I am an Agnostic Atheist and Anti-Theist who takes the position, based on evidence that religion is wrong, evil and is ultimately a superstition that is harmful to human existence and development.
I do not single out any one of the main religions as being inherently more flawed than another in their foundational principles (although many splinter religions are worthy of more ridicule), but as I write you will see that I am more knowledgeable about certain religions than others.
I was born into a Roman Catholic family in England. During my formative years and throughout puberty and early teens religion was thrust upon me by my school, church and the elder members of my family. I attended an excellent school with good teachers who never let the incongruities of their different levels of faith impair their ability to teach fact. For this I am eternally grateful to them.
Science and evolution were taught, chemistry, biology, physics too by the wonderful teachers at the coal face. Only a few were very traditionally religious, only a few were literalists. These few unfortunately ran the school and were in positions of power. The church was influential on the board of governors and R.E. lessons (compulsory) and assemblies were very religious affairs.
My father and mother were of the first generation of my family that never really went to church. They would still to this day consider themselves Catholic, but they have not attended church in a serious way in over 30 years and I believe it's only the years of indoctrination (much harsher in their day) that ties them to these beliefs. When I was a child they rarely attended usually only when I had a school/church obligation, although they still baptised my brother and I into the faith, and still sent us to catholic school.
Whilst there I felt that the religious instruction was coercive. The things that I was being asked to believe were tenuous at best and when I finally did voice my doubts I was treated extremely unfairly by the R.E. teacher, a very devout young woman. I ultimately received a very poor mark for the course, a horribly perverse outcome as while other schools in the country allowed 5 elective subject choices, my school only allowed 4 as Religious Education was forcibly administered as one of them.
There was never a feeling of being connected to God or Jesus except in those euphoric moments encouraged by group prayer, nurtured by tone of voice and solemnity adding a perceptual grandeur to that which is insubstantial and worse, inconsequential.
The area was also highly Jewish and so I studied Judaism to some degree. I visited synagogues and had a number of Jewish acquaintances. Judeo-Christian relations were a big part of the school's (and church's agenda.
Despite all of the problems that I had in my youth and my eventual separation from faith, I now look back and realise that the school was in its own way progressive, if only because of the younger teachers there who did not hold with the generous application of religious indoctrination. I subsequently held a rosier view in the early part of my life of how intellectually developed human civilisation was/is.
With the advent of the prolific global expression which has now settled over our lives like a conductive blanket, comes the realisation that quite a lot of the world is disturbingly archaic in it's beliefs. My wonderful early optimism about the ability of mankind to endure, my hope for our bright future of invention, of solving all the problems that face us as a species and stepping into the cosmos together, of the strong supporting the weak has been neutered in the face of the horrors and reality of human opinion laid bare by the Internet.
The greatest of these evils are proliferated by religion and the followers of it. Never has such crime and horror of intent or action been committed in the name of non-belief as has been in the name of a deity. Many opponents of atheism claim Stalin's atrocities in this matter, but they are wrong and in the future I will enter a detailed post about why. Similarly I will enter a post answering those who (more incredibly) claim Hitler was an Atheist. They again are wrong and this is much more evident.
I can say one thing with almost absolute certainty on my part - whatever god or gods you claim, you have no evidence of it. You have no right to convey it as fact to other people.
It is superstition like any other. I do not believe it in the same way I do not believe in ghosts, telekenisis, astrology, Santa, the Loch Ness monster, Sasquatch, the Abominable Snowman, Alien Abduction, ufo's, crop circles, the Bermuda Triangle, the Easter Bunny,
The list - God, Allah, Odin, Thor, Zues, Hades, Jesus, Cthulu, Satan, Lucifer, Jehovah, Yahweh, Vishnu, The Horned God, Ra and Eru - is equally ridiculous to me when promoted as anything other than fiction.
Some people do believe these things though. Some people believe them so strongly that they wish to base social domestic policy on them. They want to base Government decisions on unfounded beliefs borne of fiction.
This is what this blog will be about. The evils that all religions plant and develop in the world today. there are so many it is difficult to know where to begin.
It is also important for non-believers to get in touch both with me, and each other.
The natural tendency of the skeptic, the secular, the humanist is to be unorganised but this does not mean we have to be silent. Although fewer in number, the churches organise people to force their opinions into legislation worldwide. This is a side effect of their collective worship which provides a reason for them to meet in large groups.
Eventually and by default we will find we are subject to laws enacted by a fanatical minority, simply through apathy.
It is for this reason I encourage, no beg you all to be vocal and conversational. The voice of the rational majority must be heard or we will find our world stolen from under us by dark ages dogma.
I hope you enjoy reading it and I hope you find the time to participate.
I still do have hope.
Paul Clarke 01.09.2013
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