WARNING!!!

The following journal contains talks on religion, belief, etc. Proceed at own risk.



Going from my philosophy class to the bus, I noticed a crowd in the Free Speech area of my college. Who was there?

A small group of extreme Christians were there, arguing that, “if you don’t believe in exactly what we say, you’re a sinner and are going to go to Hell.”

Normally I’d stop to listen, and probably argue some, but I needed to catch the bus.

I missed the bus, seeing it drive off as I ran to it, to late.

So, I returned to the Free Speech Area to listen, moving to a slightly smaller group.

Now, most of the arguing was not taking place between Christians and non-Christians, but rather the extreme ones, and moderate ones.

That helped me think better of humanity, honestly.

I didn’t argue at all. I wanted to, but I just never got a chance. I saw a lot of logical flaws in their (the extreme ones) arguments.

I left when it started to just become a shouting match.

And of course, in my philosophy class, we had been talking about God and paradoxes, so my mind was on this stuff.

I am an atheist. Or, as Douglas Adams says, ‘a radical atheist.’ Simply to the fact I really don’t think there’s a god. I’ve thought about it, and most of the arguments I’ve seen for God are either logically flawed, or also require then to believe in a number of things, like Bigfoot, fairies, leprechauns, etc.

For example, one famous argument for the existence of God is that “Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.”

Saying that even though we have no definite proof of God, doesn’t mean God doesn’t exist.

But by that reasoning, you can use that to prove fairies exist. Or unicorns. Any number of things like that.

Absence of evidence is evidence of absence. If you can’t show something is/was there, then it wasn’t.

Heck, that’s the basis for our court systems almost. If you can’t prove that a suspect wasn’t where you claim they were, then they weren’t there. Absence of evidence is evidence of absence.

Does that mean believing in God is illogical? Well, yes. But that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a bad thing.

Belief can provide comfort and hope, things we as humans need for survival. I find comfort in hope in the fact there’s no God. It makes me think that we are the masters of our own fate, and that it is up to us, not some superior being pulling the strings and watching us go.

But I’m human, I can empathasize. I know people find comfort in believing there is a big plan, that there’s something more then just the sum of our parts.

I suppose, it comes down to who one believes writes their lives. Is it God? Or is it themselves? Who is in control?

These are the questions we ask. And who's right? Well, we won't know until we're dead. And even then, we still might not.

“Isn’t it enough to believe that the garden is beautiful without having to believe there are fairies at the bottom of it too?”
- Douglas Adams, Last Chance to See