Tooth-fairy agnostic
I grew up in a pretty religious family and was an active participant in many “holy ceremonies”. Looking back at it, it had a lot to do with what people around me were doing, and my own lack of interesting things to do or ability to think/question the things people did. Then, around the 3rd grade, my family moved into an apartment complex where I had about ten other kids my age to play with. And I was too busy playing, every day and every hour, to need an alternate activity. And thus, a gap evolved, and it was not until later that I actively embraced this and thought about it. Being a lazy procrastinator, I was agnostic for the longest time, but in reality, was a closet atheist. And I needed Richard Dawkins (how predictable) to help me stand up! So, that is what this post is about. More about the need to recognize the fact that atheists need to stand up and be counted, than be passive, non-confrontational and all that.
Why did I use “non-confrontational”? To quote Douglas Adams (a quote that Dawkins uses a lot, with good reason),
Now, the invention of the scientific method and science is, I’m sure we’ll all agree, the most powerful intellectual idea, the most powerful framework for thinking and investigating and understanding and challenging the world around us that there is, and that it rests on the premise that any idea is there to be attacked and if it withstands the attack then it lives to fight another day and if it doesn’t withstand the attack then down it goes. Religion doesn’t seem to work like that; it has certain ideas at the heart of it which we call sacred or holy or whatever. That’s an idea we’re so familiar with, whether we subscribe to it or not, that it’s kind of odd to think what it actually means, because really what it means is ‘Here is an idea or a notion that you’re not allowed to say anything bad about; you’re just not. Why not? – because you’re not!’ If somebody votes for a party that you don’t agree with, you’re free to argue about it as much as you like; everybody will have an argument but nobody feels aggrieved by it. If somebody thinks taxes should go up or down you are free to have an argument about it, but on the other hand if somebody says ‘I mustn’t move a light switch on a Saturday’, you say, ‘Fine, I respect that’. The odd thing is, even as I am saying that I am thinking ‘Is there an Orthodox Jew here who is going to be offended by the fact that I just said that?’ but I wouldn’t have thought ‘Maybe there’s somebody from the left wing or somebody from the right wing or somebody who subscribes to this view or the other in economics’ when I was making the other points. I just think ‘Fine, we have different opinions’. But, the moment I say something that has something to do with somebody’s (I’m going to stick my neck out here and say irrational) beliefs, then we all become terribly protective and terribly defensive and say ‘No, we don’t attack that; that’s an irrational belief but no, we respect it’.
We are not here by chance. And while we might not know a lot of the answers, there is absolutely no reason to use a made-up entity as the answer. Science has provided us with knowledge. Read Darwin’s theory of natural selection (I am trying to) and you will know what I mean. Of course, science does not have all the answers. But using religion and god is just you being lazy. Investigate and yearn to understand. Don’t be a lame ass and say it can’t be explained, hence it is god. This applies a lot to other things in life as well – be relentless in your pursuit!
To know why I used “tooth-fairy agnostic”, buy The God Delusion or listen to his TED talk.
And finally, I do not mean to offend anyone with this post. Relax, keep an open mind. Check this out. Either you are the first commenter or you are one of “us”.
tldr – if you are agnostic coz you are lazy, stop. stand up. regardless, have an open mind. and try to listen to the TED talk. Anything unexplained is not attributed to God, it just makes you a lazy and ignorant!
