Where I Stand
The god of the bible does not exist, nor does any god of any kind exist.
When a human being dies, it is the end of him. There is no afterlife—heavenly or hellish—and consciousness does not survive corporeal death.
There is no soul. Consciousness is to do with the functioning of the living brain.
The only world that exists is the natural one. There is no supernatural realm, and there are no supernatural entities or occurrences.
The bible is composed of the desert scribblings—some beautiful, some odious...some insightful, some primitive—of men whose ignorance of their world was rivaled only by their pitiable credulousness.
Jesus was a man who lived, but he was not the son of god, did not resurrect and is not anyone's savior.
Human beings are an evolved species who are related to every other species that has ever lived on this planet.
There are no moral truths. Morality is a matter of opinion, and all moral standards are ultimately arbitrary.
The cosmos has no sense of ultimate justice. The "good" are not ultimately rewarded, nor are the "bad" punished in the end. Indeed, the "good" and the "bad" vary with opinion, and there is no fact of the matter.
Human life—indeed, all life—is objectively meaningless.
posted by The Jolly Nihilist at 3:03:00 PM
4 Comments:
I so understand everything you're saying and there are few people in the world I admire more than Richard Dawkins, but I have to reluctantly acknowlege a very slight difference, in my own thinking and it's this: I do not fear death (as an entity, I mean, although the process of dying, of course, is something else) and that, by my own reckoning, is faith in it's minimal form. I am then, strictly speaking, deistic and my point is that, paradoxically, there may be little difference between deism and atheism in terms of it's effect upon the world. What's important is that we are united in our opposition to religious organisations. To illustrate this, I'll compare it to a meeting point at the edge of a circle, within which are contained the sources of global conflict (churches and 'sacred' text). Standing together, I suggest, means these problems can be contained and dealt with (through peaceful persuasion, I hasten to add!) Break the circle and the solution eludes us.
Anyway, I really like the blog. Keep on keeping 'em thinking!
Thanks for the kind words about my blog, marginally active though it is.
I'm a bit confused by the connection you draw in your comment between not fearing death and self-identification with deism.
If you don't mind, what is the connection you make between them?
Hi again,
The connection I'm making is with the absolute deism of, for example, Thomas Paine. That is, the acceptance that there might be some state of peace beyond death, but not the belief in a God that intervenes in human affairs (through answering prayers etc')or in wacky notions of heaven and hell. Those who hold this view reject religious institutions and 'sacred' text, as Thomas Paine did and are, in terms of their effect upon the world, very similar to atheists.
It's actually something I've been reluctant to mention directly through the years, because admitting that you may hold just the very minimum amount of 'faith' means you're descended upon by church goers, who think they've won the argument. They haven't. I maintain that religious organisations are largely responsible for global conflict and feel that they should be held to account. Additionally, I would charge them with inflicting psychological abuse upon the individual (the Catholic church in particular).
Anyway, all the best and you might want to check out my blog, which touches on this stuff, together with some lighter issues.
Take care
Tony
I agree with everything you poetically carve into the electronic pages of this blog, except for the fact that you say Jesus was not anyone's savior.
He has saved COUNTLESS ignorant fools from living life knowing it was pointless, which would cause the destruction of the human race, VERY quickly.
Otherwise, continue writing, my friend! You are truly an inspiration.
(James Eversole - Jamese9@live.com)
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