CHAPTER 5
Black and
Atheist Too: Myth, Superstition, and Ignorance
“It ain't necessarily so
It ain't necessarily so
The t'ings dat yo' li'ble
To read in de Bible,
It ain't necessarily so.” These lyrics,
by George Gershwin in Porky and Bess, sums up the Bible very well.
We can also look at Hans Christian Andersen’s The Emperor’s New
Clothes, when a vain Emperor, who cared about nothing except
wearing and displaying clothes, hired
two swindlers who promised him the finest, best suit of clothing from a fabric
invisible to anyone who was unfit for their position or hopelessly stupid. The Emperor’s staff, of course, claimed they
could see the clothes themselves, but for the fear of appearing unfit for their
positions. Finally, when the swindlers
reported that the suit was finished, they pretended to dress the Emperor and
the Emperor then marches in a procession before his subjects. Everyone pretended that the new suit is the
finest, not wanting to appear stupid.
But then a young boy in the crowd, not being tainted by wanting to
fit-in with the others and not appear stupid, yelled out the truth, “The
Emperor is wearing nothing at all. The Emperor has no clothes”. I take the place of that young boy. I proclaim regarding the existence of God or
Gods, it is only myth, superstition, and ignorance. Ignorance in the sense that intelligent
people refuse to adhere to the knowledge they have and turn a blind eye to the
truth as they actually understand it.
Myth: The Greek Gods
The
belief in God (Deity is the overarching concept/definition, but for the sake of
understanding, I am using the Christian term God) or Gods is nothing more than a
myth. The first Gods have a logical
pattern. The Sun God Ra represented the
thing that provided humans with the most dependable and beneficial phenomenon
they knew. The human species theorized
that Ra was then responsible for the creation of other minor Gods such as water
and air. Clearly the first Gods
represented the major physical and emotional (birth, death, love, etc.) forces
in nature. The most well-known Greek God
and the one that had the most impact on earth was Zeus. However, Zeus was not the first. Zeus was the son of the Gods Cronus and Rhea.
Cronus, being the paranoid God that he was believed that he was going to be
overthrown by his children; therefore, he swallowed all of them, against the
will of Rhea, their mother. Rhea plotted
to save Zeus by giving Cronus a rock to swallow instead of Zeus, when Zeus was
first born. Zeus was then sent away
where a number of legends say how and by whom he was raised, including being
raised by a nymph named Cynosura and a nymph named Adamanthea. Some legends say that since Cronus ruled over
the earth, the sky, and sea, Zeus was hidden from him by dangling on a rope
from a tree in order to be between heaven sky and sea. When Zeus became a grown man, he forced
Cronus to regurgitate the stone, thus allowing all of the other children he had
swallowed to escape. Zeus then joined by
his brothers and sisters, the Gigantes, Hecalonchires, and Cyclopes overthrew
Cronus and the other Titans. Some of
Zeus’s siblings were Poseidon (water) and Hades (underworld of hell). Zeus maintained control of the sky and
air.
Zeus
was a powerful force and very amorous, which led to many off-springs, some by
his sister. One of the most notable
groups of children he is said to father were the Muses, which represented
forces in nature such as Clio, the muse of history; Calliope, the muse of music
and poetry; Urania, the muse of astronomy; Erato, the muse of lyric poetry,
especially erotic poetry; Melete, the muse of thought and meditation, and many
others of human talents and emotions.
Zeus
and his siblings, and his children were constantly in a struggle for power over
that which they controlled. This is the
story of the human species, control over resources, primarily land and what
that land produces, be it food, oil, or gold.
I am truly fascinated by the Greek Gods.
They seem to represent a liberal attitude toward love and sex and
reproduction. They were also in a constant
struggle with nature, as Homer and the Iliad. As you will see, the Greek Gods
had much in common with Gods from other lands.
They have the theme of trying to explain the origin and nature of
humans.
Gods of East India
The
three dominant Gods of East India are Brama, Vishnu, and Shiva. Brama is said
to have created the world, but he is not as powerful as Vishnu. Vishnu controls the avatars. Vishnu intervenes in order to protect people
from the forces of evil. Shiva is the
third God of the Brahman. Shiva protects
humans from many vices such as, lust, greed, and anger. He fights evil, bestows grace, destroys
ignorance and stimulates people to be enlightened and have wisdom. Typical of the East Indian Gods it that they
have many arms or other tentacles. They
also typically display means of travel such as birds or other winged
animals. To East Indians, Gods come from
the sky. These Gods are one of the main
sources for the Ancient Alien theorist who suggests that the Gods may have
arrived in East India aboard space ships.
One distinct feature about the East Indian Gods is that they do not seem
to be in constant conflict, and they are accepting of other beliefs or
religions. But they are indeed mythical, like all other Gods.
Gods of Asia
Gods
of Asia are typically deities in human form.
A significant exception is the Monkey, who was originally a trickster
turned into a humble servant. In general,
ancient Asia had a structured system of Gods.
The highest God, Shangdi, ruled through lesser gods with whom humans
could communicate. These Gods controlled water, the sun, birth, death, war, and
the usual things that affected the lives of humans. For example, the Gods of business: there is
the God of prosperity, Cai-shen; Fan-kui, the God of butchers; Sun-pi, the God
of cobblers; Fu-xing, the God of happiness; and Chengphuang, the God who
protects your city from enemies. To
appease the God, or Gods, offerings, usually of food during specific times of
the year (spring was an ideal time), were given as a sacrifice for favor of the
Gods. Their concept was that in order to
get something from the God or Gods one must give something of value in order to
be blessed or get something of value.
That value could be a good crop, male children, or a successful
hunt. Although the rituals are different
from country to country, the idea of the God or Gods is the same. The God or Gods explains the origin of the
human species and it is usually tied to the sky; although, sometimes the sky
and the earth combined to give birth to man.
Gods of North and South America
Native
Americans in North America have a God and Gods that explain nature but are
usually associated with animals. Native
Americans hold cultural beliefs that the human being must live within the
concert of nature along with other living things or creatures. Certainly there are some differences from
tribe to tribe, but typically there is a “great God’ in the sky who created
their tribe. The Great God or Great
Spirit is an English translation of the concept. Other Native American Gods are typically
represented by such animals as rabbits, birds, coyotes, Ravens, and Beavers,
etc. These Gods provided dominion over
forces or obstacles in nature such as water, successful fishing, and the
abundance of fish in various rivers.
South American God or Gods typically took on human form.
The
most noted Gods in South America is the Gods of the Incas. The Incas most powerful God was Viraocha, who
created the sun, moon, stars, humans, animals, and all things on earth. This God took the form of a man and walked
the earth. He had three principal Gods
under him: the Sun God, Inti; the
Thunder or Weather God, Lllapa; and the Moon God, Mamaquilla. Inti, the Sun God, was the one who ruled over
agriculture. Inti had a human face
surrounded by sun rays. Illapa was the
God of weather and provided the important sources of water for the crops to
grow. The third God, Mamaquilla or Moon
God, was a wife of the sun and functioned chiefly as the goddess of festivals
and maintaining the calendar. Of course,
there were other minor Gods that controlled various aspects of the earth and
sky, such as rivers, mountains, highlands, and coastal areas. Many of the Gods in South America are said
to be possibly Alien inspired in that they are represented by large stone
carvings, with unexplained locations and unexplained means of transporting them
to their present locations. The God and
Gods of North and South America had a range of sacrifices. Those sacrifices ranged from a simple
meditation ritual to providing earthly goods, typically food; and the ultimate
sacrifice of life itself. In some cases
this meant the ritualistic killing of enemies, members of the tribe (primarily
in South America), and especially virgins; sometimes sacrificed to volcanic
Gods who dwelled over cliff or water falls. Consistent with other Gods, they
were used to explain the origin of man/woman and the unpredictability of the
forces of nature.
European Gods
European
Gods are usually in human form, and many represent death and destruction. One goddess, Mati-Syra-Zemlya or labeled as
Moist Earth or the planet earth and requires sacrifice of bread, wine, and
beer, after you have plowed or dug a hole in the ground. Most of the eastern European Gods were lost
to history or died as most eastern Europeans embraced Christianity. The Gods of
Europe were used for the same purpose as Gods from other continents; that is,
to explain the existence of humans and the unknown characteristics of
nature. Of special note about the
European Gods is their pre-occupation with death, destruction, and war. Such was the Slavic Black God of Evil and Swearing,
Chernobog. Chernobog was known for
causing calamity, disaster, and all kinds of misfortune. Another interesting God is Perun, the Thunder
God. He is said to cause young girls to
dance themselves to death as a ritualistic honoring of the God. Some European Gods survived Christianity and
were incorporated into the culture of Christianity; one of the most noted is
the Goddess Eostre. She is the Goddess
of the Saxon people of Northern Europe.
She represented the Pagan Anglo-Saxon celebration of the Vernal
Equinox. They made offerings of colored
eggs to her and placed them at graves sites as a symbol of rebirth. They also celebrated the hare and used ham as
the major meat for this celebration.
This observance was incorporated into the resurrection and became what
we know as Easter.
African Gods
African
Gods and Goddess are very diverse. The
African Continent is currently divided into 53 or 55 countries, with one
country each belonging as a member of the United Nations and the African
Union. It is the second largest in land
mass, as well as the second most populous.
It covers 20.4 percent of the earth’s total land area and six percent of
the total earth surface, and 15 percent of the world’s population. Asia is the largest continent, with North
America, third; South America, fourth; Antarctica firth; and Europe, sixth. But
Africa with such large, diverse area and people has varied Gods. Until the
introduction of Islam and Christianity, African people generally worshiped a
major God and lesser Gods, with the ancestors intervening to control the
weather, birth, death, war, good fortune or bad fortune, agriculture, hunting,
and the usual forces of nature as all other Gods and Goddesses. The God of creation, named the Mighty Creator
of Vomit, was the God Bumba. Bumba
seemed to be consistent with the idea of creationism. He came out of the darkness with a giant
stomach ache. For relief, he vomited up
the Sun, moon, stars, earth, nine animals, and a variety of humans. From this vomit every living thing grew. African Gods typically took on human
characteristics, such as drinking, sex, trials and tribulations of life to make
it interesting, and of course death. African Gods were pleased as other Gods
with sacrifices, such as food and drink, meditation, group rituals, and in some
cases human sacrifice. African Gods, as with Gods from other nations, were an
attempt to explain nature and their reality which had not been empirically
understood. As explained by many
scientists, God is used to explain what science has not yet discovered.
Superstition
Superstition
is from the Latin Superstitionem, meaning excessive fear of the Gods. It is further defined as a belief resulting
from ignorance, fear of the unknown, trust in magic or chance, or a false conception
of causation; a notion maintained despite evidence to the contrary. These are faulty beliefs about why things
happen; curses, as in the Bible; witches and their ability to cause harm to
individuals; and obsession with the dead having an impact on the lives of the
living. The more light-hearted views are
beliefs such as don’t walk under ladders, rub a lucky rabbit’s foot, a
four-leaf clover, be careful if a black cat crosses your path, don’t break a
mirror less you suffer seven years of bad luck, horse shoes, Friday the 13th
is bad luck, birds pup equal riches, cross your fingers for good luck, opening
an umbrella indoors, and knock on wood for good luck. These are somewhat
humorous and harmless, but many practices, past and present, exist and affect
the lives of many people. I am going to
identify and address briefly some of the most prominent. A few will seem to fall under ignorance, but
my section on ignorance will focus more on knowledge and denial of
knowledge. Some of the most noted
superstitions are: Voodoo, witchcraft, communion, Muslim prayer, and New Guinea
airplane worship
Voodoo
Voodoo
is a religion derived from ancient African Gods and ancestor worship. It has
elements of Roman Catholicism and has strong ties to magic and is characterized
by sorcery and spirit possession. Some
historians believe the practice of Voodooism started some 15,000 years ago
during the building of some of the Egyptian pyramids. These were the Yoruba, who were slaves to the
Pharaohs. After the end of this slavery, they took with them some of the
beliefs of the Egyptian people and down through the centuries spread the
practice of Voodoo. For example, the
Egyptians believed that individuals continued to live after death in the
underworld. Voodoo has no specific written
tenants or Gods. It does not have a formal structure, although there are priests
and other dignitaries of power. It is an
individual religion that depends on ignorance and worship of the ancestors and
beliefs in the influence of the dead and how they affect the present. It is practiced world-wide, but especially in
the West Indies and historically in New Orleans. The core of Voodoo is ancestral worship and
reincarnation. There is no heaven or
hell in Voodoo. Individuals continue to
return, and their deeds in the present life affect their reincarnation in the
next life. Thus, their deeds in the
present life have the opportunity to shape the next life. In 2001, Voodoo became an officially
recognized religion in Hatti and is in no way underground any longer. Hatti is, however, about 80% Roman Catholic,
10 % Baptist, 4% Pentecostal, 1% Adventist, 1% other Christian, 3% others such
as Islam, Baha’, Judaism, Buddhism, and 1% no religion. It is estimated that 50%
of the population mix Voodoo with Catholicism.
Growing
up in Texas I had a
firsthand experience with Voodoo. My
great great uncle’s wife believed strongly in Voodoo. In retrospect I believe
she was clinically paranoid schizophrenic, but she was convinced that someone
with super natural powers was out to harm her.
She would put a ring of salt around a tree in their front yard in order
to protect herself from the evils of those, unknown, who wished to harm
her. I remember an argument with her and
my uncle in which he dismissed her concerns because he did not understand her
illness.
Much
of Voodoo is misunderstood, beginning with the transition of Africans, as
slaves, into the Caribbean and South America, and later the colonies and the
United States. Colonization has done a
great deal to eliminate much of the witchcraft of Africa and the superstitions
that come with it. In Hatti, much of
Voodoo has been replaced by another equally hideous practice, communion.
Communion or is it
Symbolic Cannibalism
John 6:53-58 New International Version (NIV).
“Jesus said to them, Very truly I
tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you
have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood
has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. For my flesh is
real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh
and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. Just as the
living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on
me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down
from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread
will live forever.”
Now we don’t know whether Jesus said this or not. This was not a firsthand account. This is strictly the interpretation of
writers penning these words many years after the death of Jesus (Yeshua). Like many things in the Bible, these are
selected works from many submissions.
But clearly this ritual is an act of symbolic cannibalism. In this passage, John mentions flesh and
blood. According to John, Jesus said,
“For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink”. To any reasonable mind, this is symbolic
cannibalism. It is dressed up in civilization, but in reality, I view it as no
better than the cannibalism attributed to indigenous people of the past in
various civilizations in many parts of the world.
The Virgin Birth: Immaculate
Conception
I addressed the virgin birth in chapter three, but I think
it is necessary to talk briefly about it here as part of superstition. I
attribute and label the Immaculate Conception and birth as superstition. I believe that any reasonable mind would
conclude that the Immaculate Conception and birth did not occur. Imagine God impregnating a 14-15-year-old
girl without her father’s or anyone else’s permission. To me, this falls into
the category of witchcraft and superstition. Some will say that artificial
insemination in humans has been practiced since the 1940s and hundreds of
thousands of women use this procedure annually.
To this I would agree, but it is not immaculate, it is science. The Virgin Mary is great support of the
Ancient Aliens theorist. Some would theorize that the legend could have come
out of a lack of understanding science practiced by ancient aliens. However, I
believe the myth could have come from a more known tradition. In ancient times
it was a usual practice for the Lord of the manor to have his way with the
bride of a peasant or serf. On her wedding night, the Lord of the Manor could,
if he so desired, claim the first night with a peasant man’s bride. Perhaps this was how the myth with Mary got
its origin. So the idea that somehow
Mary, the virgin, gave birth to the mythological savior is purely superstition.
Talking
in Tongues and The Tower of Babel
I remember my first experience with
talking in tongues. In my community of
Nigton, Texas, we had a Pentecostal or Holy Sanctified Church, as we called
it. Why it started I do not know, nor do
I know who started it. But as a
dedicated Christian and out of curiosity I attended a service there during a
summer revivals. The service was filled
with joyous shouts of the Holy Spirit and music and dancing that was second to
none. During one particular service I
noticed this one young woman, perhaps a teenager about 15 years of age, go into
an emotional and flailing frenzy, seemingly physically out of control and began
shouting inaudible words. This I later
came to understand as talking in tongues. Cor. 13:1,
“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not
love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all
mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have
not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned,
but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love
is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not
insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it
does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all
things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love
never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will
cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know
in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect
comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child,
I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I
became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see
in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know
fully, even as I have been fully known.
So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of
these is love. “
Speaking in
tongues is representative of ones baptism into the Holy Spirit. Speaking in
tongues is a psychological experience brought on by an indoctrination of
cultural response and adaption to fulfilling family values and contentment.
Speaking in tongues reminds me of the Biblical theory of how language is
acquired.
It appears that during the building of the Towel of
Bebel. Genesis 11:1-9 (NIV)
“Now
the whole world had one language and a common speech. As
people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled
there.
“They
said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They
used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they
said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the
heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be
scattered over the face of the whole earth.”
But
the Lord came down to see the city
and the tower the people were building. The Lord
said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this,
then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come,
let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each
other.”
So
the Lord scattered them from there
over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is
why it was called Babel-because there the Lord
confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the
whole earth.
There are people today that still believe that this is how different
languages were acquired.” How language
is acquired is not clearly understood, but all agree that language is a
construct upon which knowledge of a particular culture is developed based upon
climate, region and perceived needs of the people of that region. For example, in Alaska there are many words,
at least, 25 meanings for snow; whereas, in some places in South America there
is only one term for ice and snow alike.
From a historical perspective, the Tower of Babel was constructed in
approximately 2000 BCE. At that time,
all continents were populated with people who spoke thousands of different
languages, and some of them had a written language. Certainly math had advanced. The Tower had architectural drawings for its
construction. It is ridiculous to suggest that the Tower of Babel represents
the reason people speak different languages.
Talking in tongues is purely psychological and non-sense as
is attested by some I have discussed it with who say that they just got caught
up in the moment, and some can talk in tongues on cue. Talking in tongues on cue is akin to Shirley
MacLaine channeling herself into another dimension on cue.
Channeling,
used to be known as spiritualism, was brought to the general public in the late
1840s by Margaret and Kate Fox who claimed they heard voices from the other
side, meaning another dimension. They in
turn communicated this information to interested parties; people who wanted to
make contact with deceased love ones.
Shirley MacLaine of movie and TV fame has helped to make channeling more
acceptable to people in general. Another
type of popular channeling is the Ouija board. Used a great deal by college
students to try and call up the dead.
These are all examples of smoke and mirrors; utter non-sense and no
empirical evidence has been put forth to verify these claims.
Does God Answer Prayer Five Times Per Day
If they can do so, Muslims pray five times per day. Can you imagine a person feeling a need to
pray five times per day? Praying five times a day is
considered the second most important of Islam’s five pillars, after professing
that there is no God worthy of worship but God (Allah) and that the Prophet Mohammed is God’s
messenger. This has
to be one of the most unproductive activities I can envision. Muslim prayer reminds Muslim of the mortality
of man. You mean that it takes five
times per day to remind a human that they will die. The Muslim prayer requires one to submit to
the lowest possible position to the ground as a symbol of submission to Allah.
This to me is counterproductive. Taking the
time five times per day is taking away from productive work or other
activities. I suggest, however, that
there is some value in meditation throughout the day to decrease stress and
help one lead a more tranquil life. But
taking the time to submit to an unknown and unseen God five times per day seems
to be a loss of productive work time.
Millions of people believe that
daily God answers their prayers concerning major and minor things. A person prays that their love one survives a
tragic car crash that could have ended in death, to the person late for work
who prays that they find their keys.
Each feels that they had a personal relationship with God that led to
the answering of prayers. Let me sum it
up in this manner, “According to the Standard Model of God; God is an
omniscient, all-powerful, all-loving being who answers prayers. Imagine God
sitting on his magnificent throne in heaven looking down upon Earth, seeing
every detail. God speaks:
"Look at all of those praying
people getting tortured in that death camp. Excellent! I won't do anything to
stop that. And look at that little girl down there being raped and murdered.
Perfect! She is praying like mad, and so is her mother, but I won't do anything
to stop that. And there are three terrorists preparing to blow up a church and
kill 1,500 people who are saying the Lord's Prayer to me right now.
Outstanding! I won't do anything to stop that. How wonderful it is that 1,000
prayerful people will die of starvation today in Ethiopia. I love it! I won't
do anything to stop that. Oh… and there's little Suzy Jenkins praying that I
remove that pimple from her nose for her big date with Chad tomorrow. Let me go
help Suzy right now…" (The above
quote was taken from the following website. http://godisimaginary.com/i31.htm)
The idea that each person has a personal relationship with
this powerful being is silly, ignorant, and filled with superstition. Again, I submit that prayer might serve as a
calming process or ritual to ease the tension of life’s sometimes difficult
experiences, but to suggest that there is an outside force that intervenes does
not present or demonstrate any empirical evidence to support the success of
such a ritual.
Cargo cults the Religion of the
Conquerors
During World War II, U. S pilots dropped food
supplies to natives in the South Pacific.
The natives were pleased with the food supplies and viewed the food
falling from the sky as it was dropped by parachute to the ground. Since the food came from the planes, the
natives who had not seen planes before could not distinguish between the
mechanical make-up of the planes and a living entity that provided them with
food. At the end of World War II, when
the food drops discontinued, the natives did not understand why, so they
created the idea that they should copy everything they saw, including building
an airplane of straw and wooden headphones as if they were communicating to the
control towers. Of course, the food
drops had stopped and finally the natives realized that the “God” they had
created was not coming back to drop more food.
It is simply, the human species creates Gods and spirits for things they
do not understand.
In another part of the South Pacific is located
the Philippine Islands. The islands,
like all other ancient people, had their Gods, but today the Philippines have
been taken over by the Gods of others and people of the Philippines have bought
into it totally. The people of the
Philippines were first introduced to Islam around 1350 ACE. Well, this was not a kind introduction. It was either convert or be killed. Islam was
not spread throughout the Philippines.
It was concentrated in the southern islands. In 1565, Spain arrived,
headed by Miguel Lopez de Legasp. Spain’s goal was to Christianize everyone and
eliminate any non-Christians, such as Jews and Moors. Spain had a more powerful army and succeeded
in making Christianity the dominant religion.
Spanish missionaries established towns and moved people from rural areas
to more collective living arrangements and made the Church the center of town
life. The Church was surrounded by
markets; but Islam still had pockets of significant resistance until the
takeover by America in 1898, with the signing of the Treaty of Paris on August
12, 1898. The people of the Philippines
were still in conflict with the Americans, and this conflict led to the
Philippine-American War, which began On June 2, 1899. The war ended in 1901. A major American goal after the war was to
Christianize and democratize the Philippines.
Democracy has had its ups and downs, but the goal to Christianize has
been more successful; although the Philippines are considered a democratic
nation. Today 86% of the population is
Christians; 4% Muslim, and the remaining are indigenous beliefs and other forms
of Christianity. A few, almost too small
to measure practice Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism. But the Philippines are a nation of people
with many Islands. There are 7,107 total
islands, 2,000 of which are inhabitable.
These Islands have been totally taken over by a religion that was used,
in part, to conquer them; first by Muslims and later by Christian, European and
American respectively. Filipinos of the
Philippines are not alone. Mexico is another prime example. The people were enslaved or reduced to
servitude and converted to Catholicism.
Another example that I find intriguing is the conversion of
African Americans almost totally to Christianity. Now, to be sure, Islam was imposed on
Africans in the traditional Islamic manner: convert of die or be sold into
slavery to the Christians. In the Caribbean islands, many were able to hold on
to some of their African traditions (Voodoo), but by and large, they were all
converted. It is estimated by some
historians that between 15-30 percent of Africans imported as slaves into the
Americas were Muslim, with the remaining practicing indigenous forms of worship.
All of these are religions of those who conquered and/or enslaved the ancestors
of African Americans. Now I would not go
as far as some and say that once you take on the religion of the oppressor, you
are forever to a degree enslaved, but I will say that theoretically you are
forever inferior to the conquerors because you have accepted their God. The conquerors are in theory superior to
you. They can always claim to have
brought you enlightenment, even if was just more gun powder, bridges, and
temples.
The Salem Witch Trails
Colonial Massachusetts in 1692 experienced
what history may say was one of the most barbaric and insane miscarriages of
justice in the history of North America (American colonies). Europeans came to the American colonies with
new found freedom to think in terms of a personal relationship with God and the
idea that one could choose their own manner of worship, and to experiment with
new technology and medicines for healing.
But those in leadership felt a need to control the population. So in the late 1600s, the colonial leaders
imposed strict and harsh penalties for those whose religious practices they did
not agree. According to historian
Clarence F. Jewell, at least 12 people were executed in New England prior to
the 1692 witch trials. The township leaders
objected to the proliferation of a variety of religious sects and wanted to
hold the colonist in check. Many people
of this time believed in witchcraft; it was a commonly held belief that witchcraft
was the cause of many maladies in the colonies. Therefore, anyone who could be
proven to practice witchcraft was subject to penalties. And of course, prisons were not readily available
or certainly had limited capacity for punishing in those days, so direct
punishment was the most viable alternative.
The Salem witch trials represent a variety of superstitions that came
together at one time: witchcraft was
accepted as an evil of life; rumors abound that stupendous witchcraft was
having a significant influence on the children of Boston. Most crimes committed by children were
attributed to witchcraft. Children, who
were guilty, I assume, began to have convulsions. Two girls, 9 and 11 years of
age, began to go into convulsions. Perhaps this was some medical malady, but it
was seen as witchcraft. Some historians
attribute these actions to one family trying to get back at another; a family
feud. But township leaders wanted to
identify a solution, which included blaming someone, including a four-year-old
who was the daughter of a woman accused of witchcraft, and punishing them for
the offense. As a result, a total of 20
people, most of them women, were executed.
These are the kinds of tragic actions that are taken when humans don’t
have knowledge about the causes of things.
Superstition with the face of God can take over reason when science
cannot answer the question (s). It seems
to me that as human beings as we encounter unknown questions that are resolved
in a reasonably, logical, and scientific manner, we could let go of some of the
primitive and post-primitive ideas. To
be sure, there has been much progress in the thinking of humans about God and
the universe and what we reasonably know.
We know what causes many diseases and how to cure them. We have learned to reduce pain, even for
women in child birth in spite of the Catholic Church’s past opposition. In industrialized locations in the world the
life expectancy of humans has increased, and equally important the quality of
life has improved greatly. But our medical and other scientific advances have
far outpaced our social and cultural revelations and acknowledgments. The human
species, in terms of religion, is still essentially in a primitive state.
Ignorance or Refusal to Apply
Knowledge
The third part of the basis of belief in God or religion is
ignorance. Ignorance is from Latin
ignorantia or want of knowledge. It is
further defined as lack of knowledge, information, or education. For this writing, I define it in a different
manner. It is not so much as a lack of
knowledge because many people who are religious are very intelligent and have
an enormous amount of knowledge. It is the refusal to apply that knowledge, or
refusal to adhere to knowledge that they possess. There are many very
intelligent people in the world who are devoutly religious. This includes
scientist, doctors, biologist, botanist, people who understand nature and why
things happen, but yet they refuse to accept the knowledge that they have. I
must note, however, that a larger percentage of scientists are non-believers
versus believers, and of course, the general public. While 95% of US Americans believe in a
Supreme Being or higher power, only approximately 33% of scientist believes in
the same. Although I am not a scientist,
I also claim the position that there is no empirical evidence supporting the
existence of God as demonstrated by easily available knowledge.
I would like to identify some of the common knowledge that
to me defunct the idea that a God, who designed and controls the universe
suggest or provides empirical evidence that an all omnipresent God exist. Some of this I have cited in other chapters,
but it is also appropriate here:
The earth is not the center of the universe. Galileo
Galilei, born February 1564, was an Italian astronomer, physicist, engineer,
philosopher, and mathematician. One of
his greatest achievements was improvements in the telescope. He used the telescope to observed planets,
stars, moons, and the solar system in general.
From his observations, he concluded that the earth was not the center of
the universe, as the Catholic Church taught, but in fact the earth revolved
around the sun. This statement against Church teachings was considered
heresy. As a result of this charge,
Galileo was tried by the Roman Inquisition in 1633, and found guilty. He was thus forced to recant his observations,
and was also placed under house arrest until his death January 8, 1642, at the
age of 77. Can you imagine how much more
we would know about the universe if empirical knowledge he offered had been allowed
to grow at that time. What the Catholic
Church did was further the cause of ignorance in the face of knowledge. It was rumored that most priests agreed with
Galileo, but for fear of retribution from the Church, they remained
silent. There is also some evidence that
some scientists in the East knew the pattern of the universe, but this was not
common knowledge to the western world.
In the view of Church leaders, all things were caused by God, including
any illness which was caused by sin and any attempt to alter that illness was
against God will. Therefore, the human
species should be accepting of suffering.
The Lutheran Council confirmed this in 1215, stating that anyone ill
must have deserved it and any attempt to go against God’s will was a sin in
itself. Infants born deformed were said
to have been touched by the devil before they were born.
Leviticus 21:16-23New International Version (NIV):
“The
Lord said to Moses, “Say
to Aaron: ‘For the generations to come none of your descendants who have a
defect may come near to offer the food of his God. No man who
has any defect may come near: no man who is blind or lame, disfigured or
deformed; no man with a crippled foot or hand, or
who is a hunchback or a dwarf, or who has any eye defect, or who has festering
or running sores or damaged testicles. No descendant of Aaron
the priest who has any defect is to come near to present the food offerings to
the Lord. He has a defect; he must
not come near to offer the food of his God. He may eat the
most holy food of his God, as well as the holy food; yet because of his defect,
he must not go near the curtain or approach the altar, and so desecrate my sanctuary.
I am the Lord, who makes them
holy.”
The acceptance of suffering was viewed by the Church as
consistent with the will of God. That
anything the human species needed, God had provided, and there was no need for
additional knowledge. The Bible has
stated it. Suffering and especially the
suffering of women was not to be interfered with or altered.
The
Bible is especially adamant about the suffering of women. In Genesis 3:16 God is reported to have said,
“Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow (pain) and they
conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be
to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
One way the Church translated this was for the Church leaders to
discourage pain relief during child birth.
During the middle-ages, women who tried to help relieve the pain of
women during childbirth were condemned and some put to death and accused of
witchcraft. Their crime was defying God
for the “Curse of Eve”. Now there is
some biblical dispute about this passage.
Some religious scholars say that during ancient time’s child birth was
not the painful experience it became later, that natural remedies prevented
such pain.”
They
further say that the translation of the “curse of eve” was a 15th-
century creation, and did not appear in earlier versions of the Bible. If this is true, then it stands to reason
that so much of the Bible has been translated incorrectly and, therefore, has
some limitations regarding reasonable truth and knowledge.
Exorcism
Exorcism
is defined as the religious or spiritual and ancient rite/practice of casting
out demons from the souls or body of living beings that have been possessed by
evil spirits. There are thousands of people currently who believe that there
are demons or spirits of evil floating around in another dimension just waiting
for the right body to come aboard so they can enter it. Primarily it is thought to be practiced by
the Catholic Church, but others as well; some refer to it as “lying on
hands”. I have seen many televangelists
“cast out” demons of people who believe they are healed and have been rid of
diabetes; cancer; desires to use drugs, drink, sex addiction, or any maladies
that befall them. This started with
Jesus in Mathew 10:1, when he said (KJV) “And when he had called unto him his
twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out,
and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease”.
Many
“men of God” make millions of dollars on Sunday morning claiming to heal
people. Many people neglect their
medicines and medical treatment in the name of religion because they believe
that the minister has cast out their sickness that had manifested in them as a
result of sin. To me, this is clearly
an example of ignoring knowledge. With
so many people in the world having knowledge that exorcism is a hoax, it is
astonishing that it is still practiced in many locations worldwide.
Who is More Moral: Atheist or Non-atheist
Morally,
who takes the higher ground, Atheist or non-atheist? The question I pose is this, is there a
difference morally in atheist and non-atheist?
Atheists, demographically are defined as predominately male, more
educated than the general population, higher incomes than the average, not as
sexually conservative as the general population, mostly white, and a growing
segment of the United States population.
Worldwide, the least religious countries in the world are: China with a
90% atheist or non-religious population; the Netherlands, with 66% non-religious
or atheist; the UK, with 66% non-religious or atheist; Israel, with 65%
non-religious or atheist; Japan, with 65% non-religious or atheist; Germany,
with 69% non-religious or atheist; and Australia, with 58% non-religious or
atheist.
The
most religious countries are: Thailand, with 94% who say they are religious;
only 1% say they are atheist; Armenia with 93% who say they are religious;
Bangladesh, Georgia, and Morocco also say they are 93.5% religious. Some of the
general characteristics are that the least educated and lower income earners are
the most religious. Income and education are also probable factors that affect
the crime rate. Atheists don’t commit
crime, as a percentage of the population, at a rate equal to or higher than
people who identify themselves as religious or spiritual. Catholics, Protestants, Muslims, Rasta’s,
Jewish, Church of Christ, Pentecostal, Jehovah Witness, Adventist, Mormon, and
Scientology all have a higher number of people in prisons that atheist. Study after study has shown that atheists are
least likely to commit crime than people who classify themselves as religious
or spiritual. Rick Gervais (Movie Director, Writer. Actor, Stand-up
Comedian), posted in 2013, that if all atheist left America, they would
lose 93% of the National Academy of Sciences and less than 1% of the prison
population. As an African American who is writing about religion, I have a
special interest in this question of crime and religion. Let’s take a look at that population, in
particular, the African-American population. Are religious African Americans
more likely to commit crime than non-religious African Americans? Certainly there are many social and economic
variables, but let’s look at religion.
African Americans, including Hispanic Blacks make-up approximately 13.6%
of the general population, and 87 say they have a religious affiliation versus
83% of the general US population. Yet
40% of the inmates in US prisons are African American, and only a small
percentage, if any at all, are atheist.
Again, there are many social and economic barriers that affect crime and
incarceration, but something as powerful as God should help overcome these
barriers, less you conduct yourself without faith. On average, a Black person, mostly male, is
killed by white police officers or persons in security position every 28 days,
or 313 per year. However, over 6,000
Blacks are murdered annually, with other Blacks being the assailants 90% of the
time. When is God going to intervene?
I
believe in facing the facts. It does not
appear that religion has had a positive impact on the crime or incarceration
rate of African American, yet African Americans hold strong religious beliefs.
The United States represent 5% of the world’s population, yet 25% of the
world’s prison population. Yet, there is no evidence that those Blacks in
prison have any significant atheist affiliation. Now I don’t take the arrogant higher moral
ground because I am an atheist.
Atheists, as a group tends to be more educated, have higher incomes,
disproportionately white, and therefore don’t face the scrutiny as Blacks in
the criminal justice system. I am
painfully aware that crime and punishment are affected by social and economic
factors, plus the lengthening shadow of slavery with the accompanying racially
imbalanced justice system, but you would think there would be some correlation
between the religious fever of African Americans and restraint from and
involvement in crime. So, I know you
will have a higher percentage of African Americans in prison. But, obviously, somewhere along the way, God
has failed African Americans. Again, I
want to be clear that I do not believe that atheists are somehow more moral
than non-atheist, but neither are believers more moral than non-believers. There are some good atheist and some morally
detestable atheist; there are some morally good religious people, and there are
some detestable religious people.
Ministers (Dr.) Cornell West and (Dr.) Eric
Michael Dyson
My
last topic will deal with two people in whom I have the highest of regard. They are eminent scholars, as demonstrated by
intellectual accomplishment and academic productivity. They are perhaps two of the most brilliant
minds of the 21st century.
They are Dr. Cornell West and Dr. Eric Michael Dyson. They are also ordained ministers.
Dr.
Cornell West, born June 2, 1952, graduated from Harvard University with a
bachelor’s degree in 1973; a Ph.D from Princeton University in 1980, and
coincidentally the first Black American to be awarded a doctorate in philosophy
from Princeton. He has served as a professor at a number of universities,
including Harvard, Princeton, and Union Theological Seminary. Dr. West is a very prolific writer, penning
20 books and many articles. He has been
and still continues as one of the intellectual backbones of the struggles of
Black and other oppressed population, including lesbian and gays. His books include The Ethical Dimensions of
Marxist Thought (1991), Beyond Eurocentrism and Multiculturalism (1993), Race
Matters (1994) Restoring Hope: Conversation on the Future of Black America
(1997), The African-American Century:
How Black Americans Have Shaped Our Century (with Henry Louis Gates,
Jr., 2000), Brother West: Living &
Loving Out Loud (2006), The Rich and the Rest of US: A Poverty Manifesto (with
Tavis Smiley, 2012), and Black Prophetic Fire (2014). He has also been an activist, participating
in demonstrations, such as Occupy DEC, PETA, Million Man March, Hip-Hop Summit,
against Human Trafficking, and he is a member of the Campaign for Peace and
Democracy.
Dr.
West has also made appearances on TV programs and documentaries, such as the
Matrix Reloaded, the video game, Enter the Matrix, the documentary film,
Examined Life, academic discussions about philosophy in real-world context,
Real Time with Bill Maher, 30 Rock, and numerous other appearances.
He
is the consummate activist intellectual, academician (in terms of production of
works); a person to be admired and I admire him very much. But there are two issues I have with Dr.
West: his claim, as he grins and says, "I am a Christian,” and his
criticism of Dr. W. E. B. DuBois’ religious views.
Dr.
West states:
“I follow the biblical injunction to look at the world
through the eyes of its victims, and the Christocentric perspective that
requires that one see the world through the lens of the Cross-and thereby see
our relative victimizing and relative victimization. Since we inhibit different locations on the
existential, socioeconomic, cultural and political scales, our victim status
differs, though we all, in some way, suffer…..
My acceptance of the prophetic Christian tradition is
rational in that it rest upon good reasons.
These reasons are good ones not because they result from logical
necessity or conform to transcendental criteria. Rather, they are good in that they flow from
rational deliberation that perennially scrutinizes my particular tradition in
relation to specific problems of dogmatic thought, existential anguish and
societal oppression.”
In
other words, he says I know there is no reasonable intellectual thought process
that can support Christianity (or God), but the sociology of it satisfies my
position that I do not have to come to grips with the reality that the history
and the idea of Christianity and its antecedent God is based on historical
myth. This is my view of Dr. West’s
thought pattern. I would like to ask him
to explain. Dr. West goes on to state:
“Yes, presently, I remain convinced by prophetic Christian
tradition. Its synoptic vision speaks with insight and power to the multiform
character of human existence and to the specificity of the historical modes of
human existence. Its moral vision and
ethical norms propel human intellectual activity to account for and transform
existing forms of dogmatism, oppression and despair. And the historicist turn in philosophy of
religion helps us understand that we are forced to choose, in a rational and
critical manner, some set of transient social practices, contingent cultural
descriptions and revisable scientific theories by which to live. This historicist stress on human finitude and
human agency fits well, thought it does not justify, my Christian faith. And, to put it bluntly, I do hope that the
historists turns in philosophy of religion enriches the prophetic Christian
tradition and enables us to work more diligently for a better world.”
In
other words, I know this God and Christian stuff is bunk, but I don’t want to
have to deal with being an atheist and defending it for all the crazy
Christian, Muslims, and Jews (not so much Jews. A large portion of Jews really
get it. Over one-third are reported to
be atheist or agnostic), who may not listen to me in other than academic
circles if I were to be an out-of-the closet atheist.
Briefly,
Dr. West criticized Dr. W. E. B. DuBois for his criticism of religion/God,
suggesting that Dr. DuBois should not reject religion/Christianity because of
the loss of a loved one. I suggest that
non-religious people deal with the loss of a loved one in the same manner as
religious people: they feel emotional
pain, and then they try to move forward with the logic that some people die
early, and the reasons are connected to the scientific and environmental cycle
of the mammal experience. I feel that
Dr. West’s criticism of W. E. DuBois was unfair and not founded on an
intellectual platform that can withstand logical or empirical scrutiny.
Dr.
Dyson is a somewhat different case. He
is not as intellectually eloquent regarding doubts about his faith as Dr. West
if he (Dr., Dyson) has any. He just seems a little “God struck” to me. Dr. Dyson was born October 23, 1958, part of
the boomer generation, as am I, but I am 11 years older. He became an ordained minister at 19 years of
age, as I became an atheist at 19 years of age.
He received his Bachelor’s degree, magna cum laude, from Carson-Newman
College in 1985; and his master’s and Ph.D in religion, from Princeton
University in 1991 and 1993, respectively.
He has served as a faculty member at Chicago Theological Seminary, Brown
University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Columbia University,
DePaul University the University of Pennsylvania, and Georgetown
University. He has written 18 books,
including Making Malcolm (1994), Hurricane Katrina and the Color of Disaster,
Let me Hear you Holla: the story of Tupac Sukur; and Brother and Keepers; he is
a regular guest and commentator on National Public Radio, CNN, and MSNBC. He has received the NAACP Image Award for
Outstanding Literary Work (2004), 2006, and 2007). His many awards and
recognition abound. My question is if he
is so intelligent, then why in the hell is he still holding on to the
ridiculous belief that he should be a Christian, a minister, or for that matter
any religious faith. You would think
that given his intelligence and intellect he would recognize that the Bible is
filled with inaccuracies, lies, non-sense, witchcraft, ghost stories, illogical
thinking, anti-intellectual thought (although I am sure he will dispute that
the Bible is anti-intellectual, but I think he will admit that much of what is
written in the Bible lacks rudimentary empirical evidence). I spent about ten minutes talking to him once
at a small gathering at a bookstore in Long Beach, CA, as he lectured on Let me
Hear you Holla: the story of Tupac Sukur.
We exchanged a few kind words and cards, and he invited me to follow-up
with him for further discussions. I had
spent eight years teaching ethnic studies, part-time at Cal Poly, San Luis
Obispo, CA, and had some knowledge of Tupac. I had also taught Black History at
a community college for ten years. Now,
to be fair, I have not read all of Dr. Dyson’s writings, and some of my
criticisms may not be accurate, but the major thrust of my concerns is
firm. He can dress it up and say that
Black people have embraced Christianity and made it their own, as the followers
of Jesus embraced the term “Christians”, but this does not change the fact that
African Americans have taken on the religions of the populations that oppressed
them most, Islam and Christianity, respectively, and African Americans continue
to do so today.
Each
of us, all people, individually and collectively, has had to formulate a
perspective on life and the universe based on our individual socioeconomic and
cultural experiences, combined with our own psychology. So I am not judging Dr. Dyson or Dr. West’s
individual social and psychological perspective for expressing their views in
the manner in which we receive it and they promulgate it. I simply have questions about their religious
intellectual honesty. Dr. W. E. B.
DuBois said that the best that a scholar can give is a reverence for truth, a
disdain for hypocrisy and sham, and a real sincerity in purpose. In fact, Dr. DuBois was unforgiving of
Galileo for recounting his knowledge of the earth’s rotation before the
tribunal during his trial for heresy.
Dr. DuBois believed that Galileo should have maintained, before the
tribunal, that the earth was not the center of the universe. Now, I have not faced imminent death, and
therefore, I cannot say what Galileo should have or have not said, but Dr. West
and Dr. Dyson do not face death or for that matter any form of ridicule for
their beliefs. They are the experts, and
they will continue to be respected as eminent scholars of their time. Now, if they revealed themselves as atheist,
they would not be accepted by many of the Black masses and elite with the
esteem that they currently enjoy; so I understand, to a degree, their dilemma;
but like DuBois, I am not forgiving of their position, although I respect their
right to have a difference of opinion. I
simply don’t understand it. One of the major problems, as I see it, it that
other voices are not heard as they should be because of Dr. West and Dr.
Dyson. I am speaking of the Black
free-thinking intellectuals.
There
are some least talked about Blacks in America, dead and living that are not
religious, and certainly their religious views are not at the center of their
discussions. These individuals are
viewed as atheist, agnostic, or free-thinkers; Dr. Carter G. Woodson, historian
and author; Richard Wright, author; Zora Neal Hurston, author; Butterfly McQueen, actress; Lorraine
Hansberry, Playwright; James Foreman, Civil Rights Activist; A. Phillip
Randolph, Civil Rights Activist; Charlie “Bird” Parker, musician; Dr. Neil
deGrasse Tyson, scientist (Dr. Tyson is beginning to get more airtime for his
beliefs); Langston Hughes, writer; Morgan Freeman, actor; and Whoopi Goldberg,
actress, Certainly they have had and
current occupy forums, but the topic of religion is usually not at the center
of their discussions. I am especially impressed with the thoughts of Dr. Niel
DeGrasse Tyson. For example, Dr. Neil
deGrasse Tyson stated to Bill O’Reilly on the subject of God,
“Does it mean if you don’t understand something, and the
community of physicists don’t understand it, that means God did it” Is that how you want to play this game: Because if it is , here is a list of the
things in the past that the physicists at the time didn’t understand, and a
talk show you might have conducted 200 years ago would have said “The planet do
retrograde: Can’t understand that, must be God,
And we’d say “You know, you’re are right: And then ten years later we understand it, so
what do you do: So if that’s how you
want to invoke your evidence for God, then God is an ever receding pocket of
scientific ignorance that’s getting smaller and smaller and smaller as time
moves on, so just be ready for that to happen if that’s how you want to come at
the problem.”
This
is one of my major problems with the theory of Gods or Gods. It appears that many intelligent minds cannot
let go of the fact that they are going to die, not return, not know what is
going to happen in the future, and that if you are lucky enough you get old,
your body deteriorates, and your mind is not as sharp as you want it to be; if you are a man, at some point you will have
erectile dysfunction, or, at least,
decreased libido; and you will die, and you will not come back to see how
everything goes afterwards. Although
more intelligent, we are just like the wildebeest that cross the Serengeti, the
crocodile of life will get some of us, and most will die from old age. Not believing in God has not made me a better
or worse person. I am certain that many
people can give examples of people who have turned their lives around because
they felt a close relationship with the idea of God. This is good, but it does not make the existence
of God true. The idea of God just fills
in the gap when we don’t know the answer. It did not work in the past but was
accepted. The idea of God has been a
hindrance to the full development of the human species. The idea of God thwarts intellectual
development. Not believing in God has
given me the ultimate freedom – to be an existentialist and to be more human
and to try to make the best decisions I can for the betterment of the human
race.
The
Bible is anti-intellectual. The Bible depicts a man (Moses) parting the Red Sea
with a stick; Jesus bringing Lazarus back from the dead after three days of
death; the virgin birth; turning the poor wife of Lot into a pillar of salt;
Sampson’s strength in his hair (Someone had better tell Michael Jordan and all
the other men who shave their heads, including me); crucifixion; Jesus rising
from the dead; and that man (woman) will burn in an eternal hell of fire.
An
unknown writer in Humanism by Joe, sums up the view of knowledge in the Bible
in this manner:
“The
acquisition of knowledge was so evil in God’s eyes that it caused him to curse
all of humanity and the entire creation. Moreover, human reason is
untrustworthy and should not be used. There’s little point in studying the
world, anyway, because it belongs to Satan and will soon be destroyed and
replaced by another. Besides, superior results can be obtained from the
assistance of supernatural beings. And pursuing knowledge of this world brings
misery. People’s main focus should be on heaven and not earth.” (The above
information was taken from the following website.)
http://humanismbyjoe.co/biblical-opposition-to-knowledge/
With
the acceptance of Jesus came ignorance.
The outlook of Christians was fundamentally
different from that of the ancient Greeks and Romans. According to Christians,
God revealed himself through the Bible and the Church. As Tertullian
explained, scientific research became superfluous once the gospel of Jesus
Christ was available:
‘We have no need of
curiosity after Jesus Christ, nor of research after the gospel. When we
believe, we desire to believe nothing more. For we believe that there is
nothing else that we need to believe.”
“The Church taught
that it knew all there was to be known. Christian knowledge was comprehensive
and unquestionable. Rational investigation was, therefore, unnecessary.
Existing learning was not merely superfluous, but positively harmful.
Theologians were convinced that God had defined strict limits on the knowledge that human beings
might acquire, and anything else was "sorcery". De praescnptione
haereticorum (On the Rule of the Heretic)
Now, for me what does it mean to be an atheist and why
should it matter to anyone else. Does it
help the human species? My intent in
writing this book is to further the humanity of the human species. Atheism is not a Civil Rights movement. It is individual; it is existential, meant to
improve the free-thinking of individuals and hopefully influencing more
individuals to embrace the humanity of man/womankind.
Dr. Arthur R. Byrd is a retired community college Vice President. He worked 37 years in community colleges in
the states of Washington, Oregon, California, and Nevada; 24 years as a vice
president for student services. Dr. Byrd was awarded a doctorate degree in
Higher Education from the University of Washington. In addition, he served as
adjunct faculty in six universities in both undergraduate and graduate studies
for Portland State University, Portland OR; Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, CA;
Chapman University, Orange, CA; CSU, Long Beach, Long Beach, CA; University of
Nevada, Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV, and Alliant International
University – Online. His disciplines include Ethnic Studies,
Communications, and Education. Dr. Byrd grew up in a small rural community of 500 people called Nigton,
Texas, located in the piney woods of East Texas, during the Jim Crow
segregation era. The community’s social and cultural life focused on three
Churches, three juke joints, plus a school. Growing up Dr. Byrd focused on the
religious aspects of his community, but at the age of 19, while in the United
States Air Force, he had an intellectual epiphany and transitioned into
becoming an atheist. He has been an outspoken
atheist since that time. Since his
retirement from higher education in 2011, Dr. Byrd has dedicated himself to the
study of the history and philosophy of religion, culminating in the writing of
a book that chronicles his transition to atheism, and the various stages of
atheist he has experienced up until the present time.
