Why are Atheists Assholes?

Firstly, I’d like to say that this is a stereotype created by religious individuals/groups. Secondly, I will admit stereotypes do exist for a reason. Arrogance is the key term here. Many atheists are blamed for being arrogant, but are they really? And if they are, is their behavior understandable and even justifiable?

Arrogance is found on both sides of the spectrum; the religious and the atheists. If a person claims to know the truth about something, they are automatically in jeopardy of becoming arrogant. Divine or exclusive knowledge produces arrogance. Some atheists will claim that they know there is no God. This is a non-provable, non-testable scientific claim, and is therefore an arrogant thing to say. Some religionists claim that there is a God, which is also a non-provable, non-testable scientific claim, and is therefore is also an arrogant thing to say. Then there are the groups of people within both categories who do not “claim” to know something, but rather say they personally believe/do not believe something to be true. This is the more diplomatic approach… and everyone does have a right to their own opinions. Hopefully this paints the picture that the ratios between arrogant and non-arrogant people are the same in both categories. So then, why the stereotype?

I believe many religionists will often believe an atheist to be arrogant for ungrounded reasons, however. Religion is something people take very personally, and due to its theoretical nature, it is a very touchy subject when placed under a microscope. When people make a scientific claim, such as “There IS a god,” it is only natural for other people to question it. Since religionists have no empirical evidence to support their claims, they view all criticism as personal attacks. Because they automatically feel threatened, they wrongly label the criticizer arrogant. I think we all know that questioning a belief does not make a person arrogant, nor does the desire for others to question their own beliefs.

If anyone questions a scientist about his scientific theories, however, the scientist will simply answer to the best of his ability and accept criticism with open ears. This is because the objectives between the two groups of people are different. Religionists claim to already possess truth, which means there is very little reason to pursue it. Scientists do not claim this truth, and are always in pursuit of it.

And why do many atheists come across as angry? Well, if you're religious and reading this in an attempt to understand... imagine this: a world being dominated by a belief system you do not agree with or even believe is relevant to daily life, such as... everyone believes that it is virtuous to wear sneakers on Fridays. Politicians running for office will usually tack that onto their campaigns, in order to look more virtuous or "good" to the rest of their country... "I promise to lower taxes, pursue alternative energy methods, and yes... I do believe in wearing my sneakers on Friday." Can you see how irrelevant that is to being a good leader of a country? Yet the majority of people around you believe that to be a very important quality in a leader, and inherently view people who don't prioritize wearing their sneakers on Fridays as untrustworthy. After having something so obviously irrelevant force itself into all facets of life, it will wear on you, and the end result is that you'll probably have a pissed off reaction every time someone even mentions sneakers.

Why Islam is Dangerous in Today's Society

When Muslims are confronted with the obvious faults of their religion, most will deny ALL accusations to their grave. They claim Islam teaches peace and understanding... but what is REALLY going on here? I give you a few recent examples of violence in Islam, which has been deemed as acceptable behaviors by many Muslims (and members of other faiths).

1988:
Writer Salman Rushdie publishes his controversial novel Satanic Verses, which upon publication led to protests from Muslims in several countries, some of which were violent. Faced with death threats and a fatwā (religious edict) issued by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, then Supreme Leader of Iran, which called for him to be killed, he spent nearly a decade underground. During his time in hiding there were explosions at bookshops in London, York and High Wycombe, the book's Japanese translator was stabbed to death, its Italian translator survived a stabbing, its Norwegian publisher narrowly escaped an attempt on his life and 37 people died after a gang set fire to a Turkish hotel where the Turkish translator was staying (he survived).

November 2nd 2004:
Mohammed Bouyeri murdered Van Gogh in the early morning of Tuesday November 2, 2004, in Amsterdam after the release of the film director's latest short film entitled "Submission," which looks at Islam through a critical eye. Bouyeri then cut Van Gogh's throat, nearly decapitating him, and stabbed him in the chest. Two knives were left implanted in his torso, one attaching a five-page note to his body. The note (Text) threatened Western governments, Jews and Ayaan Hirsi Ali (who went into hiding). Imam Fawaz of the as-Sunnah Mosque in The Hague gave a sermon several weeks before the murder in which he called Theo van Gogh, "a 'criminal bastard' and beseech[ed] Allah to visit an incurable disease upon the filmmaker."

September 30th 2005:
The Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy began after twelve editorial cartoons, most of which depicted the Prophet of Islam Muhammad, were published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten on 30 September 2005. The newspaper announced that this publication was an attempt to contribute to the debate regarding criticism of Islam and self-censorship. This led to protests across the Muslim world, some of which escalated into violence with police firing on the crowds (resulting in more than 100 deaths, altogether), including setting fire to the Danish Embassies in Syria, Lebanon and Iran, storming European buildings, and desecrating the Danish, Dutch, Norwegian and German flags in Gaza City. While a number of Muslim leaders called for protesters to remain peaceful, other Muslim leaders across the globe, including Mahmoud al-Zahar of Hamas, issued death threats.

When I bring these acts of violence up to Muslims, they always say nowhere in the Koran is it written that acts of violence are called for by Allah, but this is a complete lie without even the slightest attempt of making it appear valid. It seems to me a Muslim will just never admit these things to "outsiders," to infidels, even if they are aware of such verses in the Koran. The following verses act as just a few examples of the violence the Koran teaches its faithful:

"190. Fight in the cause of Allah those who fight you, but do not transgress limits; for Allah loveth not transgressors.

191. And slay them wherever ye catch them, and turn them out from where they have turned you out; for persecution and oppression are worse than slaughter; but fight them not at the Sacred Mosque, unless they (first) fight you there; but if they fight you, slay them. Such is the reward of those who suppress faith.

192. But if they cease, Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.

193. And fight them on until there is no more persecution or oppression, and the religion becomes Allah's. But if they cease. Let there be no hostility except to those who practice oppression."

In a nutshell, kill everyone who doesn't believe in Allah until everyone believes in Allah. The only thing that can possibly be left open to interpretation is who/what behaviors are oppressing you and your Muslim faith. That can range from a government not allowing the building of Mosques to a Christian whose mere existence acts as a staple for the defiance of Allah. All acts equal to or between these limits can be validated by the teachings of the Koran.

Many people will argue that the people who commit these acts of violence are simply crazy extremists… but that is not true. It is your average, run-of-the-mill Muslim who will participate in mobs and riots of protest, because they have been raised to believe that the Koran is logical and fundamentally correct in all of its teachings.

There is a sizable difference between the psychology of Christians and Muslims and Jews. Christians believe the barbaric acts of the Old Testament were only legitimate to their time... i.e., we shouldn't behave that way now because the New Testament deems those behaviors unacceptable. Jews believe the Torah is a compilation of fictitious stories, and have other texts which they live by (Talmud and Mishna) which do not condone violent behavior. Muslims, however, believe in their religious text cover to cover as the divinely spoken, unaltered word of god (and even that is a sad attempt at lying to the public, as it is a well known fact the Koran was an oral book as the Torah was for about 300 years. The Koran was written and compiled after the death of Mohammed, as Mohammed himself was illiterate, and Muslims will not deny it if you tell it to them… it seems they just assume infidels don't know this historical fact, so they lie about it to make their case seem more valid). They believe that the same barbaric teachings and behaviors (equivalent to those found in the Torah) are just as relevant today as they were in ancient history. In fact, if you would ever like to see the culture of the Torah in operation today, just take a wonderful trip to a country under Islamic theocratic control such as Afghanistan or Iran, and you may even be lucky enough to witness the stoning of an adulteress or two.

I know that many religious people like to defend the Muslim faith simply because they think they have something in common with them (who do you think the Vatican sided with during all three aforementioned tragedies? Yes, the Muslims), but you need to understand how most Muslims are raised to think of infidels. You are incompetent to them, because they can't understand why someone could reject something that makes so much "logical sense." They don't care if you are of another faith or if you have none... they judge you the same: infidel. When they are in the presence of an infidel, they tolerate them rather than accept and respect them. Tragedies happen like those I've cited earlier because Muslims refuse to look at the Koran with a critical eye like Christians and Jews have done (kind of) and realized that the barbaric teachings of the Koran were due to primitive times, and DO NOT APPLY TODAY. This hasn't occurred, and until it does, we will still get the same result; Substantiated violence in the name of Allah.

A Few Misconceptions about Atheism and Science

It's a common misunderstanding that religious folk have where science is a religion in and of itself. It might be beneficial to look at a few definitions of the word "religion:"

--a strong belief in a supernatural power or powers that control human destiny; "he lost his faith but not his morality"
--an institution to express belief in a divine power; "he was raised in the Baptist religion"; "a member of his own faith contradicted him"

Science isn't something that consists of a set of principles to believe in, or an institution centered around a deity or divine power. Science is merely a set of theories made that are based on observations and tested hypothesis. Science implores the use of tools which are also grounded in the observable universe, such as mathematics and physics.

I also always find it kind of humorous that religious people point at us and always shake their finger screaming "Well, you've been wrong before and you're going to be wrong again! How does THAT make you feel about science??" As if, well, science was the meaning of our existance or if it was some entity that would betray us eventually. Again, they do it because they think science is a religion to us. The truth is, scientists are wrong all of the time, and they are the first to know about it obviously. We deal with what it means to be wrong on a daily basis... we accept it, and move on. The people who actually need to step back and ask themselves "what if I'm wrong about everything" is the religious individual, who actually places all of his meaning in something unprovable and quite possibly non-existent. Yes, scientists are wrong about a great deal, but there is also evidence for the opposite as well. We can cure certain diseases, for example. We can calculate exactly where a projectile will wind up using the laws of physics. We can prove that the Earth rotates around the sun, rather than the sun around the Earth, and we can prove that gravity exists. We can do all of these things because our science is based on the observation of this universe, and nothing else. So, while scientists are wrong sometimes, they are right others and have the evidence to support that we in fact CAN make some logical assumptions about this universe. A religious individual bases his faith on NOTHING, with no empirical evidence, and then has the tenacity to point at a scientist and stupidly ask the question, "what if you're wrong." As we can see, it is not as big a dilemma to the scientist if he is wrong as it is to the religious individual, who bases his whole existance on something only grounded in a illogical feeling they give too much credit to.

We operate within the parameters of the known universe, because it is logical. To reach beyond that should not be a requirement of creation by a creator, especially if he refuses to show himself to his creation and tell us personally that he is there. The fact that this has not happened is evidence supporting his a.) non-existance, or b.) nonchalance to our existance.

Another misconception religious people have pertaining to faith is that

"it takes just as much faith NOT to believe in a god as it does TO believe in a god."

Lets talk about the definition of atheism. Atheism is not the belief that there is no god, but rather a disbelief that there is a god. You think this is just arguing semantics, but it's not... there is no faith required to not believe something. For instance, do you believe in the Yeti? Chances are you don't. It doesn't take faith in his non-existance for you to not believe in the yeti, but rather... not enough evidence for you to BELIEVE in the yeti. You'd probably sooner believe it was a theory started by a bunch of hillbillies telling campfire stories rather than an actual observation.

I don't have faith that god doesn't exist... I simply don't believe he does. I could be wrong and I could be right... that answer is irrelevant to me. You think it's inconceivable for a person to be comfortable with not caring whether there is a god or not... but the simple answer is I have seen no evidence to show me why it should be relevant to my day-to-day life. I also don't have faith in whether the big bang ever happened or not. That discovery is irrelevant to my daily life as well... our origins, etc. I don't imagine I'll ever "know" the answer to any of that, and I've accepted that as truth. So, yes... our faiths are different. You have blind faith, and we don't.

Allow me to introduce myself

My first official blog post! I guess I should start with the basics... My name is Melissa, and I'm currently a student pursuing a degree in chemical engineering and biological sciences. I love science...I guess you could say I find my solace there. I ended up choosing chemical engineering as my major by happenstance; I started out as a Biology major, then chemistry, and then upon participating in an engineering study abroad program I settled on chemical engineering (because everybody was doing it, man).

Religiously, I am an atheist, and no, that’s not how I’ve always been. I was raised in a Baptist home where I spent a large portion of my life being extremely religious. I truly believed in God, “felt” Him in my life, etc. I know what its like to live on the religious side (a lot of atheists are this way). I never chose to become atheist… over the course of several years I simply began to realize that I was one. That I didn’t honestly believe in what I had been taught was true anymore. A lot of things factored into that process, and maybe later I’ll delve more into it. Suffice to say, I am an atheist and I know why.

I decided to start posting my thoughts on science, religion, and atheism mostly because I tend to ponder those things the most. Out of all the things I could possibly choose to talk about, those subjects I know best. I don’t feel that my ideas are unique in anyway… put writing what one believes down always helps develop their ideas further. That’s my intent. If you’d like to join me in learning more about the world around us, I couldn’t be happier.