Atheist Meme Strikes!
I saw this over on Kafir Girl’s blog and because they’re interesting questions, and I love interesting questions, I’m going to answer them. I’ve started to see them showing up elsewhere as well, such as over on the Atheist Experience Blog.
Can You Remember The Day That You Officially Became An Atheist?
If you mean the date, no. I don’t think I can even pinpoint exactly when I self-identified as an atheist for the first time, it was such a slow and gradual process that I was probably an atheist long before I actually realized it. However, can I recall the day when that little light over my head was first ignited and I started to wonder if maybe I had it all right? Absolutely, it came sometime in April 1982 when I was attending a Christian high school. I had friends who went to public school and we’d sometimes get together on the weekends to study and I’d look through their textbooks. While the coverage was sketchy at best, I kept running across this idea of “evolution” that I had never run into before and when I went back to school on Monday, my high school biology teacher asked if anyone had any questions. Silly me, I raised my hand. I asked what this evolution thing was and why we weren’t learning about it. Innocent question, right? The teacher, Dr. Hoger, came literally running across the room and screamed in my face that evolution was a lie of the devil, it had no place in his classroom and if I ever brought it up again, he’d see to it I was thrown out of the class, and by insinuation, out of the school.
That was a bad idea, I might have been a fundamentalist Christian, but I never took well being told not to think. So I did. I did research, I studied, I was absolutely certain that my discoveries would back up my understanding of the Bible and when they didn’t, I started to wonder what else that I had learned that might not be true. That’s where the whole long road started for me. I guess I owe Dr. Hoger a hearty thank you.
Do you remember the day you officially became an agnostic?
Since I actually understand what an agnostic is and I’ve never been one, the answer is no. Agnosticism isn’t some weird half-way point between theism and atheism, it’s a completely different question, one dealing with the ability to know, rather than belief as in the atheist/theist question. I strongly believe that we, as humans, can know about the existence and characteristics of god(s), in fact, in order to believe in one, I *MUST* have some objective knowledge of the existence of said god.
However, just to clear up a point, there seems to be two serious misunderstandings about the nature of agnosticism. One, that it’s a middleground position, I’ve already done away with. The other, however, seems to be very common among both theists and atheists and that is that the gnostic/agnostic position deals with having actual knowledge about god(s). They think it’s a matter of “I know God is real” or “I do not know God is real”. If you think about it though, since nobody has any basis for making a claim of factual knowledge, everyone by definition would have to be an agnostic and it makes the question meaningless. In fact, agnosticism deals with the nature of knowledge, the ability to know, not actual knowledge itself. An agnostic thinks that it is inherently impossible for man to know anything about the existence or characteristics of god(s). It places the possibility of ever finding out if god(s) are real outside of the realm of possibilities. A gnostic, on the other hand, thinks it is perfectly reasonable for man to discover evidence for and knowledge of god(s) if they actually exist, there is nothing inherently different between god(s) and any of the other things that we’ve discovered throughout our history.
That places me strongly in the gnostic camp.
How about the last time you spoke or prayed to God with actual thought that someone was listening?
Oh, maybe back in 1983-1984, somewhere in there. Before that, I did it all the time, at least once a day. Once I started to question my faith, I did it less and while I don’t remember ever making a conscious decision to stop, over time I just didn’t bother anymore.
Here is a good one: Were you agnostic towards ghosts, even after you became an atheist?
The funny thing is, I did believe in all kinds of ghosts and other nonsense while I was a Christian. When I was a kid, I used to read all the Erik von Daniken books, stuff on Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster and I suppose in retrospect, since I was gullible enough to believe in a god, what’s wrong with being gullible enough to believe in all that other nonsense as well? I think I finally realized it was all bunk, except for the God-thing, when I was around 11-12 years old.
Do you want to be wrong?
Absolutely not, that’s why I spend so much time and energy researching and studying religion. Could I be wrong? Sure, it’s remotely possible. Certainly it’s unlikely with the many religions that I’ve actively studied, I don’t think there’s any chance in hell with regard to Christianity, Islam, Judiasm, Hinduism, etc. but is it remotely possible that somewhere out there, there’s a religion I’ve never heard of that actually has it right? I suppose. But neither am I going to accept that I am wrong until I see actual evidence to support it.
Well, those are the questions, if anyone else wants to take a shot at them, please feel free, just post a link in the comments. It’s interesting to have questions to think about, it makes you consider your positions and how you came to them and that’s always a positive introspection to take.
One Comment to “Atheist Meme Strikes!”
1) I’m not an atheist.
2) When I attended my first pagan ritual in high school and didn’t feel guilty or shameful in anyway. It was again reinforced when I practiced Buddhism in college and found just how many of the central tenets of all religions seem to merge together after a while. I don’t really consider myself agnostic any more — though if I were to have to pick a religion it would be something like the Cult of Janus.
3) I last uttered a silent prayer to the divine last Saturday. I went to a wedding (one of three that day, seriously people, what’s with everyone getting married on the SAME DAY?!) and they handed out communion. I couldn’t decide if I could take it in good faith or not (no pun intended) but ended up doing it anyway. The prayer was an acknowledgment that no one is perfect and we all have to humble ourselves somehow — and if that’s how the Christians decided to do it, when in Rome …
4) Having seen a full body apparition in a well lit, open room, while wide awake, and not high, I still believe in ghosts.
5) Only stupid people are afraid of being proven wrong. I don’t think I’m wrong, but if you can prove I’m wrong, I’m a big enough man to accept it. I think part of the interesting thing about the divine is it’s inherent unprovability — we all have to look around and make our own decisions.
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