50 Reasons People Give for Believing in a God (43 page)

Generalizing about atheists is almost always a mistake. Yes, atheists may be overrepresented among highly educated people and underrepresented among inmates on death row. Yes, they are prominent
among elite American scientists and scarce within terrorist organizations. Beyond that, however, not much is safe to assume about the
world's atheists. There is even significant variation on their position
about the existence of gods. For example, some atheists say they are absolutely certain that gods do not exist. They "know" it in a way that
is similar to people who "know" that gods are real. Other atheists
freely admit that they can't say for certain that all gods do not exist but
simply don't believe in any of them. And some atheists don't care
about gods one way or the other. They can't, or don't want to, devote
the time to think about it. They just know that they aren't convinced
that any gods are real. Few believers seem to be aware of it, but
atheism is not a club with a list of membership requirements. It's not
a religion that demands leaps of faith, a dress code, or allegiance to a
leader. It is not a shadowy organization with rules, traditions, and a
secret handshake. Atheism is the absence of belief, nothing more.
What does or does not fill that void, if there is a void, is up to the individual atheist.

Despite their diversity, there may be some trends among nonbelievers worth noting. A 2005 Gallup International study called "Voice
of the People" surveyed fifty thousand people in more than sixty-five
countries and found that people with secondary or high-level education are less religious than people with no education or only a basic
education. While this is interesting, I would caution against reading
too much into that, however. Nonbelievers may be overrepresented
among better-educated people only because higher education
increases the chances of being exposed to alternative ideas about gods.
It does not necessarily have anything to do with innate intelligence.
Some religious claims may seem stupid but it does not necessarily
mean that all people who believe them are stupid. The same goes for
atheists. Some nonbelievers may have sidestepped irrational belief,
not because they are brilliant thinkers, but only because they were fortunate enough to hear key criticisms or stumble upon enlightening
books.

So, are atheists these angry misfits believers say they are? Sure,
some of them are, but too many atheists are warm, happy people to
ever make that accusation stick. People do not need to believe that
Allah, Jesus, or Luna are real in order to have a little pep in their step.
There is plenty of inspiration, contentment, meaning, and happiness to be found in the real world too. Millions of cheerful, optimistic, and
energetic atheists prove it every day.

One should always be careful about generalizing too much about
atheists, however. It's no less risky than generalizing about believers.
Imagine trying to meaningfully describe all the world's believers in
just a few words. It can't be done safely. Across the human population,
there are many differences among those who believe in a god.
"Believer" does not necessarily mean anything other than one who
believes in a god or gods, just as atheism does not necessarily mean
anything other than one who does not believe in a god.

By the way, believers who read so much negativity into atheism
might consider the fact that every baby in the world is an atheisteven babies born into very religious families. It's true. No one is born
believing in Allah, Jesus, or He Zur, the ancient Egyptian baboon god.
Despite the various religious labels adults instantly impose on their
babies, adults have to introduce gods into their minds when they are
sufficiently developed to accept them. Prejudiced believers might
remember this when they talk about how horrible atheists are. We all
start out in life as atheists. Some of us finish life that way, too.

Some believers are more forgiving of agnostics than atheists.
Some view agnostics as only momentarily lost or confused, and likely
to eventually find a god. While it's nice to sit on fences sometimes, I
suggest avoiding the whole agnosticism trip. It might seem appealing
in a middle-of-the-road sort of way but agnosticism is not what most
people think it is. There are different varieties of agnosticism but the
popular version of it takes the odd position that gods are unknowable.
Some people are attracted to it because it feels like a polite compromise between the too-soft believers and the too-hard atheists. But
agnosticism does not take a position on belief or nonbelief at all. It
addresses a different question and says nothing about belief itself.
When someone tells me they are agnostic, I reply, "Fine, so are you an
atheist or a believer?" Theoretically, one can be an agnostic and
believe in a god just as one can be an agnostic and be an atheist.
Agnosticism is a side road that leads nowhere. How can agnostics claim that gods are unknowable, anyway? What evidence do agnostics
have that leads them to know that Jesus and Vishnu won't appear in
Time Square next New Year's Eve? They would be knowable then,
wouldn't they? How do agnostics know that archaeologists won't
unearth the fossilized cranium of Medusa next week? Unknowable?
Says who? NASA launches probes all the time. Maybe one of them
will get lucky and land on Mars-the god not the planet. Our species
is still too new to the game of exploration to declare anything unknowable just yet. The popular version of agnosticism just feels like a copout. I say belief is like being pregnant. You either are a believer or you
are not a believer. My advice would be to pass agnosticism and proceed directly to atheism.

Believers who may be tempted to doubt should know that there is
nothing to fear about atheism. Yes, religious people over the centuries
have turned "atheist," "infidel," and "nonbeliever" into bad words but
that's their hang-up and their mistake. It's not the fault of nonbelievers
that they have been incorrectly defined by people with clear biases.
Atheists in free countries have not come anywhere near compiling a
list of crimes comparable to believers. From the conquistadors to the
scourge of religious terrorism and molestation of children by holy
men, believers have done far more to justify a bad reputation than
atheists have.

Apart from the problem of believers' prejudice, however, atheism
is nothing to lose sleep over. Many atheists are good people who raise
bright children, rake the leaves in their yards, and open doors for
strangers. One does not need to believe in gods to be a decent human
being. Fear of becoming a godless zombie with a chilled heart certainly is no reason to cling to belief in a god or gods when one may be
having doubts. Besides, most people don't have to make a decision
about belief anyway. The mind usually makes it for you, if it is
allowed to run free. A believer once asked me why I would ever
choose to be an atheist. I answered that I had decided it made more
sense. But that was not an entirely accurate answer. Later I thought
about it and realized that I never actually chose atheism. I doubt that anyone makes the choice to not believe in gods. It is not a conscious
decision in the way one chooses what shirt to wear in the morning. I
think nonbelief just sort of happens for most atheists. It's like an involuntary reflex of the mind that kicks in when a sufficient threshold of
skepticism and honest analysis is crossed. But it may come rapidly or
slowly. The change from belief to nonbelief might be a sudden flash
or a gradual realization with no recognizable moment of transition.
However, I cannot imagine a believer simply waking up one morning
and deciding that they would no longer believe in gods. It seems to me
that, for those who sincerely believe, there must first be a process.
There needs to be an erosion or demolition of all the empty arguments
and false evidence that previously supported belief in the person's
mind. One cannot just dismiss in an instant all those reasons for belief
when they have worked so well for many years. Strong ideas have to
confront weak ideas. It takes time.

The reverse of this is true as well. For example, I could not simply
choose to believe in Allah, Apollo, or Jesus at this point in my life. The
facts and ideas in my head simply do not support it so I cannot sincerely believe. There is no way of getting around the conclusions in
my mind that led me to reject gods as real. I could say I believe that
Tutankhamen is a god who still lives in some other dimension, but I
would be lying. I don't really believe that. I could try very hard to
believe in gods but, without some evidence or at least a few strong
arguments to convince me, it would just be acting. The believer should
take from this that atheism is not a conscious act of turning away from
all gods. It is simply the final destination for those who think. Nonbelievers do not choose atheism. They arrive at it by thinking.

If you are a believer and one day find that somehow you have
transformed into an atheist, you will be pleased to discover that the
sky does not fall down on your head and demons will not jump inside
you. If you still want to pray, you can. (The success rate of your
prayers is unlikely to change.) And you will be in no more danger of
being struck by lightning than you were when you believed in a god.
However, you might notice a new sense of liberation. If you were deeply religious before, you might even discover that you have more
time to devote to family and friends. Maybe you will have more
energy for positive activities that enrich your life and make you happy.
And with no more of that afterlife stuff as a distraction or excuse, you
might even discover a newfound desire to get busy making the world
better for yourself and everyone else right here and now.

It simply is untrue that life is necessarily empty and meaningless
without some god flying around in your head. If you are fortunate
enough not to be one of the millions of people who suffer in severe
poverty or the horrors of some war, life can be a fantastic ride with or
without gods. Belief is just one of many factors that influence the
quality of life. Furthermore, it is impossible to measure how much of
an impact belief has on someone's life. For example, is a happy
believer who has a good education, a satisfying job, and a love-filled
family happy because she or he believes in a god, or because of those
other factors? Who can tell? Even the believers cannot know for sure.

There are, of course, many cultural variations, but from what I
have seen, most believers are not much different than atheists when it
comes to thoughts about death. Both don't like thinking about it very
much and both try to avoid it at all costs. Most believers supposedly
are convinced that there is something much better waiting for them
when they die. Strangely, however, they look both ways before
crossing streets, take medication, undergo surgeries, and even pray
desperate prayers in the hopes of avoiding death when they are in
trouble. If I truly believed that I would enter into some sort of amazing
paradise when I died, I'm not sure I would worry as much about skin
cancer or binging on cream-filled doughnuts. If I knew, I mean really
knew, that I would go to heaven when I died, I could not possibly
appreciate this life as much as I currently do. My time on earth would
be diminished, subconsciously at least. There might be something
more after death, but my hunch is that this is all we get. It's one of the
reasons I tell my children and my wife that I love them every time I
see them. It's one of the reasons I rarely fail to notice birds soaring
above my head and green grass beneath my feet. It's probably one of the reasons why I have had an extremely happy life so far. I acknowledge death for what it is-death. Therefore I am highly motivated to
be fully alive while I am alive.

Despite what believers think, it could be that atheism steers some
people in precisely the opposite direction of an empty and meaningless life. Many atheists tend to confront reality like grown-ups. Not
having gods to fear, look to for guidance, or shift responsibility to for
the problems of the world makes one a lot more likely to care about
changing things for the better. If I had been an atheist slave in the
1800s, for example, I would not have been content to shrug my shoulders and wait for better days in heaven. I think I would have done anything to escape or rebel because I would have believed that my life
was too precious to waste in chains. When I think about the millions
of children who die in poverty each year, I do not have the luxury of
accepting it as the will of a god who allows horrible things to occur. I
can't be content in the belief that those dead children will find peace
and comfort in some god's heaven. As an atheist my only options are
to be a heartless bastard and ignore their cries, or to try and save a few
of them. As an atheist, I have to confront reality as I find it.

It really can be a wonderful life without gods. No matter what
believers may say to the contrary, gods are not necessary for one to
find happiness and purpose in this world. Family, friends, accomplishments, helping others, and the acts of creating and discovering are all
sources of infinite joy and they do not depend on the existence of magical beings. Wise choices, hard work, being born somewhere other
than an impoverished hellhole, good health, and a little good luck can
add up to a fine existence for just about anyone. There are no guarantees in life, of course, but one can stack the odds favorably simply by
playing the game wisely.

In a sense, believers are correct about what atheism fails to give.
It offers no philosophy of life or sense of purpose. But they point to
this as if it is a strike against atheism. Clearly they have misunderstood
atheism to be a religion or some codified way of life. But the simple
truth is that atheists are nothing more than people without belief. What they wish to be or do beyond that is determined by their own desires,
ambition, and courage. Atheists are free to choose.