Gott Mit Uns: Open Letter to Atheists and Theists

[DemianHawthorne]

My fellow atheists, I pose to you a question, what is the greatest weapon in the arsenal of an atheist? It's not intelligence as many a moronic and unread person have shown us it does not take a brilliant man to see through and exploit the lies of the pious. It is not the ability to reason, how many Christians or Muslims or Scientologists () do you know who apart from their faith, are intelligent and logical human beings? It is not that the truth is on our side, if truth where an advantage for a cause than we would look back on a much different human history. Our greatest weapon can be summed up in a single beautiful symbol. The most powerful of all symbols. More powerful than the Crucifix, more powerful than the Crescent Moon and Star, more powerful than the Star of David. And that symbol is..



?



Yup that's the symbol. We ask questions. Creationists or religious folk are probably reading this right now and sneering, "I ask questions too!" I can see their uncomfortable faces, them squirming in their chairs and considering not reading this \thread, it's easy to rile them. Creationists you do not ask questions, not really. You may end questions with question marks, but in your heart, you have already decided on the answer and that answer is God. How did the Universe come to be? Why is their good and evil in the world. What is the meaning of life? How did life on earth come to be? Why are human begins the only creatures capable of advanced deductive reasoning? Is there life after death? How can I decide what is right and what is wrong? Why am I moved by art? Am I significant in the grand scheme of things? ...... Is there a grand scheme of things?

These are questions that any person of normal intelligence asks themselves from time to time..well in between episodes of the Real World and American Idol anyway. For an atheist, some of these questions have partial answers either objective or subjective and some do not. That is the nature of truth, it is something human begins must discover either through research or discovery or introspection. Theist don't have to worry about that. For a theists, these questions arrive at a single all-encompassing answer..GOD! The great forgone conclusion. A substitute for inquiry. A way to turn the great question mark in the hearts and minds of men into periods and exclamation points. THIS IS THE TRUTH! As if the declaration was the sole prerequisite for truth. Faith, boiled down to it's raw essence is the notion that passionate assertion is every bit as valid as observable reality.

You would think that a group of people earnestly able to believe that desire equals truth would find a great deal of contentment in this supposition. But you'd be wrong. Perhaps just for the sake of balancing an equation and making their righteousness seem more exclusive, they have given themselves a list of rules and regulations that they must conform to or attempt to conform to in order to be accepted by God and enter his kingdom of Heaven.

Luckily, little to no sacrifice is required as Christians of all stripes tend to select the brand of faith that is right for them, which is why my homosexual liberal uncle can still be a Christian simply by attending an ultra liberal Episcopalian church. His mind navigates the landmine field of homophobia in the bible as effectively as the mind of a Catholic can still worship graven images regardless of what the second commandment has to say on the subject.

Religion has convinced people that the idea that life arose slowly, that we are the result of billions of years of a natural process called evolution, is repugnant and that the idea that men where fashioned from dirt and that woman where fashioned from the single rib of one of these dirt men is beautiful. Religion has convinced people that the human body is a wretched contemptible thing, dirty and sinful. It has convinced people that the only function of our most pure expression of love and lust was intended exclusively for procreation. Religion has convinced people that there is a being intelligent enough to create the Universe and that he manages it to this day but that he is so petty and spiteful that he concerns himself with the doings of homosexuals, adulterous spouses, and people who use his name disrespectfully. Is it even feasible that a being responsible for the wonders of the heavens is also responsible for the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Religious people, in my view, are morally reprehensible from the extremist to the enabling moderates. For every triviality they condemn, they commit ten atrocities with impunity. For example: Letting your daughter die of cervical cancer because you where afraid the vaccine would make her promiscuous is immoral. Teaching kids that condoms don't work and that only abstinence will prevent STDs(bad) and pregnancy(worse), is immoral. Suicide bombings are immoral. Tax exempt status for religious institutions with massive political and social influences is immoral. Denying a person medical treatment because your god doesn't believe in medicine is immoral. Bombing abortion clinics is immoral. Putting religious laws in front of a courthouse where everyone is supposed to be treated fairly is immoral. Telling people what they can and cannot do with their own body's is immoral. Denying us homosexuals the ability to enter into the same social contracts as everyone else is immoral. Slavery is immoral. Going to third world countries to indoctrinate those in poverty is immoral. Genocide of those whose invisible cloud king wears a different set of boxers than yours is immoral. Crashing aircraft into buildings because your sexually repressed ass has been told that heaven is full of virgins is immoral. The idea that a woman is worth 1/2 of a man is immoral. No nudity on TV is..if not..immoral..really lame.

Religion is where we get our morals from? Why than at the root of every inhuman act of cowardice and degradation do we find a Bible or a Quran or some other piece of religious icon? Why than is the justification behind the sum of all evils when boiled down to the naked essentials is "God said so." Why than did the Nazi soldiers wear the words "Gott Mit Uns" (God With Us) on their belt buckles as they tossed Jews, Gypsys and homosexuals into gas chambers to die? These are important questions are they not? The perpetual inability of theists to answer these and other important questions leads me to the conclusion that a theist claiming that God is the source of morality is akin to a dictator telling you that a nuclear arsenal is the root of all peace. The next time a theist tells you that you are trying to destroy morality, do not at all deny it. Instead, tell them if their idea of morality is the garbage found in their religious text, than you are proud to be among those working to put an end to their morals. Inform them that you believe not in God and his dark morality of guilt, suffering and repentance, but in a human morality with the virtues of happiness, justice and prosperity.