Awesome God & Atheist Morals

I’ve waited for ever to write about this. This inspirational youthful song just makes me want to believe in God. To have an Awesome God on my side would truly be, Awesome. Everyone, please take 4 minutes & 55 seconds to watch this video. Its The Awesome God & its one of the few videos that I play everyday on my IPod.

Like I promised in my previous post, I’ll talk about Atheist Morals. I was curious when I asked my Christian friend, “What does it feel like to believe in God?” Her response was a simple, “safe.” . I’d love to have that awesome feeling for the rest of my life, but I simply chose not to live in a delusion. I hope you have watched the video, lets continue..

According to the above video, God’s qualities are…

1. powerful
2. righteous
3. peaceful
4. compassion
5. being a source of truth (described as “light”)
6. strict but also merciful
7. holy, awesome, and powerful
8. Loving

I’d like to quote something from the bible,

“So God created humans in his image. In the image of God he created them. He created them male and female” - Genesis 1:27 (From GWT, whatever that is)

I had yet another discussion with a bunch of Christians (Been having it a lot lately & I was the only Atheist facing 10 or more Christians) & I asked them the all so familiar question “If God made man in His image, does He have Vestigial Organs?”

I got my response from a Theist and now I know that,

God is a spirit being possessing intellect, emotion and will. He created man with those same qualities. He thinks, he feels and he acts. So when you read that, it is talking about those qualities, not the fleshly qualities of man. The animal realm does not possess those qualities. You may refer to animals being ‘intelligent’ but it is not the same as man’s intellect; nor do animals have the emotional make up of man or the ‘will’ of man. Animals are instinctive.

- Grasshopper

I have to admit, this is one of the best explanations of Genesis 1:27 I have ever heard from a Christian. Its not the LITERAL meaning that Theists believe in, its the true meaning of The Metaphors!!!

BUT he is wrong when he says, “nor do animals have the emotional make up of man or the ‘will’ of man. Animals are instinctive.” Almost every social animal on earth, has emotions. Take a look at the Animal kingdom, there is compassion and almost every other emotion in there (some emotions are different, some better, some worse by our definition of emotional makeup, how hormones affect the body & how we interpret our feelings of empathy in order to make a coherent system.) or even what you call compassion or “will”. Humans evolved the brain & emotion we have today from lesser brains. So, we are not that different, just a little improved in the path primates took. Those who wish, may watch this video on that, but I’ll just stick to my topic.

Here is a comic that comes to my mind on the thought of “Metaphors“….

Funny, but true.

SO, This is what I collected by putting the pieces together…

1. God’s qualities are the best moral education we can receive.
2. Most of the words in DA BIBLE are mere METAPHORS.
3. God made man in His/Her Qualities.
4. God’s qualities (aka: morals) are what Man tries to achieve.

Now ask yourself! Are these Moral Qualities confined to a Theist? Is an Atheist destined to hell just for not believing in a theology thats almost entirely metaphors (starting from Genesis Chapter 1) ? Can’t an Atheist be Moral ? of course he can!

Atheism is not a worldview. It doesn’t carry any obligation to any kind of political or moral system. In that sense, it is amoral. Note that it is amoral, not immoral. Immorality is flouting the conventions of one’s own morality; amorality is being without morality.

An Atheist can have any system of morality he or she wishes.

Why should an Atheist be moral, without a god to make him to do so? You may as well ask why he should use his head for something besides a mobile hat rack. Morality is a built-in condition of humanity; the moral tendency exists in just about everyone, barring psychopaths.

1. Compassion. Atheists have the power to do what’s right for all humanity, rather than the forced perspective of doing what is right for a god. Mere absolutes like “thou shal not lie” obstruct many things.

2. Unclouded judgment. Atheists can experience healthy outrage at the outrageous without fear of questioning God’s plan. Atheists try to learn from disasters and not just chalk it up to God’s Plan. We use science to understand catastrophic events like hurricanes, and tsunamis. This gives us the ability to save lives. Yes, there is cause and effect, and our actions effect how we live, you should save for retirement, and if your diet is bad you’ll end up fat, or sick, or both. Suppose, Your loved one dies in a completely random car accident where nobody could possibly be blamed. Is it more comforting to know the accident happened because of bad luck or is better to think the accident could have been prevented by an omnipotent being that could have stepped in and saved them from an untimely death, but your god decided to just let them die? You don’t have to be frustrated thinking “Was it because I didn’t pray enough?” “Was God mad at me or them?” “Maybe I should have prayed more.” Atheist take comfort in knowing there is no plan.

3. Love & Friendship. Atheist can be friends with everyone without having the thought in the back of their mind that this person’s lifestyle may be evil. We have the power to accept people for what they are. Enabling us to enjoy their quirks rather than chastise them for being unique. Atheists can have relationships with people who have alternative lifestyles without feeling like they have to save them from some deity that is going to condemn them for being themselves. After all, if there was a creator, then he has made everyone the way they are. Atheists don’t fear that a large part of the earth’s population is going to hell for being true to themselves. We love our family & friends, just like YOU. Atheists even have less divorce rates! (who wants to give a figure and try and make me look stupid ?)

4. OpenMinded& Understanding. Atheists raise freethinking children; let them pick a religion, or none. What would you have picked? You can raise your children according to your values without feeling as though you have to defend Bible stories that even a child can see are fiction.

5. Truth. Most Atheists, my self included, are Atheist-Agnostics. We can neither prove or disprove god. This doesn’t mean that we will fill the void with a magical being. We simply say “we don’t know” and not fill the gap with lies that can’t be humanly proved to be right.

6. Mercy & Empathy. Then again, I hope you all remember The Golden Rule. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. This is a useful and essentially satisfying way to act. It relies on enlightened self-interest and the principle of empathy to get results. We help those in need, just like every other human whos’ heart is not stone cold, not to get a ticket to heaven. Human beings are society animals; we are tribal, fundamentally speaking, and it is this which forms the basis of human morality. Empathy is an inherently subjective emotion. We feel empathy to different degrees according to our relationships with people; mostly for our families or those with the closest emotional bonds to us, then to other members of the ‘tribe’, and finally to outsiders.

I’m Ruben & I’m an Atheist-Agnostic. & ………It feels great!

PS: your god isn’t awesome, considering christianity’s bloody past. but I love the song BTW.

—————-

FootNote: You can’t just say grasshopper’s words as “just a view point of a single Theist”, because I was in the presence of more than TEN!, unlike my Previous conversation with a single Christian “Christians don’t understand Atheist Quotes”

Sources: The Atheist File, Science Classes, YouTube, etc.

Original Post is found on my Website: Awesome God & Atheist Morals

—————-
Now playing: AwesomeGod on ITunes
via FoxyTunes on FireFox 2. Play count: 32. on repeat along with GreenDay while writing this entry.