Why Do Atheists Who Passionately Believe That There Is Nothing At All To Believe In Seem To Find Their Faith In Having Nothing To Have Faith In So All-Consuming
Ned Barnett
The passionate and public Atheists go to court to try to chance society to conform to their belief that there's nothing to believe in. They hold rallies to make their non-belief. They buy ads to trumpet their non-belief in the face of believers. They stage protests to denounce anyone of faith who speaks out in favor of faith in something - not faith in nothing.
But at the end of the day, it's all nothing but mock outrage. If they were honest in their non-belief, they'd have nothing to rage at, nothing to lobby against, nothing spiritual to care about.
Atheists. Be honest. If you really do believe that there is nothing beyond what you can see, feel, touch, taste or smell - and certainly no God or Satan, no Heaven or Hell - then you really don't care what Christians believe and think. And why should you?
As a passionate and activist Atheist, you very publicly believe, and believe passionately, that there is no God, and certainly not the Christian Godhead of the Lord, Christ and the Spirit. You go further and believe with all the soul (the one you don't have) that there is nothing to believe in, nothing at all - except, of course, for your passionate belief in nothing. And a belief in nothing is nothing to get excited about, is it?
Let's suppose that you're right, that there is no God, that the Universe is a cosmic accident with no meaning. OK, then why on earth would you even consider worrying about - not to mention actually caring about - what Christians believe and think? If the whole idea of sin is this made-up, crazy, wacko Christian thing, why worry about it at all? After all, you already believe that it doesn't exist?
If you're a homosexual Atheist, and a Christian with a fantasy obsession says you're a sinner doomed to hell, why should you care? You know there's no God, no sin and no Hell.
If you're a pedophile or a rapist, a prostitute or a kidnapper - and you're an Atheist - you may have to worry about cops and juries and judges, but you don't have to worry about divine retribution. As an Atheist, you know there's no penalty for whatever you do, as long as you don't get caught - then, if you are caught, the only penalty is imposed by other men in the here-and-now.
If a Christian who believes in a God who you KNOW doesn't exist says that this non-existent God will condemn you, after death, for your lifestyle choices, why should you care? You already know there's no afterlife. You already KNOW that the Christian's God doesn't exist, and you know that that without a god to condemn it, sin doesn't exist. You already know that this Christian who's judging you must be bat-guano crazy.
Given all of that, what does the opinion of a guy with bat droppings rattling around inside his skull, a guy who believes in the questionable translation of a ragged collection of 66 seemingly-contradictory books written two millenniums ago by some dusty nomads even matter to you?
Why do you care about that Christian or his non-existent God?
Why do you care about Phil Robinson, the Duck Dynasty "Patriarch" who has become the latest cause for Atheist angst?
The guy believes in God. He believes in that ancient text (with translations even believing Christians can't agree on) that condemns you. He believes in virgin birth, resurrection of the dead, eternal life in a spirit world, and a loving, all-knowing God who nonetheless allowed some local yokels to whip him to the point of death before crucifying him - a particularly horrible way to die.
Is this someone you should care about?
If you're walking down the street and encounter a zombie'd out homeless wreck of a man who's busy talking to himself and shouting at everyone else, and he told you to sell GM short, would you do it? No. He's obviously crazy, and what does he know about the Stock Market? Nothing.
If you're walking down the street and you encounter someone with a shaggy main of hair, a beard that ZZ Top would envy, and a camo suit straight out of The Nam, a shaggy redneck with a bible clutched in one hand as he's saying, "you, homosexual, you're a sinner - give it up, find Jesus, repent and be saved," would you do it? Or would you write him off as someone who ought to be in the same lock-down unit with that homeless guy. He's obviously a passionate nutcase. So why does his opinion matter?
Yet it seems to matter a great deal to Activist Atheists - and to Activist Gays, who tend to also disbelieve anyone's God because all the major God-figures in human religion condemn homosexuals and homosexuality. Its a fact that it matters, but the real question is "why?" Why do the Activist Atheists and Gays care so much about the opinions and beliefs of people they consider irrational, and the faux-condemnations those whack-jobs heap on them, based on some 2,000 to 3,000 year old collection of poorly-copied and poorly-translated papyrus scrolls.
Why would any card-carrying Atheist - a man or woman who knows for a "fact" that there's no God, and no sin - get the least bit worried about what some redneck cracker from way down deep in the bayou thinks about sin and homosexuality, let alone about your preference for anuses over vaginas? Why would you care what condemnations of your lifestyle are written in his fairy-tale bible? After all, you believe his bible is complete fiction, a fairy-tale made up about the antics of some ancient desert tribal god-figure who - if he'd really existed, but of course he didn't - had obviously been a moral prude and a real buzz-kill.
Why does any of that bother you, a card-carrying Atheist, especially since you already know - KNOW, mind you, with a belief born of intellectual superiority and a rigidly rational mind-set - that what Robertson believes isn't even real? Why in the world would a bright, intelligent, rational mind like yours get so upset about this Christian Myth? I mean, c'mon, you know that there isn't any God - and, without God, there isn't any sin.
Morality and judgment, sin and punishment and redemption, all of those are figments of the easily-led, flyover-country Christ-believer's false set of beliefs, beliefs centered around that dusty desert tribal god YHWH. That singular God, YHWH (known to his friends as Yahweh or Jehovah) is actually a "god" who is no more real than Ishtar or Ra, Zeus or Jupiter - so why worry about what HE says, anyway?
Why indeed. The answer is simple. Because - as you Activist Atheists know - there is no god. Because there's no god, then it stands to reason that there's no morality, no sin, no judgment, and best of all, no cosmic rules that arbitrarily apply to you. Knowing this, knowing that Christians who denounce you or challenge you are both deluded and intellectually weak sheep intent on following an ancient myth, then why all the fuss?
Why do you care if you're called a sinner by some backwoods hick on a duck show?
Why do you care if you're condemned to a non-existent Hell by some puffed up buffoon with a duck's tail and a microphone?
Hey, you know it's all BS - so why do you care?
Because Atheism is a great gig, and you don't want to lose it. With no god, there's no accountability for the way you live. If there's no god, then everything in your life is cool.
But since the nearest "god" you can find is the statue of Prometheus in the sunken garden at the Rockefeller Center on Manhattan, then what's the problem? The real problem?
I'm no psychologist, but from decades of observation, I maintain that if someone spends an inordinate amount of time and energy - and even wealth - in denial of the existence of something, that person is generally trying to mask over a belief that he doesn't want. There are exceptions, of course, but psychologists agree that there is always "something" behind any obsession.
For example ...
"Latent" homosexuals are usually those guys who spend a great deal of time denying their gender confusion - they do this by attacking those who are openly gay.
Atheists - not those who just don't care, but those who spend all their time passionately fighting against a God they say they know doesn't exist - must actually believe something. Deep down, they believe in something that either frightens the pure-cane (ahem) out of them, or they're afraid of something that challenges the very core of their precious self-image.
I think that most of the passionate and outspokenly-public Atheists are really just whistling past the graveyard - they desperately hope there is no God or Hell, no sin or judgment. Scared out of their wits at the consequences if they're wrong, but afraid or unable to embrace God and the Grace of forgiveness, these Atheists battle the image of an afterlife judged by God by creating a fantasy world in which there is no God, and where there are no consequences, no sins and no retribution.
That is why the Heathen Rage ...
BTW: I think any real Atheist would - because he believes that there's nothing there in the universe in which to believe or disbelieve - have no reason to argue, deny, attack or defend. He'd just move on to something he does believe in. Or have another double espresso at Starbucks.
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With a tip of my hat to Rush Limbaugh - I saw his brief comment on a website and realized he'd framed an issue that's been troubling me for a long time. He's the inspiration for what's here, but the mistakes are my own.
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