If I don’t believe in god, why do I care if other people do? I hear this question all the time, and it drives me crazy.
Young-Earth creationist Ken Ham once said, “It is incredible that atheists spend so much time, effort, and money arguing against Someone that they don’t even believe exists!”
And Kevin Sorbo (star of the infamous movie, God’s Not Dead) said, “Why would anybody spend so much time ranting and raving about something they don’t believe in?”
That they keep asking this question just proves they are not listening. Atheists have listed their grievances over and over again. They’ve written books. They’ve given speeches. They’ve made movies. There are countless reasons why we hate religion, but all these reasons keep flying over the heads of the ones who claim to be care about us. If they care about us, why don’t they listen to us?
David Barton, the famous evangelical Christian minister, said of atheists, “If they don’t believe in God, then why do they care if we do?” Well, Dave, I’ll tell you why I care.
- I care because millions of good, hardworking people who struggle to get by are getting bilked out of 10% of their income.
- I care because naive people are being scammed out of their life savings by televangelists who shamelessly flaunt their jewelry, limos, and mansions.
- I care because churches get over $80 billion a year in tax exemptions, money that could be invested in medical science or renewable energy.
- I care because in many parts of the world (especially the southern United States), atheists have to hide in the closet because coming out could alienate their friends and family and damage their careers. In some places, such as the Middle East, it could even get you killed.
- I care because unbelievers are often excommunicated by their fundamentalist families just for daring to think for themselves. This has caused heartbreak for tens of thousands of people.
- I care because atheists are one of the least trusted groups in my country. Not because of our actions (some studies have shown that atheists commit less crimes than believers), but because we don’t share the beliefs of the majority.
- I care because innocent children are told they are broken and sinful and that they deserve to be tortured in Hell forever. And all before they’ve had a chance to grow up and decide what kind of person they want to be.
- I care because when you teach children faith rather than skepticism, you set them up to fall for all manner of scams and conspiracy theories (it’s no coincidence there’s a huge overlap between religious people and conspiracy theorists).
- I care because people are getting bad advice from counselors who don’t have any valid credentials. Religious leaders without proper training are not qualified to counsel people about finances, relationships, or emotional problems. In many cases, they do more harm than good.
- I care because in many states gay couples who have been deeply in love for decades are still denied the same rights as heterosexual couples who have been married less than a year.
- I care because LGBT youth are 4 times more likely to attempt suicide. As a result of the homophobia fostered by religious bigots, many gay children are bullied by their peers and rejected by their families. Some of them even buy into the myth that their homosexuality is evil. Then when they try to change and can’t, they hate themselves. This is a serious problem.
- I care because teenagers in the more religious parts of the country are taught abstinence only when studies have consistently shown that teaching children about contraceptives is far more effective at preventing the spread of STD’s and minimizing the number of teenage pregnancies.
- I care because women are told to submit to their husbands and not divorce them–even when their husbands are cruel and physically abusive–just because an ancient book claims the only grounds for divorce is when a wife cheats on her husband.
- I care because women in Islamic countries are regularly beaten, raped, and executed for the “crime” of going out in public without a male relative or spending time with male friends.
- I care because politicians who claim to be Christians are immediately trusted by gullible voters. This makes it easier for chronic liars and sociopaths to gain political power.
- I care because a third of Americans want to turn this nation into a theocracy where atheists and people of different faiths would inevitably have fewer rights than Christians.
- I care because many right-wing Christians want to expand the war in the Middle East and defeat Israel’s enemies in order to bring about the end times. Politicians who think this way are liable to make rash decisions that get us all killed.
- I care because young-earth creationists are attempting to stunt scientific progress by denying the discoveries of biologists and astrophysicists who have spent their entire careers studying the evidence. It would be one thing if they privately disagreed, but they are polluting young minds with the idea that in science you can choose your beliefs before you analyze the facts.
- I care because many fundamentalists aren’t interested in taking care of the environment because they believe Jesus is returning soon, anyway.
- I care because children are having their genitals mutilated because of a barbaric ritual from the Bronze age. And I’m not just talking about circumcisions. I’m also talking about the millions of girls who have had their clitorises cut off.
- I care because little girls in polygamist cults are forced to marry older men while being told it is God’s will. Cults like these are a pedophile’s dream come true.
- I care because priests rape children and get away with it because their church would rather protect its reputation than protect children from pedophiles. This problem is not limited to the Catholic church. It continues to occur because religious parents automatically trust “men of God.”
- I care because children are dying at the hands fundamentalist parents who eschew medical science in favor of faith healing or who don’t believe in life-saving procedures like blood transfusions. And because of religious exemption laws, they are getting away with it.
- I care because millions of people are dying from AIDS because Pope Benedict spoke out against the distribution of condoms in Africa.
- I care because even today, in the 21st century, people are accused of witchcraft and executed thanks to verses like Exodus 22:18.
- I care because Islamic suicide bombers kill people almost everyday because they are told they will be rewarded with 72 virgins in the afterlife.
- I care because Jihadists might actually get control of weapons of mass destruction and succeed in destroying Western society. All because of the delusional writings of a lunatic who lived nearly 1500 years ago.
If you’re a believer you might be thinking, “But my religion isn’t that extreme! I’m not hurting children, I’m not fighting against science, I’m not a terrorist, etc.” But you’re missing the point.
None of these atrocities would be happening if not for dogmatic beliefs based on unverifiable claims. And that is the main feature of religion. How can you prove that Jihadists’ beliefs are any less valid than your beliefs? You can’t because both sets of beliefs are based on faith. And with faith, there is no arbiter of truth.
When you teach people that faith is a valid means of gaining knowledge, they are liable to believe any number of absurdities. And no amount of reason will convince them they are wrong because they are not even using reason. If they had faith that 2 plus 2 equals 5, a full year of schooling in mathematics wouldn’t convince them otherwise.
This is why religion is so dangerous. Everyday countless people are abused, beaten, brainwashed, oppressed, raped, and killed in the name of religion, and there is no way to convince the perpetrators they are wrong. And worse yet, right now a generation of children is being raised up to believe the same lies.
Your religion might not be as extreme as the others, but by having a religion you are validating the idea that it is okay to hold dogmatic beliefs based on unverifiable claims. And by doing so you are helping to perpetuate all the evils caused by religion.
Some people will ask, “What about all the good religion has done?” I don’t deny that religious people have done good things, but it’s not because of their religion; it’s because they’re good people. There is no good that a religious organization can accomplish that a secular organization can’t. In fact, there are hundreds of secular charities working hard to help people and protect their rights.
Yes, good things have been done in the name of religion, but the bad things far outweigh them. I’m not saying the world would be perfect without religion, but I am convinced it would be a much better place.
So why do I care about things I don’t believe? Because I care about my family. Because I care about people. Because I care about the future of the human race and I don’t want the only world we have to be destroyed by the argument over who created it.
If you’ve ever wondered why atheists care what other people believe, now you know. Don’t ever ask that question again.
Nicely done.
Thanks! I may come back and add more reasons to the list in the future. There are so many.
Very well put! We must fight for a truly secular society It will be a tough job but for the sake of our children it must be done.
Great post!
You make some good points but there are many points that could use some research and some fallacies are made.
10% of the income from people is a tax practice done by many people across the globe. Taxation is generally considered to be good if one is invested in an organization, city, state or nation. Don’t see how religion plays a part here.
Teleevangilists scamming people out of life savings is hardly the main source of people falling into scams. Sure a religious person can do this. But isn’t that a problems of culture? Scamming people out of money is not necessarily a religious thing.
Secondly, getting advice does not necessarily credentials depending on the topic. I’ve gotten plenty of advice from people who are not necessarily experts on the field. I get advice from people who give good, logical information. Credentialism can devalue human worth.
If it was true that a 3rd of Americans want to turn the nation into a theocracy, we would see some States, especially the South, begin to implement laws as so.
Right-wing Christians bring war for the end of times? Sure they may be Christian, but that doesn’t mean they want a war for the end of times and secondy them being Christian has nothing to do with it. In the end they’re just greedy politicians who don’t really follow religious values. In fact only 1 war out of the 17 wars the United States has had in its short militant history have been religious. And only 123 wars out of the approximate 1,760 wars in history have been religious in nature: that makes up 7% of all wars in history. Most wars are fought for political or economic reasons.
Most scientists that have made breakthrough discoveries in the world were religious people or at least had a religious preferrence. In fact, scientific theory and scientific method owes its history to most religious figures. Most historians of science say that they are two non-overlapping issues and in fact, religion has played perhaps the most pivotal role on scientific development progressing in most countries. Take Halzam (Islamic founder of the scientific method; Greg Mendel (Augustian friar who is the father of the science of genetics); P. Collins (Christian evangelist who lead the entire Human Genome Project). If any cases come up, such as the Galileo or Scopes case, these are exceptions, not the rule. Even today, we find a significant amound of scientists who are religious.
Genital mutilation is a culturally African problem. It is not a religious problem. The main reason why it is still practiced is precisely, ‘The Coming of Age’, not religious reasons.
And most people say the Islam oppresses women and this is simply because people use the anti-Islamic propaganda that the United States feeds people into believing: they use only 3 countries (Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Iran). These countries are terrible. But it doesn’t represent Islam. In fact, Indonesia has the largest population of Islam in the world and women are 100% equal to men in the country. Turkey has a huge population of Islamic people and they have more women leaders than we do here in the United States. And the US is against Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Iran for economic reasons, not religious.
You also say that religious people who do good things do the good things beause they are good and not because they are religious. That’s good. You don’t committ the fallacy of correlation equaling causation; yet your whole article invertly commits this fallacy. Religious people do bad things because they are religious, not because they are bad, or in more blunt terms, they are bad people because they are religious.
By the way, anti-religious campaigns have killed millions upon millions of people done in the name of atheism: 1928-41 Russia ‘Destroy God’ campaign (12-20 million Christians killed), the Cambodian anti-religious campaign (causing the genocide of the Muslim population in that country), and China killing off most Buddhists in the country and exiling the Dalai Lama from the country with the statement in mind, “Religion is poison”. Is this atheism’s fault? OF COURSE NOT! This is bad people who used atheism as a tool to destroy. BUT WHY ISN’T THE SAME LOGIC APPLIED TO RELIGION?? Bad people use religion as a tool and this isn’t religion’s fault. If you accept one, it must be consistent with the other.
Don’t commit the fallacy: correlation does not equal causation. Just because a person is religious and acts in an unethical way, does not mean they committed it because they are religious.
As a non-religous person myself who use to believe that religion is a problem, I have realized that it is not so after some debates and reading. There are problems yes, but to say that it has some problems therefore cannot exist is commiting the fallacy of perfection. The United States has committed horrendous acts and yet it has not been abolished. It has changed. So too, (if you have read some sociology, religious studies and cultural anthropology), religions change and conform to the progressive ways of the modern world. If you read on some of the radical things Pope Francis has said, (such as accepting Big Bang and Evolution theory or that atheists and homosexuals can go to Heaven), this is true.
“All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. All these aspirations are directed toward ennobling man’s life, lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence and leading the individual towards freedom.” – Albert Einstein
Re: ” hold dogmatic beliefs based on unverifiable claims.” Unfortunately there are scientists who do this as well. Many scientists make unverifiable assumptions about reality based on metaphysical presuppositions about their theories. And I’m talking about *physical* science as well as other kinds of science such as biological science. It’s a myth to think that scientific ways of knowing are based completely on verifiable facts. That is called ‘positivism’ and it was debunked in the mid-1900’s. I agree that a lot of evil has been done in the name of religion, but science and secular materialism have wrought evil as well. I respect your argument, but I don’t think we can blame religion for all the evil in the world.
The world was nearly without religion at one point in history. Only eight people believed in God. What was the world like? Utopia and happiness for all? Nope. The world was filled with violence. Everyone served himself and treated others without respect. Check out the account in Genesis 6-9. Of course the writer of the article rejects the Bible. But for those readers who think he actually has a point, don’t be deceived. The fool says there is no God. And all fools will one day know the full extent of their foolishness.
Well first you have to prove the account in Genesis 6-9 actually happened. Anyway, there are mostly secular countries right now such as Sweden that are doing great. Low crime ratings, high happiness index, etc. Also, if you believe the Bible, then I would remind you of Matthew 5:22, “whosoever shall say ‘thou fool’ shall be in danger of hell fire.”
All very well said. I am more focused on certain other evils of our society, but, as this essay shows, in many cases promotion of irrational religious beliefs ties in with a lot of other life-negating and irrational views that plague our society.
The arrogance. My flavor of Christianity/Islam/Judaism/etc. is the BEST and all everyone else is doing it wrong. When I was Catholic, my parish priest said that Catholicism was better than Protestantism because it practiced all the sacraments. He said this during Mass and non-Catholics were there!
A few months later, the Philadelphia Inquirer published a big spread on the grand jury findings and abuse cases. He was much more sedate that Sunday. No apology was given that I recall.
Check me if I’m wrong, but didn’t atheist dictators like Lenin, Stalin, Chairman Mao, etc, kill tens of millions of people because of their radical philosophical beliefs? Blame the problems on people, not the God they claim to follow. Everybody BELIEVES something, right? Case in point, many of the reasons listed for caring are based either on people believing false teachings about God or the author having a worldview that’s predisposed to frame the argument against people of faith or the God/gods in which they believe.
For example, yes, churches receive tax breaks, but the services they invest in the community without tax-funded support, could be said to dwarf the amount of tax breaks. One decade-old study estimated that just in Philadelphia, PA, churches (not including other religious organizations) gave back over $280 million dollars in service to their community. That’s just one city! But those prejudiced against churches only look at the tax breaks, not the burden lifted from the government and community at large by said churches.
I’m sorry that Southern Skeptic has been jaded against believing, but the reality is that while some religious institutions are admittedly down-right evil, the benefits of churches as a whole that are seeking to worship & serve God, historically FAR outweighs any negatives that could be attributed to them.
David, you are correct that many churches provide free services for needy people, but consider this. These churches also spend millions on lavish buildings and monuments, resorts and other ventures that are little more than vacation spots for Christians and advertisements for their religion. I have never seen the figures, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the spend on these items far exceeds what they spend on helping people. And this isn’t even mentioning the fact that many Christian preachers are extremely wealthy and live lavishly. I just visited Rome and the Christian tradition of over spending on buildings is something that dates back almost 2,000 years. In my hometown there are religious and secular second hand stores where the proceeds go to help the less fortunate. For those secular stores, there are no 100 foot statues, so why do the Christians need a giant crucifix standing beside the freeway?
God is a proper noun (capital G). This pathetic post (and many of the others) exposes that your beef is over your insecure argument concerning an entity that does not even exist. This entire site is an embarrassment to the cause of atheism. I’d strongly consider taking it down- it’s consuming valuable Internet resources that can be put to better use.
Care to logically and intelligently refute all the points he’s made instead of simply making a generic criticism?
all those things you said are wrong (and they are) are not because of God, but because of men. men pervert God’s Word and distort their beliefs to justify their actions. do you really think a just God would let these ppl get away scot-free? think again my friend. if you condemn them, how much greater is their condemnation from Almighty God? the 10% tax…God wants tithe from a happy giver. He doesn’t want it from a person who gives it miserably. He’s made promises regarding tithes, and He will take it and reward appropriately. if a person tithes with faith, that person gets the reward, regardless of who the tithe goes to. and ppl like that kenneth copeland who demand tithes of his congregation and snatches money given in faith to enrich himself…if God is who He says He is, He condemns him much more than you.
You’re still a fundamentalist. Just, now you’re an anti-religious fundie, not a Southern Baptist fundie. “I want 100% proof.” You obviously don’t realise just how foolish that statement is. Nobody in this world gets 100% proof. Not of things that matter.
Your rants about all the evil in the world are clearly heartfelt, but lacking in foundation when it comes to attributing causes. Scammers sometimes put on religious clothing and work the church scene. That is not the same thing as all churches being scams. “Religions make the world worse, not better.” Only if everything is looked at through the distorting lens of a post-religious grudge.
You conflate all religions into one amorphous nexus of evil, rather than seeing what each has responsibility for. You rave against the evil done from inside religious organisations while ignoring, for example, the evil done by sporting coaches abusing their position to abuse the younger people under their influence. The same has happened in non-religious youth organisations. I’m sure it has also happened in atheist organisations, because the common factor is people, not religion.
People are capable of great evil, and also of great good. It is naive to attribute all the evil to religion and assume that the world would be better without it. The communist regimes of the 20th century did everything in their power to suppress religion. And those were among the most depressing, hopeless, dysfunctional, power-abusing, people-wrecking cultures of all time, and as soon as opportunity came to get rid of them, their populations just couldn’t wait to be free of the atheist state.
When you actually start to think, and not just to absorb and regurgitate religion-haters’ bile and vitriol, you will find that religion is a many-faceted thing that has much good in it as well as some evil.
I can only speak for Christianity, but I can assure you we do not believe impossible things just because someone tells us to. That’s the trap you’ve fallen into.
There is solid archaeological evidence for a great deal of what is reported in the Bible, and the quality of the confirmed information is such that it lends credence to the rest. For example, no serious scholars, atheist or not, still believe that Jesus did not exist, or doubt that he was put to death by crucifixion. When what can be verified is good info, that appears in apparently random places, it suggests that the rest is good info too. The resurrection is one of the most solid facts in ancient history. Prove me wrong, don’t just rant about it.
THE YELLOW COW
A HUMANIST/GREEN BOOK PERSECUTED BY EVANGELICALS IN BRAZIL
Dear friends, we are a HUMANIST NGO in Rio de Janeiro, named “Come Together,” whose work is to assist children in need of psychological guidance. We are freethinking humanists, pro-Hellenism, and environmentalists.
It is our plan to connect our NGO to International Humanist Organizations, but two hurdles have troubled our carrying out this goal: opposition and tough criticism from religious organizations, mainly Evangelicals, and a lack of books and works of art to display. Protestant Christians have burned our books in public squares.
Amazon Books has published literary works by the author we deem THE BEST HUMANIST FICTIONIST IN BRAZIL, Paul Costa Gavin. Part of the copyright of Paul’s book was transferred to our organization. PC Gavin’s novel we are authorized to trade is called THE YELLOW COW (Amazon Books.) It describes the true origin of Christianity–a man named Jesus Christ never existed–and denounces the many lies and astonishing violence the Christians have developed to turn their superstitious religion into the only one in Western Culture and destroy the whole Greco-Roman culture.
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In case you’re interested in reading the synopsis before the whole novel, it’s transcribed below.
The Yellow Cow
(Synopsis)
The Yellow Cow is a tragicomic humanist novel about a young man from Ireland (Eire) named Llywelyn O’Dweyer, whose purpose in life is to acquire transcendent wisdom. Living in the early years of Christianity’s existence, it is easy for him to observe that this religion is just a copy of many others that had existed in the Roman Empire for centuries. However, the destruction of the Greco-Latin culture, which the Galileans had been savagely perpetuating all around the Mediterranean Sea, is only a reference for the young Irishman because the Greek culture had never disembarked in Ireland, so the Christians were not interested in ravaging the culture of that country as they had been doing in the rest of the territory of the Roman Empire. The young Irishman elects the discovery of the true origins of Christianity as an important part of his search for Truth. Nevertheless, the Christian patriarchs had already taken over the political power in Rome and forbade lay researchers to consult any books or references regarding the true origins of Christianity. Just as the lad is about to give up his research, he has a series of dreams that tell him when, where, why, and how Christianity was invented, and by whom this religion had been contrived, for he knows that Jesus Christ–as well as all the characters connected with his life–never existed as a historical human being. It’s all plagiarized legend from earlier religions. Every day Llywelyn wakes up just before daybreak and takes note of the dreams he had that night. As time goes on, he gradually organizes his dreams until he feels it is possible to make them into four stories. These dreams tell him all about the scheme set up by the big bosses of Christianity to enslave the human mind and–in appearance, forever, as the Christians believe– to stop the evolution of humankind. Llywelyn’s approach is not only historical but psychological as well, as he detects all the ruses that the bigwigs of Christianity were using to turn human beings into mental and sensitive eunuchs. The final chapter is funny because in this part the author gives up the previous tragicomic style and prefers picaresque humor. In this concluding chapter, when Llywelyn is living with Sophia of Mytilene, he finds out who really founded the Christian religion. Readers will be surprised as to who, and why Christianity was invented.
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THE YELLOW COW
Amazon Books
Keywords
humanist, religious-free, anti-Christian, freethinking, community, communal, mutual affection, friendship