1. How did you become an atheist?
I did not have a religious upbringing, my parents were both agnostics during my early years. I did however go to a religious school where we prayed everyday in assembly and before lunch and we also sang hymns on Thursdays. I believed what they told me about God and Jesus, Noah's ark and other biblical stories. My atheism started when my older brother and his friends stopped praying during the assemblies. I copied them because I thought they were cool (please bear in mind that I was 5 at the time). When I stopped believing, I never started believing again. I didn't really think about it seriously until I was 15 when I decided I was not only an atheist, but a new atheist and later on an anti-theist. The reason I decided this was because there was no evidence to prove God's existence. It's really that simple.
2. What happens when we die?
This is the easiest question to answer because my answer is extremely simple: I don't know. I imagine we just cease to be. What really bugs me about this question though is that Christians don't answer this question honestly. They have their answer with heaven and hell, but the honest answer for all of us is that we don't know. Something I have noticed is that the difference between the theist and the atheist is that the atheist isn't afraid of those three words: I don't know.
3. What if you're wrong? And there is a heaven? And there is a HELL!
Well I guess I'm really up shit creek. This question is funny because even someone as stupid as Homer Simpson can see that it applies to Christians as well. "What if we picked the wrong religion? Every week we're just making God madder and madder." What if the Muslims have the right god? What if the Zoroastrians are the enlightened ones? What if it's the old Norse religion? What if the tribal religion of a small tribe in Africa is the one true faith? What if the one true faith is one we haven't come up with yet? It's like you're playing the lottery and I'm not. Sure you have a better chance in winning than I do, but your chances are still extremely slim.
4. Without God, where do you get your morality from?
I get my morals from my parents, society in general, but mostly from myself. Why don't I go out raping at night? Well I wouldn't want to be raped, I imagine that would traumatise me. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. I do not need religion or a deity to teach me right from wrong. I'd also like to think that your belief in God isn't the only thing preventing you from being the next Ted Bundy.
5. If there is no God, can we do what we want? Are we free to murder and rape? While good deeds are unrewarded?
This is a scary question and I am now hoping that whoever wrote this one remains religious forever. How do I put this? NO! Are you insane? We have a justice system for a reason and murderers and rapists get punished by this system. Just because there's no eternal judgement for people, doesn't mean bad deeds go unpunished. Sometimes like with Jimmy Saville, we don't find out about their crimes until they've died and this is awful. However we aren't free to murder and rape because as a society and individuals, we finds such acts morally repugnant.
6. If there is no god, how does your life have any meaning?
Well people are affected by my acts. Not all of us will go down as people who changed the world, but if we just dropped dead, some things would change. That's how our lives have meaning. This is not dependent on the existence of a supernatural being. You give your life meaning by who you are and what you do.
7. Where did the universe come from?
Well the Big Bang Theory seems to be the best scientific answer, but there's still some unanswered questions regarding it. I suppose the most honest answer would be the same answer I gave to question 2. I don't know, but nobody does! Some people may believe that God simply created the universe with the snap of his fingers, but that has as much merit as the beliefs of the Jatravartids who believe the universe was sneezed out of the nose of the Great Green Arkleseizure.
8. What about miracles? What about all the people who claim to have a connection with Jesus? What about those who claim to have seen saints and angels?
I'll start with miracles. While I may like the song by Hot Chocolate, I do not believe in miracles. Every so called miracle either never happened or has a rational explanation. Moving on, some people claim to have a connection with Jesus. I have no doubt that these people genuinely believe they have this connection, but I imagine it's just one of those funny feelings people get. A feeling is also just a feeling, it's not proof of anything. Some people claim to have seen saints and angels. People see what they see, but just because you see something, doesn't mean it's actually there. I've never seen anything resembling a saint or an angel, but even if I did, I'd assume I was hallucinating.
9. What's your view of Dawkins, Hitchens and Harris?
I greatly admire them. Professor Richard Dawkins was really the one who made think about atheism and exposed me to the new atheist movement. Christopher Hitchens was insanely intelligent and listening to him turned me into an anti-theist. Sam Harris I see as blend of the two as he has the scientific knowledge of Dawkins and the wit of Hitchens. Are any of them perfect? No, of course not, I have no doubt that on some subjects I will disagree with them, but that's because Dawkins, Hitchens, Harris and myself are all human.
10. If there is no god, why does every society have a religion?
Well it all goes back to times when we were all scientifically ignorant. When little drops of water fell on the heads of our ancestors, they wanted to know why, but didn't know how to figure it out. So they assumed that some deities were controlling the world. These days monotheism is more prevalent because it's easier to pray to one god than many. Religion became an important part of a person's identity and as such it was passed down to younger generations. This is also a version of the bandwagon fallacy. Just because an idea is popular, that doesn't make it true.
So, those are my honest answers. Those questions were easier than I expected...
Steven
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