The new breed of atheists has been bothering me for some time now. Inspired by Ali Sina, faithfreedom.org and the likes they appear to possess the same streak of extremism I abhor in the religious fanatics. I call them ‘jihadi anti-theists’. Granted that the level of hysteria and violence between the ‘jihadi theist’ and ‘jihadi anti-theist’ is not at par, however it still is the beginning of atheist fanaticism in some way. It seems this clan is more concerned with Mo and his antics than Mo’s followers themselves. Completely missing out on the overall cultural evolution and geographic impacts on religion, they treat it as something that developed and thrived in isolation and a completely sterile environment.
In my opinion (and its totally subjective of course) after actually being an apostate for a long time one achieves a state of rest and peace. A true apostate will be rational and understand that evolution of religion and culture is going to take its due course in time. If one understands the evolution of cultures, societies and religion, one knows that the choice pool of gods and goddesses has been ever decreasing. It cannot be forced to change instantaneously, just like one cannot do away with the unnecessary hair on genitals for generations to come (at least not yet).
The idea of a god or a super natural being has evolved over thousands of years. First there were natural elements and objects for everything humans did not understand. Than came human personifications in the form of gods and goddesses assigned for every single thing, including good and bad. Gradually it evolved into good and bad gods, while goddesses were eliminated and only gods ruled the roost. After that came the monotheists that eliminated and short listed the candidates for omnipotence (this is not an accurate account but a general sequence for the purpose of this blog). So to condense it, in ancient times there were multiple gods, over time it shrunk to the Abrahamic religions which points to the probable next stage of no gods.
Comparing all of them with their past we can say the new ones were atheist regarding the past ones, and so are the new ones atheist for the ones in the past with only one god. It is a simple and gradual occurrence if thought about within the bigger picture. So, what I fail to understand is this bickering and extremist streak within this new breed of atheists who think they can organise into one single body like their religious counterparts. If it ever happens, I would prefer becoming an a-atheist because I am an apostate of organised religion.
Jihadi anti-theists are way more exasperating compared to their theist equivalents. One can understand that the beliefs of theists are dictated by a certain flavor of some absolutist ideology which they reckon is divine and therefore unquestionable. But apostates who somehow were able to relinquish their faith are not expected to display the same kind of fanaticism against theists in their anti-theistic campaigns.
ReplyDeleteThe whole point of being an atheist is to set yourself free, to embrace change and to realize that we humans change, evolve and adjust as we learn and as science continues to learn new and more of the old, so do we. it is this constant learning and adapting accordingly that should be key . Organizing under one particular banner and giving god like status to one person or idea kinda goes against this principle.
ReplyDeleteSomeone who has had the intelligence to come out of the fold of religion from within it (not an easy thing to do) should understand that extremely and aimlessly shoving ideas down throats is not going to achieve anything.