“We are going to die and that makes us the lucky
one. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to
be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but
who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of
Arabia.”
Narelle Jarrett
of Sydney Anglicans used some interesting logic recently to try and
suggest to us that not only is there a god but that the life of Atheist
is a wasted life spent worrying about death. I personally prefer to
quote the likes of Richard Dawkins from Unweaving the Rainbow above as a way of encapsulating my position, or perhaps even the late great Epicurus from his Letter to Menoeceus:
“Death, therefore, the most awful of evils, is
nothing to us, seeing that, when we are, death is not come, and, when
death is come, we are not.”
It does not bother me to quote genuine intellectuals in my response
as opposed to Jarrett’s Eric Idle and Woody Allen, I only hope that the
Sydney Anglicans are aware of who Richard Dawkins and Epicurus are
before they judge us. I wish no longer to dwell upon death however
because it is of such little concern of me, instead I will focus on the
life affirming activities of the Sydney Atheist community that I am part
of.
This past weekend Sydney Atheists gave blood,
spent the afternoon in the Domain enjoying the Sydney Festival First
Night and heard a fantastic talk in the pub of the great success the
NoToPope coalition was. All was done with a fantastic group of people
that went from the eight that donated blood to the thirty that came
along to our talk on Sunday afternoon. At no point in the packed weekend
of Sydney Atheists did the topic of death arise; we were way too busy
focussing on the enjoyment of the life that we have now to concern
ourselves with issues that we have neither control over nor knowledge
of.
I must apologise again for invoking an intellectual heavy-weight in
my argument but it is difficult not to when the side of Atheism
contains a glut of such resources. Victor Stenger in his mind blowing God: The Failed Hypothesis effectively demonstrates how the universe exists beautifully by itself and indeed the comforting words of John:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.”
As quoted by Jarrett come up short when explaining the truly
amazing nature of the universe in which we live. The reality is that
beyond the reality that there is no evidence for such a creator, such a
creator certainly wouldn’t make the universe any more special than the
ant farm you toyed with for a week before getting bored with as a kid.
I also take exception with Jarrett’s statement that she found she:
“was impressed by the integrity of these
Christians, by their honesty and transparency. They didn’t think they
came by chance from nothing, or that they were going to nothing.”
Beyond the basic error of this egregious non sequitur I
can’t tell if I therefore lack the honesty and transparency of a
Christian. I would challenge Jarrett to put questions to the Sydney
Atheist community or myself, we have nothing to hide and will prove to
you that the link between honesty and transparency and believing in
going somewhere when one dies is not merely tenuous but non-existent.
Finally I want to dispel a myth that is often held about Atheism:
“Atheism a worry free life - even for an optimist, that’s a myth.”
No Atheist would think being so leads to a “worry free” life. Any
Atheist still has the same problems to face in the world as any
Christian; money, war, disease and famine all concern Atheists deeply.
Money, war, disease and famine possibly even concern Atheists more
because we don’t believe we have a second chance at this life. Despite
this Atheists don’t act on something because they don’t believe in God;
Atheism is not a philosophy. Atheism is the absence of a belief in a
god. Atheists - those who do not have a belief in a god – take their
philosophies from Humanism or other schools of thought but we do not act
out of the absence of our belief in a god; we act because of our
concern and love of other human beings. The top two philanthropists in
the world; Bill Gates and Warren Buffett both happen to be Atheists but
that does not imply a link between Atheism and charity anymore than
there is a link between religion and charity. Bill Gates and Warren
Buffett act because they care about the fate of other people, and that
is a human nature not a religious or secular one.
To finish I again want to extend an invitation to Narelle Jarrett
to join Sydney Atheists at one of our meetings before again publishing
such unreferenced rubbish. We meet several times each month and are
always open to newcomers.
Originally posted by Tynan Bryant
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