Sullivan-County is really one of the best sites out there for religious research, deism and atheism. I also appreciate the fact that the author is a non-liberal just like me. There is, however, one article that I would like to address: "A Challenge To Atheists".
| "Having said all those nice things it is now time to take a shot at the smug atheist worldview. The atheist thinks he has it all figured out." |
Whoa, first off - atheism is NOT a "worldview". This is like saying that "not believing in Leprechauns" is a worldview. I'll tackle this later - now onto the "smug" atheist: Actually I've run into few atheists that think they know everything about origins etc - they just dismiss superstition and magic. The mindset of the atheist to religionists can seem arrogant as it is similar to your mindset when confronted with a child who believes in Leprechauns. Silly magical superstition is best left to our past and children seated at a fireplace on Christmas Eve; we as adults in the information age need to keep our heads above these childish fantasies.
| "Now here is the challenge: Does becoming an atheist make a person a better human being?" |
Absolutely and thoroughly irrelevant. If a hoax makes you a better person is it less of a hoax? If truth causes people to despair does it make it any less true? Would you seriously suggest that people should be brainwashed into superstitious fantasies because they may be more moral for it? This was the view of Plato but I find it evil on a grand scale - someone has lived his whole life abstaining from coffee and jewelry while throwing away a lot of his time worshiping a myth!
| "Proving that the Bible is flawed only proves that either the Christian God does not exist." |
That's good enough! What possible reason would an atheist have to disprove Odin? Do you mean a superior being without a theology? Well, that's not a god since it's an unworshiped being; instead it's an alien intelligence. If some alien intelligence without a theology was responsible for our creation than it is applicably no different from a natural event - how would you live your life any differently from an atheist? Since this creature is unworshiped it is not a god and believing in it would not make an atheist a theist.
| "After the chains have been broken - then what? A void has been created. Is the person really any better off than before?" |
Truth is the most important benefit of truth - anything else is secondary! Certainly some people may've become wretched child abusing mass-murderers because they discovered that the human body was not run by little trolls but by a circulatory system - does this mean that we should consciously hide dangerous truth from the populace? No! Besides, a good example in history is the Age of Enlightenment which was a revolt against religious orthodoxy. This produced such brilliant men as Jefferson, Franklin and Paine; Not one a Christian and yet they developed arguably the most important document written in the last 300 years. Maybe a potential monk once deconverted would instead become our next Thomas Paine.
| "Atheism is an incomplete worldview." |
Atheism is not a worldview - it is not a belief. Atheism only exists as an opinion on religion. Communism and Objectivism are opposite worldviews which include atheism.
| "Stalinist Russia... Atheism was treated as religious dogma" |
COMMUNISM was treated as religious dogma. Atheism was adopted so that no othere religious dogmas were allowed to come in and compete. Communism, like religion, would pronounce dogma which you were NOT allowed to disagree with. In many ways communism can be called a pseudoreligion.
Again - this is a very nice site and I highly recommend it!