"Well! - What do you believe ?"
It has happened often enough to annoy me. In conversation with people of "Faith"; When I reveal that I neither believe in God nor in any particular religion - then, the almost inevitable question - usually asked with an air of "the enlightened speaking to the ignorant" - "Well! - What do you believe?"
"Well !", for those interested in what I believe (probably not many!) - I am putting "pen to paper" under the headings below, (no mean task) - and thus I will be able to refer those who persist in asking this question, to this blog - thus keeping the conversation as short as possible or, better still, avoiding it all together.
Religion:
I believe that: "Blind faith"; that is; belief in something without question, irrespective of - and even ignoring - the slightest bit of scientific evidence or logic to support or refute that belief; is the cause of countless and continuing tensions and wars in the world today as it has for ever been in the past. Such belief (some would say "fundamentalism") is most often born in early life through parental and societal indoctrination and should be regarded with some suspicion - to say the least.
No religion should claim superiority over another. Religious apostacy is not a crime and is entirely a personal entitlelment both morally and under our laws.
1. Religious faith is uniquely (and wrongly) privileged, above and beyond criticism.
2.There is no such thing as a "Christian Child" (or any other religious child) - Only a child of Christian parents
3. Creationists' passion flies in the face of evidence, the atheist passion is based on evidence of which there is plenty..
I believe in the ancient Judeo Christian Ethic but without the often attached biblical references. Secular ethics are more my "bag" which probably makes me an Humanist by inclination. Another helpful site ( I try, but often fail, to live by these principles!); and in the human rights movement, private sexual choice, freedom of speech and in the equality of the sexes. I do not believe in a supernatural "being" of any kind nor in a personal god and will never do so unless there is well substantiated evidence shown to me.
4. "Faith" is passion which cannot change its mind.
5. Protestants and Catholics (Sunnis and Shi'ites) are alternately gaining the upper hand and systematically murdering each other...
I am therefore an Atheist even though I am culturally a "Christened" and "Confirmed" Anglican Christian, with a love of the Anglican Church, its buildings, its bells, its music and traditions - all of which should be developed by the Nation (not just preserved) as part of our National Culture and Heritage...but...
If, indeed, there is one God, presumably, all the monotheist faiths, by definition, must believe in that God. It surely must also be true that it is the dogma and doctrinal and historical influences which divides them and makes each of them unbelievable.
I believe therefore that: All our worthy church buildings (Including Mosques and Temples) should be deemed secular and made the responsibility of the local community and should be opened by law, to all beliefs and to non believers for the benefit of all citizens - seven days a week, 52 weeks of the year.. In my opinion, they should be open, quiet, beautiful places of contemplation, prayer, meditation and mindfullness...being an essential activity, common to all known "Faiths" ....but also of learning and of music, where appropriate; for the charitable support of the poor in the community - strictly under the control and guardianship of that community..but supported by the state and protected by law..
Why not bring that failing local library in, for instance? Why not a local health and primary care centre? Bring in broadband and WiFi for all! Meeting rooms for local groups (probably covered already by church halls?) Citizens Advice Bureau? An employment exchange? Bell ringing, organ and choral music? Theatre groups? A second hand clothing depository? Yoga groups? A community tea shop for the elderly? A children's creche for working mums? A copy center? A tourist information office? A community workshop to make useful things in. The list goes on. What an opportunity for real and useful change and for local employment.
All these activites along with the exsisting functions of the local Vicar are equally valid, potentially viable and based upon "love and of pride in the community" in which we live.
Let's give the Church Commissioners a real job instead of that of landlord and property investors.....a quotation from their website reads:
"To encourage innovative uses for churches no longer in use for Church of England worship."
My view of the above is that since most churches that I try to visit, are locked for five days of the week - They really are barely used: The problem is that they are "Consecrated" by the Church of England and thus put out of use for all but Sunday Worship, Weddings and Funerals for Christians only. Why not other faiths? or indeed atheists with no faith, like me. We all should have a right to use and cherish them.
I wish that the established Anglican Church would take the lead on this and make full and fruitful use of our culture and the buildings that we cherish - instead of diminishing them to a life of locked-out redundancy and deliberate division.
All "Blind faiths" and the doctrines of the Establishment will inevitably prevent this radical change from happening during my lifetime; "Blind faith" is the culprit - certainly not Jesus Christ, the Prophet Muhammad or Abraham himself! But I can still live in hope.
I believe that: The human race (arguably) is the most successful animal species because it has fully exploited the very sophisticated skill of "Mutual aid"; (the title of a book by Kropopkin)
When we consider that there is practically nothing, bar the air we breath, that we use or even touch in our daily lives, that does not depend upon someone elses'input: From the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the car we drive, the computer we use, the internet and so on: It is an ever growing success story. We are animals that uniquely depend upon each other throughout our lives. I find this thought very uplifting but of course progress, at times, regresses with human failings such as hatred, war, cruelty, greed, division and crime etc but there is an immense progress over time - a phenomenom referred to by Richard Dawkins, in his chapter on "Zeitgeist" (In his book "The God Delusion) as the "Sawtooth effect" - and at the end of the day - we are at our best co-operating with each other and have continued to progress because of it.
6. When one person suffers from delusion it is called "insanity". When many people suffer from delusion it is called "religion."
In my view, the chief cause of any failure to co-operate with each other, thus denying the undeniable, blindingly obvious, wonderous and inevitable truth as explained above! - is the resistance to change, found in all religious faiths. With "Blind faith" or "fundamentalism" there cannot be change - only reaction against it. This, I believe, is the route of the problem.
I believe that: All schools (State or Private) should be made secular by Law. I regard "faith" schools, in principle, as being socially divisive even though I was educated, up to the age of 18 "christened" and "confirmed" in Anglo/Christian Based Schools. My Brother and Sister and I were lucky enough to have had a "non-believing" Father - a General Practitioner (who happened to be the youngest son of 9 to a presbyterian Minister of the Church of Scotland!) and a Mother who was a staunch Anglican Church-Goer and a faithful believer.
We have a lot to thank our parents for; but this dichotomy of parental belief and background, though never discussed and, admirably, allowed to exist without any dissent or disharmony has, I believe, enabled us to make sense, each in our own way, of the many uncomfortable truths to which we were later exposed.
I am happy and relieved to be an atheist ( on the humanist side) and my vote will be for the first politician who declares him/herself an Atheist and attempts to free us all from "Blind Faith" it ain't all going to be plain sailing, y'know!..but we have wise men on our side....
Einstein:
"What I see in nature is a magnificent structure that we can comprehend only very imperfectly and that must fill a thinking person with a feeling of humility. This is a genuinely religious feeling that has nothing to do with mysticism."
and also "The idea of a personal God is quite alien to me and seems even naive"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Gaw6kzXbdA&feature=youtu.be.
The link above is an interview between Richard Dawkins and PZ Myers..... and has links with the British Humanist Association. I find it very helpful.
I will continue to add any links that I may find which support or even refute what I believe in. I intend to keep this page alive!!