I had to think on this for several hours to come to a decision about where to start. I couldn't decide if I wanted to talk about how faith stops the pursuit of knowledge, how religion is exceedingly immoral while pretending to be ethical, or how faith is the most utterly arrogant position that exists today. After considering these things I realized I first want to share a quote from the late Christopher Hitchens:
"I've said repeatedly that this stuff cannot be taken away from people. It is their favorite toy, and it will remain so...as long as we're afraid of death...I hope I've made it clear that I'm perfectly happy for people to have these toys and to play with them at home and hug them to themselves and share them with other people who come around and play with the toys. That's absolutely fine. They are not to make me play with these toys. I will not play with the toys. Don't bring the toys to my house. Don't say my children must play with the toys."I want to make myself as clear as Hitchens. I am fairly content for people to have faith and religions provided they keep it where it belongs: Church and home. I am not bothered in the slightest by those religious people who keep their faith to themselves, but when it spills into our colleges, high schools, middle schools, and, most disgustingly, elementary schools, I become angry. I'm sure some of you are aware that Louisiana has a state-funded school who used the Loch Ness Monster as a way to claim that evolution is false. The argument, to sum it up, is that if the Monster is real, that means there is evidence for a world-wide flood, and Nessie managed to get herself trapped in the lake when the flood waters receded. Now, I've already discussed here how utterly ridiculous the notion of a world-wide flood is, but that's not the issue. The issue is that faith has stopped the teachers and administrators who made these textbooks available stop their pursuit of knowledge. It has made them so very blind to reality that they sincerely believe that vast majority of scientists are wrong about how we came into being, but, again, that's not the main problem.
Certainly, I pity these people, but what I actually take issue with is that it is being taught to children. Children who have brains that are hardwired to trust adults are being lied to. This is what I take issue with, ladies and gentlemen. There is a fundamental difference in science and faith, that cannot be reconciled. I understand there are scientists who have faith. There are Christian scientists, Muslim scientists, and Hindu scientists, but the vast majority of these people do not let the two mingle. Scientists do not appeal to their faith to help them get their results, nor do Christians apply science to their faith, obviously. The classroom is no place for creation myths. People are yammering for equality in the classroom with "Teach the Controversy," and the most obvious response is, "Which one?" Why not teach the Stork alongside anatomical reproduction? Why not teach flat earth ideas alongside modern day geography?
I know, I know. Evolution is only a theory, right? Hopefully, anyone reading this knows what a theory is in the science world, but if not, please stop reading. Go look it up. Please, do not come back until you understand how much evidence and verification it takes for a hypothesis to become a theory.
It is because of all the evidence that we call evolution a theory; it is not really something that can be disputed. Science classes need to be science-based. Creation is faith-based. And false, but that's the problem. Most faiths have orders against lying, so by definition, they're committing an immoral act by teaching Creation in schools. I'll give the benefit of the doubt to those who believe in the young-earth creation stories out of ignorance, but only a small benefit. The scientific evidence for evolution is easily accessible, so their misinformation should be quickly stamped out.
Once the evidence is seen, it will be apparent that there are some competing ideas about how long anatomically modern humans have existed, but the least amount of time agreed upon is 100,000 years. This means that humans were being born and often dying, or killing the mother during birth, for all that time, with a life-expectancy of around 20 to 30 years. During their lifetime, our ancestors also had to deal with problems like wisdom teeth. Imagine, if you will, what it would be like to be forced to endure the last few years of your life with too many teeth in your mouth. The pain must have been incredible! Additionally, we had to deal with starving to death, lacking of shelter, killing each other, dying from predatory animals, and microorganisms. Furthermore, our ancestors perished from natural disasters like volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, and tornadoes. I can only imagine the fear our ancestors felt the first time they encountered one of these things, but I'd guess if they had to encounter two in a lifetime, they'd be even more terrified. These events seem supernatural to some of us even today, when we know they aren't. It seems reasonable that early humans would find things to worship; bears, volcanoes, the sun, other humans, and even wind can all seem worthy of worship, after all.
As you know, or likely know, I'm an American. Islam doesn't affect me as much as, say, those in the UK or Middle East. Christianity is the one that affects other religions and those people who have no faith. So, here is something to consider: According to this faith system, God watched with folded arms for roughly 98,000 years, (if you accept that the Noah's Ark story happened, you can take away a few thousand years, but my point will still be made) and then decides that it's time to intervene. He decides the best way to do this is a human sacrifice in primitive Palestine, where the news would take so long to spread that even today, 2,000 years later, there are parts of the world who are unfamiliar. That would be our redemption. Two major implications can be drawn from this belief:
The designer, according to the three big faiths, would have to be horribly lazy and inept, or it would be incredibly indifferent, cruel and callous. Now, it might be argued that God's divine plan was too important or perfect to allow any change. That makes it a bad plan, by default. To allow one's creations to suffer for that long, while having unlimited power and knowledge is absolutely ludicrous! It might also be argued that Christ's dying for us to save our immortal souls is the ultimate repayment, if you will, for all the suffering. I've heard people say that Christ endured all the suffering of all the people while on the cross, and that's how he washed away our sins. Take a second to consider that. The being with supposedly unlimited power, knowledge, and compassion chose his method of saving us. God could have, by a simple act of will, redeemed us. He could have used its incredible foresight to warn us about lions, tigers, and poisonous plants. God could have stepped in and said, "Woah, hey, bro. Don't worry about the earth shaking. I designed the world so the tectonic plates would crash together and cause your houses to fall. It's not supernatural, and you don't need to pray to the volcano, either! That's just the earth's core spewing ash and lava on your town." It may sound like I'm being sarcastic, but I'm not. For nearly 100,000 years, God sat back and did nothing.
This, of course, leads to the final point of this post. Not only does faith hinder progress, not only is its deity fundamentally flawed and immoral, but the vast majority of faiths appeal to our own self-centeredness. Men, according to Genesis, you're a hunk of dirt. Women, you're a rib. Well, according to one of the two Creation myths. Men, we're lucky to be alive, we might be dirt, but, dammit, God fashioned us in his own image. He loves us. Us. The creator of the universe took special interest in us. Women, though, remember, the creator is all-powerful and could have created something or someone else. He took Adam's rib (which mysteriously isn't missing from my body) and fashioned you out of it. The creator takes a special interest in us, since the books claim that we have dominion over the animals, answers our prayers on a personal level, and sent prophets to share his visions of the future.
At the same time though, religions appeal to our insecurities. We were born in filth and sin, and a good portion of Christianity and Islam is built on the idea that we should be disgusted by ourselves and our desires, whether sexual or otherwise. Particularly women. Very few modern religions have any kind of sex-positivism. Most play on the fact that, without the particular religion, we're disgusting and worthless, while made in the image of the creator. Research does show that sexual happiness and satisfaction increase quite a bit after one leaves faith behind. Further research by the same team found that roughly 38% of those from the least religious homes received sex education from their parents, while just 13% of those in religious homes got their sex education from parents. As religiosity increases, research done by myself found that support of real sex education (you know, not abstinence-only education) decreases substantially. I can post the research, if needed. Modern religion tells us that our bodies are something to be feared. They're dangerous and a source of all our sins. With these things in mind, I wish to end you with another quote from Hitchens that sums this up:
"You're lucky to be here, originally sinful, and covered in shame and fith as you are. You're a wretched creature. But! Take heart. The universe is designed with you in mind, and heaven has a plan for you."I began this post by saying that I am content to allow people to believe these things. If they are happy, or have spun faith into something tolerable, fine. So be it. I am not content with this being taught in schools. I am not content with it being taught to children at all, but I have no control over what parents do behind closed doors. The fact remains that, at present, faith is not content to stay out of schools and laws. Teachers have to fight to teach evolution without teaching myths. It took until 1961 for atheists to be guaranteed the right to testify in court, serve on juries, or hold public office in the United States. Barely 50% of Americans say they would vote for an atheistic presidential candidate on his or her atheism alone. They didn't say they wouldn't vote for atheists who hold similar values. No atheists. None. I fight faith because of this. Because faith masquerades as being a source of perfect morality, while being immoral from the start, I fight it. I fight against faith, because it teaches people that they are worthless without a higher power. They aren't. No one is worthless. No one deserves to be lied to. No one deserves to be told they're worthless on the basis of their humanity.
Religion does all of this.
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