,' justifications of slavery, world-wide colonialism in the name of conversion to Christianity, the systemic violence of women subjected to men." Weaver employs a broader definition of violence that extends the meaning of the word to cover "harm or damage", not just physical violence per se. Thus, under his definition, Christian violence includes "forms of systemic violence such as poverty, racism, and sexism." Christians have also engaged in violence against those that they classify as heretics and non-believers specifically to enforce orthodoxy of their faith.

Many authors highlight the ironical contradiction between Christianity's claims to be centered on "love and peace" while, at the same time, harboring a "violent side". For example, Mark Juergensmeyer argues: "that despite its central tenets of love and peace, Christianity—like most traditions—has always had a violent side. The bloody history of the tradition has provided images as disturbing as those provided by Islam or Sikhism, and violent conflict is vividly portrayed in the Bible. This history and these biblical images have provided the raw material for theologically justifying the violence of contemporary Christian groups. For example, attacks on abortion clinics have been viewed not only as assaults on a practice that Christians regard as immoral, but also as skirmishes in a grand confrontation between forces of evil and good that has social and political implications." sometimes referred to as Spiritual warfare. The statement attributed to Jesus "I come not to bring peace, but to bring a sword" has been interpreted by some as a call to arms to Christians.

Christian faith fosters violence because Christian faith is a religion, and religions are by their very nature violent; moreover, religion and politics are two sides of the same coin—power. Similarly, Hector Avalos argues that, because religions claim divine favor for themselves, over and against other groups, this sense of righteousness leads to violence because conflicting claims to superiority, based on unverifiable appeals to God, cannot be adjudicated objectively.

In response to such criticism, Christian apologists reject charges that Christianity is a violent religion, arguing that certain aspects of Christianity might be misused to support violence but that a genuine interpretation of its core elements would not sanction human violence but would instead resist it. Among the examples that are commonly used to argue that Christianity is a violent religion, J. Denny Weaver lists "(the) crusades, the multiple blessings of wars, warrior popes, support for capital punishment, corporal punishment under the guise of 'spare the rod and spoil the child,' justifications of slavery, world-wide colonialism in the name of conversion to Christianity, the systemic violence of women subjected to men". Weaver characterizes the counter-argument as focusing on "Jesus, the beginning point of Christian faith,... whose Sermon on the Mount taught nonviolence and love of enemies,; who faced his accusers nonviolent death; whose nonviolent teaching inspired the first centuries of pacifist Christian history and was subsequently preserved in the justifiable war doctrine that declares all war as sin even when declaring it occasionally a necessary evil, and in the prohibition of fighting by monastics and clergy as well as in a persistent tradition of Christian pacifism."

Many contemporaries see religion as a pernicious social ill that needs aggressive treatment rather than a medicine from which cure is expected. However, Christian faith, as one of the major world religions, predominantly fosters violence. 


Islam

Islam has been associated with violence in a variety of contexts, including Jihads (holy wars), violent acts by Muslims against perceived enemies of Islam, violence against women ostensibly supported by Islam's tenets, references to violence in the Qur'an, and acts of terrorism motivated and/or justified by Islam. Muslims, including clerics and leaders have used Islamic ideas, concepts, texts, and themes to justify violence, especially against non-Muslims.

The Quran contains at least 109 verses that call Muslims to war with nonbelievers. Some are quite graphic, with commands to chop off heads and fingers and kill infidels wherever they may be hiding. Muslims who do not join the fight are called 'hypocrites' and warned that Allah will send them to Hell if they do not join the slaughter.

Unlike nearly all of the Old Testament verses of violence, most of the verses of violence in the Quran are open-ended, meaning that they are not restrained by the historical context of the surrounding text. They are part of the eternal, unchanging word of Allah, and just as relevant or subjective as anything else in the Quran.

Unfortunately, there are very few verses of tolerance and peace to abrogate or even balance out the many that call for nonbelievers to be fought and subdued until they either accept humiliation, convert to Islam, or are killed. Muhammad's own martial legacy and the remarkable stress on violence found in the Quran have resulted in a trail of blood and tears across world history.

Terrorism refers to terrorism by Muslim or individuals and motivated by religion. Muslim terrorist acts have included airline hijacking, kidnapping, assassination, suicide bombing, and mass murder.
The hijacking of four passenger jets and the destruction of the World Trade Center on September 11 2001, in the United States of America was a significant attack. And for me it was the day I became a full blown Atheist! 


Judaism

The Old Testament is full of violence and evidence of both a violent society and a violent god. There are more than one hundred passages that involve divine commands to kill humans.
On the basis of these passages in the Old Testament, some Christian churches and theologians argue that Judaism is a violent religion and the God of Israel is a violent God. Reuven Firestone, Rabbi, Ph.D. asserts that these assertions are usually made in the context of claims that Christianity is a religion of peace and that the God of Christianity is one that expresses only love.

The Hebrew Bible contains instances of religiously mandated wars which often contain explicit instructions from God to the Israelites to exterminate other tribes, as in Deut 7:1-2 or Deut 20:16-18 Examples include the story of Amalekites Deut 25:17-19, 1 Sam 15:1-6, the story of the Midianites Numbers 31:1-18, and the battle of Jericho, Joshua 6:1-27.
These wars of extermination have been characterized as "genocide" by several authorities, because the Torah states that the Israelites annihilated entire ethnic groups or tribes: the Israelites killed all Amalekites, including men, women, and children (1 Samuel 15:1-20 ); the Israelites killed all men, women, and children in the battle of Jericho(Joshua 6:15-21), and the Israelites killed all men, women and children of several Canaanite tribes ( Joshua 10:28-42).






Disease:

The following is a list of the most common infectious diseases throughout the world today. Accurate caseload numbers are difficult to determine, especially because so many of these diseases are endemic to developing countries, where many people do not have access to modern medical care. Approximately half of all deaths caused by infectious diseases each year can be attributed to just three diseases: tuberculosis, malaria, and AIDS. Together, these diseases cause over 300 million illnesses and more than 5 million deaths each year.

The list does not include diseases that have received a significant amount of media attention in recent years—such as Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever or West Nile Virus, but which in fact have infected a relatively small number of people.

African Trypanosomiasis (“sleeping sickness”): African trypanosomiasis is spread by the tsetse fly, which is common to many African countries. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that nearly 450,000 cases occur each year. Symptoms of the disease include fever, headaches, joint pains, and itching in the early stage, and confusion, sensory disturbances, poor coordination, and disrupted sleep cycles in the second stage. If the disease goes untreated in its first stage, it causes irreparable neurological damage; if it goes untreated in its second stage, it is fatal.

Cholera: Cholera is a disease spread mostly through contaminated drinking water and unsanitary conditions. It is endemic in the Indian subcontinent, Russia, and sub-Saharan Africa. It is an acute infection of the intestines with the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. Its main symptom is copious diarrhea. Between 5% and 10% of those infected with the disease will develop severe symptoms, which also include vomiting and leg cramps. In its severe form, cholera can cause death by dehydration. An estimated 200,000 cases are reported to WHO annually.

Cryptosporidiosis: Cryptosporidiosis has become one of the most common causes of waterborne disease in the United States in recent years; it is also found throughout the rest of the world. It is caused by a parasite that spreads when a water source is contaminated, usually with the feces of infected animals or humans. Symptoms include diarrhea, stomach cramps, an upset stomach, and slight fever. Some people do not exhibit any symptoms.

Dengue: WHO estimates that 50 million cases of dengue fever appear each year. It is spread through the bite of the Aedes aegypti mosquito. Recent years have seen dengue outbreaks all over Asia and Africa. Dengue fever can be mild to moderate, and occasionally severe, though it is rarely fatal. Mild cases, which usually affect infants and young children, involve a nonspecific febrile illness, while moderate cases, seen in older children and adults, display high fever, severe headaches, muscle and joint pains, and rash. Severe cases develop into dengue hemorrhagic fever, which involves high fever, hemorrhaging, and sometimes circulatory failure.

Hepatitis A: Hepatitis A is a highly contagious liver disease caused by the hepatitis A virus. Spread primarily by the fecal-oral route or by ingestion of contaminated water or food, the number of annual infections worldwide is estimated at 1.4 million. Symptoms include fever, fatigue, jaundice, and dark urine. Although those exposed usually develop lifelong immunity, the best protection against Hepatitis A is vaccination.

Hepatitis B: Approximately 2 billion people are infected with the hepatitis B virus (HBV), making it the most common infectious disease in the world today. Over 350 million of those infected never rid themselves of the infection. Hepatitis is an inflammation of the liver that causes symptoms such as jaundice, extreme fatigue, nausea, vomiting, and stomach pain; hepatitis B is the most serious form of the disease. Chronic infections can cause cirrhosis of the liver or liver cancer in later years.

Hepatitis C: Hepatitis C is a less common, and less severe, form of hepatitis. An estimated 180 million people worldwide are infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV); 3–4 million more are infected every year. The majority of HCV cases are asymptomatic, even in people who develop chronic infection.

HIV/AIDS:
People newly infected with HIV in 2009 2.6 million 370,000
Number of people living with HIV/AIDS 33.3 million 2.5 million
AIDS deaths in 2009 1.8 million 260,000

Influenza: Several influenza epidemics in the 20th century caused millions of deaths worldwide, including the worst epidemic in American history, the Spanish influenza outbreak that killed more than 500,000 in 1918. Today influenza is less of a public health threat, though it continues to be a serious disease that affects many people. Approximately 20,000 people die of the flu in the United States every year. The influenza virus attacks the human respiratory tract, causing symptoms such as fever, headaches, fatigue, coughing, sore throat, nasal congestion, and body aches.

Japanese Encephalitis: Japanese encephalitis is a mosquito-borne disease endemic in Asia. Around 50,000 cases occur each year; 25% to 30% of all cases are fatal.

Leishmaniasis: Leishmaniasis is a disease spread by the bite of the sandfly. It is found mostly in tropical countries. There are several types of leishmaniasis, and they vary in symptoms and severity. Visceral leishmaniasis (VL, or kala azar) is the most severe; left untreated, it is always fatal. Its symptoms include fever, weight loss, anemia, and a swelling of the spleen and liver. Mucocutaneous leishmaniasis (MCL, or espundia) produces lesions that affect the nose, mouth, and throat and can destroy their mucous membranes. Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) produces skin ulcers, sometimes as many as 200, that cause disability and extensive scarring. Diffuse cutaneous leishmaniasis (DCL) is similar to CL, and infected people are prone to relapses. Approximately 12 million cases of leishmaniasis exist today.

Malaria: Malaria is a mosquito-borne disease that affects more than 500 million people annually, causing between 1 and 3 million deaths. It is most common in tropical and subtropical climates and is found in 90 countries—but 90% of all cases are found in Sub-Saharan Africa. Most of its victims are children. The first stage consists of shaking and chills, the next stage involves high fever and severe headache, and in the final stage the infected person's temperature drops and he or she sweats profusely. Infected people also often suffer from anemia, weakness, and a swelling of the spleen. Malaria was almost eradicated 30 years ago; now it is on the rise again.

Measles: Measles is a disease that has seen a drastic reduction in countries where a vaccine is readily available, but it is still prevalent in developing countries, where most of the 242,000 deaths (out of 30 million cases) it caused in 2006 occurred. Symptoms include high fever, coughing, and a maculo-papular rash; common complications include diarrhea, pneumonia, and ear infections.

Meningitis: Meningitis, often known as spinal meningitis, is an infection of the spinal cord. It is usually the result of a viral or bacterial infection. Bacterial meningitis is more severe than viral meningitis and may cause brain damage, hearing loss, and learning disabilities. An estimated 1.2 million cases of bacterial meningitis occur every year, over a tenth of which are fatal. Symptoms include severe headache, fever, nausea, vomiting, lethargy, delirium, photophobia, and a stiff neck.

Onchocerciasis (“river blindness”): Onchocerciasis is caused by the larvae of Onchocerca volvulus, a parasitic worm that lives in the human body for years. It is endemic in Africa, where nearly all of the 18 million people infected with the disease live. Of those infected, over 6.5 million have developed dermatitis and 270,000 have gone blind. Symptoms include visual impairment, rashes, lesions, intense itching, skin depigmentation, and lymphadenitis.

Pneumonia: Pneumonia has many possible causes, but it is usually an infection of the streptococcus or mycoplasma bacteria. These bacteria can live in the human body without causing infection for years, and only surface when another illness has lowered the person's immunity to disease. Streptococcus pneumoniae causes streptococcal pneumonia, the most common kind, which is more severe than mycoplasmal pneumonia. S. pneumoniae is responsible for more than 100,000 hospitalizations for pneumonia annually, as well as 6 million cases of otitis media and over 60,000 cases of invasive diseases such as meningitis.

Rotavirus: Rotavirus is the most common cause of viral gastroenteritis worldwide. It kills more than 600,000 children each year, mostly in developing countries. Symptoms include vomiting, watery diarrhea, fever, and abdominal pain.

Schistosomiasis: Schistosomiasis is a parasitic disease that is endemic in many developing countries. Roughly 200 million people worldwide are infected with the flukeworm, whose eggs cause the symptoms of the disease. Some 120 million of those infected are symptomatic, and 20 million suffer severely from the infection. Symptoms include rash and itchiness soon after becoming infected, followed by fever, chills, coughing, and muscle aches.

Shigellosis: Shigella infection causes an estimated 600,000 deaths worldwide every year. It is most common in developing countries with poor sanitation. Shigella bacteria cause bacillary dysentery, or shigellosis. Symptoms include diarrhea with bloody stool, vomiting, and abdominal cramps.

Strep Throat: Strep throat is caused by the streptococcus bacteria. Several million cases of strep throat occur every year. Symptoms include a sore throat, fever, headache, fatigue, and nausea.

Tuberculosis: Tuberculosis causes nearly 2 million deaths every year, and WHO estimates that nearly 1 billion people will be infected between 2000 and 2020 if more effective preventive procedures are not adopted. The TB bacteria are most often found in the lungs, where they can cause chest pain and a bad cough that brings up bloody phlegm. Other symptoms include fatigue, weight loss, appetite loss, chills, fever, and night sweats.

Typhoid: Typhoid fever causes an estimated 600,000 deaths annually, out of 12–17 million cases. It is usually spread through infected food or water. Symptoms include a sudden and sustained fever, severe headache, nausea, severe appetite loss, constipation, and sometimes diarrhea.

Yellow Fever: Yellow fever causes an estimated 30,000 deaths each year, out of 200,000 cases. The disease has two phases. In the “acute phase,” symptoms include fever, muscle pain, headache, shivers, appetite loss, nausea, and vomiting. This lasts for 3–4 days, after which most patients recover. But 15% will enter the “toxic phase,” in which fever reappears, along with other symptoms, including jaundice; abdominal pain; vomiting; bleeding from the mouth, nose, eyes, and stomach; and deterioration of kidney function (sometimes complete kidney failure). Half of all patients in the toxic phase die within two weeks; the other half recover. 

and in closing lets not forget cancer. another part of Gods awesome plan.

Cancer: Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide, accounting for 7.6 million deaths (around 13% of all deaths) in 2008 1.
Lung, stomach, liver, colon and breast cancer cause the most cancer deaths each year.
Every day 43 children under the age of 15 are diagnosed with cancer. (very Godly).

Sources: The Centers for Disease Control (CDC); The World Health Organization (WHO).



So simply put, believers edit their “God’s love” for the good things in the world and turn a blinding eye to the bad things that are happening. With or without prayers from millions of believers around the world, everything is going as usual since the beginning of time. There is bad and good in the world. There are good people and bad people. But it boggles my mind to see people worship an imaginary force that is all good and all about love. And make up excuses for the innocent humans who suffer and the sick children by saying “God works in mysterious ways” and “God gave us a choice to be good or bad.” If a human would torture an innocent child and will be responsible for thousands of sick children who spend their entire young lives in the hospital, I doubt that any religious person will say that person works in mysterious ways.

There is some love in religious organizations but there is all love in Atheist organizations.
Atheists have much more appreciation for life, other human beings and loved ones than believers do. And before you say “I love life and my loved ones.” Zoom out and look beyond your circle of life. Look at the big picture. Look at religion as a whole, not just your own. Look at other religions. And maybe you’ll start thinking “do I want to belong to such a club?”

Ok, enough for one post. Feel free to leave your comments. Hate is accepted from believers too J



I will close with some humor. Here’s a little segment from one of my favorite artists in toe world; George carlin.



“Something is wrong here. War, disease, death, destruction, hunger, filth, poverty, torture, crime, corruption, and the Ice Capades. Something is definitely wrong. This is not good work. If this is the best God can do, I am not impressed. Results like these do not belong on the résumé of a Supreme Being. This is the kind of shit you'd expect from an office temp with a bad attitude. And just between you and me, in any decently-run universe, this guy would've been out on his all-powerful ass a long time ago. And by the way, I say "this guy", because I firmly believe, looking at these results, that if there is a God, it has to be a man.
No woman could or would ever fuck things up like this. So, if there is a God, I think most reasonable people might agree that he's at least incompetent, and maybe, just maybe, doesn't give a shit.

And here's something else, another problem you might have: Suppose your prayers aren't answered. What do you say? "Well, it's God's will." "Thy Will Be Done." Fine, but if it's God's will, and He's going to do what He wants to anyway, why the fuck bother praying in the first place? Seems like a big waste of time to me! Couldn't you just skip the praying part and go right to His Will? It's all very confusing.

And I noticed something. I noticed that all the prayers to God are being answered at the 50% rate. Half the time you get what you want, half the time you don't. prayers answered by God, 50-50. Same as the four-leaf clover and the horseshoe, the wishing well and the rabbit's foot, same as the Mojo Man, same as the Voodoo Lady who tells you your fortune by squeezing the goat's testicles, it's all the same: 50-50. So just pick your superstition, sit back, make a wish, and enjoy yourself.”




- George Carlin –

No comments:

Post a Comment

Your thoughts and comments are appreciated.
including hate comments from believers :-)