Some thoughts on what we are

"Our brains are ethical by design."

A while back, I read a book titled "Why We Believe in God(s) -- A Concise Guide to the Science of Faith." It was written by J. Anderson Thomson, Jr., MD with Clair Aukofer.

In my opinion, the book is brilliant, and explains a lot of things to me that never seemed to make sense before. It's all about how we humans have evolved, specifically our brains and body chemistry, to produce the kinds of behaviour we exhibit as modern homo sapiens. Obviously, from the title, most of the focus of the book is on how our brains and body chemistry function to make most of us susceptible to belief in higher beings for which no tangible proof exists.

This post isn't about atheism though. This post is about, well, about biology, I guess. What makes people people. How our brains work and why we are the way we are.

Anderson and Aukover's book has made me more convinced than ever that human beings are no more special or unique than, let's say, ants. Certainly we're far more complex. But we really are nothing more than bags of meat and chemicals that are programmed to react to the outside world (and the inner world too) in predictable ways.

I'm completely comfortable with this concept. I suppose being the hard-core atheist that I am makes me more predisposed than most to be able to accept that people are no more special biologically than ants or any other living thing. Evolution has given us abilities that set us apart from other creatures, but our ability to empathize with a fellow human being, or believe in gods, or write poetry stems from the same place as the evolved ability of birds to fly in flocks and never bump into each other or to find their way from their nesting grounds to a winter feeding ground and back again.

However, when I presented this concept to a group of writers I interact with regularly online...a very intelligent and open-minded group of people if there ever was one... some of the people who responded were outright offended by the idea and even those who weren't offended refused to accept that humans don't have some special "something other" that no other creature on the planet has. Even those who are also atheists wouldn't accept it. That blew me away. How can you call yourself an atheist and still sit there and insist that humans have "something special" that makes them somehow "more" than every other biological creature on the planet?

They almost seemed to think it was disrespectful of me to suggest it. Disrespectful to who?? To god, I guess, if they believe in one, or to humankind, if they don't.  Even the atheists were so protective of their precious status as the dominant species on the planet that they couldn't, or wouldn't, entertain the idea that we'd got where we are by simple chance and evolution.

I guess that blew me away as much as the concept that most of the people on the planet believe with all their hearts that there's some imaginary sky-god out there looking down on them, hearing their every thought and caring whether they eat a mollusk, say "goddam", or make love with someone of their own sex. To believe that humans are somehow more than collections of cells, chemicals, meat and bones, you cannot, in my opinion, truly consider yourself an atheist.

Excerpts from the book
Here are some of my favourite passages, that I'd highlighted in the book (don't worry, I didn't deface a book, though I'm not averse to highlighting favourite passages in printed tomes. This particular book was an e-book I bought through Kobo:

"Your snap judgements are millions of years in the making."

"Religious beliefs are basic human social survival concepts with slight alterations."

"Just to believe in a god, our mind bounces off no fewer than twenty hard-wired adaptations evolved over eons of natural selection to help us coexist and communicate with our fellow homo sapiens to survive and dominate the planet."

"Severe climate variation between 70,000 and 100,000 years ago apparently reduced our population to perhaps as few as 600 breeding individuals. That is what modern genetics now tells us. That means that every one of the 7 billion people on this planet is a descendant of that small group of hunter-gatherers who lived in Africa and survived the harsh climate change."

"The fact is, we never lose the longing for a caretaker." (This is in reference to the strong need of most people to feel someone is watching over them, even once they become adults.)

"It begins with our ability to mentally separate their [other peoples'] minds from their bodies, which in turn circles back to our ability not only to believe in what we cannot see, but also to interact with the invisible. We are born with the ability to read what others may be thinking even when they are not there to tell us. In a way, all of those to whom we are attached sometimes become imaginary friends."

"Belief in the supernatural is not something learned from our culture as we grow from infants to toddlers and more cognizant children. It is original equipment, requiring no social prompting."

"This human ability for self-deception is crucial to religious belief. If many believers could see their own minds more clearly, they would see that self-deception plays a role in their acceptance of faith."

"Most people live their lives as if there is no god. We stop at red lights, we put our children in car seats, and we act responsibly to protect our safety and the safety of those we love. If a person is religious, he is an atheist in relation to others' gods and the gods of history. He also will almost invariably live as an atheist in relation to his own worshipped deity." (In other words, we tend to behave as if there was no god protecting us even when we do believe...ie: we stop at red lights, not trusting that a god will save us if we go through.)

"We in the west have become so used to religious people not really, truly and fully believing what they say they believe, that we are startled when, as on 9/11, we encounter people who really do believe their religion and put their beliefs into murderous practice."

"At heart, we are all born creationists. Disbelief requires effort."

"The less you abide by scripture and the more you use your basic moral intuitions, the more moral you are likely to be. Genuine morality is doing what is right, regardless of what we may be told; religious morality is doing what we are told."

"We evolved to favour those with our genes over those without. Religions evoke and exploit kin emotions."

"Most religions are preoccupied with sex, and that in itself offers strong evidence that religion is man-made."

"The sacred is found between the ears." (Danish neurobiologist, Lone Frank)

"It has been documented for years that many individuals with temporal lobe epilepsy, which comes from electrical disturbances in the temporal lobes, have intense religious experiences, and that extreme religiosity is a common character trait among such patients." (he goes on the cite the following examples of people who are thought to have had temporal lobe epilepsy: St. Paul was having an epileptic fit when he was "struck down" on the road to Damascus; others: Ste. Theresa of Avila, Feodor Dostoevsky and Marcel Proust.)

"We often hear that if it weren't for religion, we would be immoral and unethical. Mirror neurons resoundingly refute this." (mirror neurons, put simply, are responsible for humans' ability to feel empathy. You'll have to read the book to get it.)

"God, No" ...a book review

I've been reading Penn Jillette's new book, "God, No," and I'm loving it so much I just had to put it out there.

You'll know Penn Jillette as the big guy in the Penn & Teller magic duo. Penn is what he calls a "hard-core atheist." I'm stealing that one to describe myself too. His book is about being an atheist, so if that offends you, just don't read it. Or, maybe you should read it if atheism offends you, because you really need to get over that.

If you've ever seen Jillette rant on any of his videos (many of which can be found on YouTube), you'll know what I mean when I say he writes like he talks. His book is liberally sprinkled with the f-word and with a veritable feast of hilarious, pointed, brilliant metaphors, similes and descriptions. He meanders around his topic like an avid needleworker browsing the world's biggest needle crafts store, idly wandering from one story to the next, picking up a thread here and a thimble there, not always with any obvious connection, until coming back finally to his point. And all along the way you've been treated to a delightful, deliciously scandalous, funny ride with a point at the end.

The book is divided up into sections named after the ten commandments. In place of the real ten commandments, he offers his own versions, which I like very much. For instance, instead of "Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy" and so on, Jillette's fourth commandment is:

"Put aside some time to rest and think (if you're religious, that might be the Sabbath; if you're a Vegas magician, that'll be the day with the lowest grosses)."

I like that.

If for no other reason than an appreciation of good humour, I recommend this book. I frequently laugh out loud while I read it. I shit you not. It constantly makes me wish I could write like that. It's funny, it's fun to read, and it has a lot of good points. But not only is it funny, it's often very touching too... as I found with his story about the orthodox Jew-turned-atheist who approached him after a show asking him to participate in a very special moment in his life. I actually found myself dabbing tears from my eyes as I read that story.

Great book. Read it.

I have a new blog

For anyone who may be interested, I've started a new blog called "In the words of a godless heathen."

As most people who know me well are aware, I stopped believing in a supernatural deity when I was 16 years old. I know that it's not a popular stance to take, especially in these times of religious fundamentalism. Happily for me, none of my friends or family members has (so far) expressed any outward displeasure or intolerance for my lack of belief, so I must respect them in return by not flaunting my atheism in their faces.

For that reason, I created a separate blog to air my thoughts on theism and atheism, where they will be available to those who are interested, but not forced upon those who are not. Someday I may no longer wish to be so delicate about the matter, but until then, you will find my godless heathen blog here:

http://agodlessheathen.blogspot.com/

I will be interested in any and all comments you wish to leave on that blog, and invite anyone to submit "articles" you've written yourself for me to post which will be clearly marked with your byline as a guest columnist.

Here's to some thought-provoking discussion and reading.

I am an atheist

That's right. I don't believe in a god, and if that offends or shocks you, I'm sorry, but you'll just have to accept it because you aren't going to change it.

There is a call to action by many "militant" atheists for all atheists to stand up and be counted. To "come out" as it were. I think it's time we did so, mostly because religion is being used in such a perverted way these days and threatening to shoot us back into the dark ages after all the progress we've made in the last century or so. I mean "we" as in society in general. This is especially true in the U.S. Gladly, Canada, along with the UK and other "enlightened" countries hasn't fallen quite so far into this trap -- so far.

I am an atheist and have been since I was 16 years old and suddenly had an epiphany (if I can co-opt the Christian term) that I simply could no longer buy into in the Judeo-Christian-style concept of a god that I had assumed all my life up till then was in charge up there. Perhaps my parents or my educators didn't do a very good job of explaining the nature of God to me (and I only give that word a capital G because it's his given name, not because he's A god). Perhaps if they hadn't brainwashed me with this mental picture of an old man with a long white beard sitting on a throne up in the clouds, I may have had more tolerance for the entire concept of "deity.

"Militant Atheism" doesn't sit very well with me either, to be honest, but it has its points. I dislike it because it's combative, which makes it no better than the attitudes of many theists, who believe that if you don't believe in their particular brand of sky-god, that you'll burn in hell for all eternity, or that it's okay to murder you and your children and be rewarded for it.

I personally don't feel a need to convince others that there is no god, although, I'm a little baffled by the whole idea of religious belief. It's always seemed kind of odd to me that otherwise intelligent adults can believe in a spirit for which they have no concrete evidence, espeically when there's so much hard evidence to refute many of the theistic beliefs, such as creationism. It's always seemed strange to me that strong, capable men, who are otherwise very sensible and practical, will pray and worship something they've never seen, something they have no more proof of than the brainwashing they've received all their lives to believe. I'm equally convinced that there is no god as they are that there is, yet I feel no need to go out and convince them that they're wrong.

On one condition...that they let me believe what I want and don't try to change my mind. Tit for tat.

Militant atheists like Richard Dawkins (author of "The God Delusion") are generally very smart, sensible people, but they're far too offended by the whole idea of religion. They have to relax a little, for crying out loud. Then again, as someone once said, it takes the radicals in any movement to make the rest of the world listen to and accept the ideas of the moderates. I guess that's what Richard Dawkins is doing for the rest of us moderate atheists.

As for me, I do agree that atheists need to stand up and be counted. Christians and Jews and Muslims go around wearing the symbols of their faith on their bodies so all the world can see what they believe in. Even I go around wearing a star of David - but only because it has sentimental value. I have often wished that there was a symbol that atheists could wear to proclaim their own belief (or lack thereof). Imagine my surprise when I found so many others with the same idea when I googled "atheist symbol."

My favourite was the circle with the stick coming out the bottom, a simplified magnifying glass, symbolizing scepticism and scientific research. But as soon as I read someone else's description of it as a lollipop, I lost interest in that one. I saw another that incorporated the pi symbol, which was nice, and one that used a stylized DNA strand, also very clever and attractive. I think it has to be something that can be drawn very easily by anyone...very simple, preferably semetrical. But also something that can be beautiful if rendered in an artistic way. Something that people would like to wear in place of a crucifix or star of David.

I think it's important for atheists to come out because it will at least show the rest of the world that they're not completely in charge. Why should atheists hide? It's really not unlike what it used to be like to be gay. When gay people started coming out of the closet they faced a lot of discrimination and persecution, sometimes even lethal. I've heard stories about atheists who've gone public being persecuted in much the same way. Threats, vandalism to personal property, job loss, social ostracism. Why should that be tolerated?

The biggest challenge atheists face is that you can't prove something doesn't exist. And we'll always have that problem, at least until the rest of the world lets go of their mythologies and superstitions. Then it will still be unprovable, but nobody will care.

A few times I've gone out looking for a sense of community in my atheism, but always come away feeling disappointed because I either find a bunch of atheists sitting around ridiculing theists, or I find progressively more hostile debates between theists and non-theists, which just make me frustrated and sad. I don't want to debate. I just want people to be allowed to live their own lives without feeling like they have to change everyone else to their own opinion.