Just because I have decided that I am an atheist doesn’t mean I believe in nothing. It doesn’t mean I am a fanatical devotee of the temple of Science, or that I am some kind of Nihilist.
Atheism isn’t a set of beliefs. It’s not a positive affirmation of anything. All “atheism” says is that I don’t believe in God. But I do believe in other things.
I believe in a fundamental unity of the universe, that separateness is an illusion. Physically, we’re all made of the same stuff anyway, and there’s a cycle as we rotate mater into, through, and ultimately out of our bodies. Our atoms don’t have our names written on them. The illusion of separateness may have its advantages, but in the end it is an illusion. Furthermore, if mind and body are really the same thing, then our consciousness is really just a part of everything else the same way our body is. And if there really is some kind of mind-body dualism, then mind is still part of everything else either by virtue of being connected to body in some way, or in the sense that the mind/soul is all the same as all other mind/soul the same way body is.
I believe in dicsovery, in learning, and true progress. I believe in the importance of figuring out as much as we can about the world and about ourselves, through all of the fantastic means we have at our hands.
I believe that there is a lot more out there than we can even imagine, that our models of the universe, useful though they may be, don’t come near to explaining everything in an exhausive sense. I believe in mystery, and in the unknown. I believe that “there are more things in heaven and earth… than are dreamt of in [our] philosophy.”
I believe in treating other people the way I would like to be treated. I believe in empathy and compassion. Even without God, these are the things that make us human and give value to the human experience. I believe that human beings are important, not because some arbitrary supreme being says so on a whim, but because we have incredible potential.
I believe in being happy, both on an individual and a collective level. I believe that the pursuit of happiness, again balancing the individual’s happiness against humanity’s happiness, will take us great places.
I believe in making the world better- I believe in taking care of each other and taking care of the world we live in and leaving the place better for the next generation than it was left for us. Because humanity is wonderful, and the earth is our home.
I believe that love is the most wonderful thing that there is.
That’s all I can think of right now. I’m sure there is more.
Sailing to Byzantium 
And all of those things are why I love you.
And I believe in you, Kullervo, and I believe that you will get the answers that you are looking for, and that you will come to find spiritual peace.
Very beautiful post… this leaves some hope to all those “immoral” atheists out there :oP
I’ve come a bit late, I’m afraid, but this was a truly beautiful post and I just wanted to say thanks. My hat is off to you, sir – you’ve become an atheist, an achievement in its own right, but you clearly haven’t lost sight of what really matters in life. Bravo!
Napkins ate my friends.
Don’t you think though that the reason you believe those things is due to your religious upbringing from a small child?
Had you NOT been indoctrinated into the golden rule lifestyle then you may have simply continued to believe in selfishness as much as a 3 year old child will take away a toy from someone smaller just because he wants to play with it and sees his OWN happiness as more important than abstract fairness.
Just look into the inner city hoods of America and you will see that there is no real universal humane way to treat people.The Golden Rule is not practised in these settings. In fact their moral rule is”Do something bad unto others before they have a chance to do something bad unto you”
Upbringing can’t help but affect your outward life view.
Many other cultures DO NOT believe in being good to one another and in fact they believe just the opposite like in a caste system such as in India.
And it took a Christian man named William Wilburforce to bring about a change in peoples hearts and minds in Britain towards slavery which then brought about a change in America.
Whether this invalidates or validates a ” basic universal humanistic goodness” is up for debate.
Yeah, I don’t think you really understand Hinduism and the caste system.
Sure, it’s possible that the only reason I think there are universal moral principles is that I was brought up religious.
In the 1700s and 1800s basically everyone in the US and Britain was Christian, so the Christian-end-to-slavery argument doesn’t hold much water, I’m afraid.
And having lived in Harlem (an “inner city hood”), I think your characterization of the people that live in “inner city hoods” is grossly distorted, hideously offensive, and way off the mark.
I completely reject your assertion that without religious indoctrination, people keep the moral standards of a three-year old. Maybe you should do some research into psychology before you go making broad, unfounded assertions like that.
Yeah go live in Watts and see how long whitey will last yet unharmed. Listen to Howard Stern and how he was tormented and beaten up as a child as the blacks took over his hood.
Facts are facts and the prison population is over 50-60% Black even though they make up only 14% of the population.
When kids aren’t brought up in religious households and or neighborhoods their they do turn to a life of crime at much higher rates.
Have you ever known anyone from India who was considered an untouchable person under the caste system? Do you know how easily a young woman can be KILLED in India by her mother in law for simply displeasing her?
It sounds like you are not as familiar with the world as you try to lead us to believe.
Hey, way to be hostile, racist, and bigoted, without actually contributing anything useful to the discussion, or indeed to the world. Did you think that you were going to convince me to change my ways with that crap? That you were going to make religion and Christianity look like good options by being as ugly as possible?
What do you think you’re going to accomplish with this post, “LoveyourblogKullervo?” You’ve said that black people are criminals, and that the problem is that they’re not religious. Facts may be facts, but I think your interpretation fo the facts is completely ignorant.
You’ve also said that Hinduism advocates mistreatment of people and murder of young women. That shows me you know pretty much nothing about Hinduism other than oversimplified alarmist garbage. It would be easy for pretty much anyone to level the same kinds of accusations at Christianity. Get that beam out of your eye.
Also, please don’t come back to my blog. You serve no purpose here, and this is not a public forum so you have no right to be here. As ignorant and ugly as your posts are, I’m not deleting them because I want other people to have the chance to take a crack at you. Goodbye, and have fun trolling elsewhere.
The black neighborhoods that I’ve lived in (and I’ve lived in some pretty dangerous ones) didn’t lack for religion. The people who lived there were almost universally religious. The reasons that African-Americans are overrepresented in the prison population are complicated but they have, as far as I can tell, nothing to do with religion or the lack thereof.
I’ve been reading these comments with my mouth slightly open. Do these people really think (quite apart from matters of racism) that inner city violence is a result of LACK of religion? That violence against women in India is because of LACK of religion? Or, let me understand, it is because of LACK of Christianity? Are we being serious here?
(Um, has anyone taken account of the religious observance in prisons, recently?)
Which “these people” are you talking about?