ATHEISM V. THEISM

ATHEISM V. THEISM
aMan Bloom, 2009

It’s very clear, the battlefield is unfair. Historically, there’s been a set-up.

That’s not all. Unlike atheism, theism is doctrinaire, has many alleged reasons, including intimidation, fear (of being eternally damned, for example. Or of the all-powerful, all-seeing, for some reason punishing godhead); plus, theism in the form of organized religion is widely promoted and funded, and inculcated into the minds (and spirits) of the youth before they are at an age of understanding or consent. If organized religion were treated in the same way as sex (ridiculous, I know), it would be illegal for minors, no? Why? Because they are too young for it, being generally irresponsible and too easily seduced.

Of course, many years ago organized religion realized, for better and worse, that it needed to inculcate the young at an early age, otherwise they might (read: would) drift off into other arenas of belief, including the one most threatening to theism, that of disbelief. At that time many years ago and into the present day, religion and culture were intermixed, if not identical. It made good sense for there to be an integrity, a defensiveness, a sense of identity, eventually leading to the extreme: patriotism and, ultimately, nationalism.

Culture became politics, but what did religion become? Business?

Religions make a lot of money, and they get to keep most of it.

But that is not the argument being proposed here. Actually, no argument is being proposed, only an awareness is being presented. Since atheism has nothing to propose, nothing compared to the grandeur or fearsomeness of even the Wizard of Oz, never mind the unforgiving, selfish, vengeful god that most religions offer up to the people. Fine, if you’re trying to keep a culture intact, but bleak as a system of belief. Which is why, secondarily, many religions have turned to business – the selling of favors, property ownership and development, ornate architecture and paraphernalia, profitable hospitals (Mother of Mercy, my sore butt!)– as a provocative and lucrative sideline to their ministries, if for nothing else than to keep any fallen ministers interested.

(Not to say that there aren’t true and good believers among the ministries. Religion isn’t all bad.)

Back to the main point. (Unsure why we keep wandering into the mundane…) So, atheism cannot compete with theism on its own terms. It has no salvation to offer, no system to counter theirs, no house of worship (no worship!), no fearless leader (spokespeople, yes, but nothing to promote, except reason, which doesn’t fly in the face of faith), no program, books of laws, no mythology, few heroes (even the martyrs were killed for their faith). Face it, atheism just isn’t sexy, gets poor ratings, and offers neither pain nor release from pain.

Plus, it takes away, and for keeps, some of the main bonuses of theism. Life after death, for primary example. That is a very big selling point for religions, as they are wont to point out almost constantly. Plus, there’s the instant release from sin. If an atheist does something bad, it goes on his or her record, and that’s it. ‘Sorry’ doesn’t cut it. A theist can be forgiven with a sorry, maybe said a few dozen times along with a bit of self-flagelation. Released from sin. Okay, so atheists can’t sin, per se, but they can be found guilty, even if only in their own minds, and finding forgiveness then becomes a long, drawn-out process, usually requiring a lot of evidence in action, not just words of contrition.

So, it’s a lot easier being a theist, and a lot more comforting. Atheists have to be content with this life. the one we’ve got incontrovertibly. The advantage being that they’ve got no past lives to dwell on, no reincarnation to ponder over, no future life in paradise or Valhalla to dream on. Because of this, they do tend to appreciate the one we’ve got a lot, and they use the extra time -- saved from not reading and memorizing long tomes of bad poetry (often in an ancient language that no one understands anymore), attending boring meetings and dull services, bad weather baptisms, tedious funerals, holiday fasts and feasts, singing maudlin hymns and screaming pleas out of key -- to complain about theism and religion, play with their kids (without inculcating them. Strange, most atheists let their children decide what they want to believe in. How novel!), trust their own creativity, participate in the process of life, rather than defining its goals, and generally enjoy the paradise called planet Earth, here and now, for sure.

Yes, the religionists do have their big circus tents and the passion-filled exhortations of sweating charismatic preachers wearing expensive suits and gaudy shoes (Why is that?). I admit to enjoying gospel music when it's sung with enthusiasm and with organs and guitars, but I like the Rolling Stones and Black-Eyed Peas, too, which also doesn’t make me want to worship anything in particular.

Evidence? That, my friend, is the question. Both sides make claims to evidence, or the lack thereof. Mort Dressler, the iconoclastic beatnik in Mose Flore’s existential novel, One Moment Please, is heard to remark, “The idea of God is as bizarre as the idea of not-god,” which is outright blasphemy to some. The less righteous might note that ‘God’ is not an idea and so the remark is specious. But I think that even a theist might be generous to admit that most of the gods that are or have been worshipped (there’ve been many come and gone, some as mighty as the present crew) do tend to fray the mind a bit.

I mean isn’t the virgin birth, say, of Christ or any of the forty others who allegedly preceded him through the birth canal without the aid of man, as bizarre as Venus or Whomever emerging from the thigh or whatever of Zeus or Whomever? The Romans, remember, ruled the civilized world longer than any of the present or most recent contenders. They eventually dropped Zeus and picked up Christ, then they fell apart. Venus was some chicky goddess, too. No virgin, she.

We could go on to list the other anomalies and bizarre streaks in the present day religions, but we don’t want a petrol bomb landing on our doorstep either. Oh, and that’s another conundrum about the theists. You don’t find ‘immoral’ atheists blowing anything or anybody up! Prove a point or not, they just find it out of bounds to kill someone who doesn’t agree with them or who parts their hair on the left, or ascribes some doctrine to one or another of the sons of a mythical personage who didn’t exist 3,000 years ago when he fathered both kids at the age of 130…

But this particular work is no diatribe. It just attempts to explain why atheism, however simple its cause and purpose, has a hard time taking root (except in England where they're too busy trying to save the Pound Sterling to bother with the mess of religion. The Dutch have always been iconoclasts.). The grounds have been made infertile, commandeered in a way, and since the governments and establishments also claim to be believers -- Which is worse: hypocrisy or heresy? Quick! – there’s little claim to education or media for the atheists. Plus, they refuse to organize and revolt, since they have nothing to post on the doors of the temple. The only thing they have to offer the world is a pardon from the prison of god.