Why I am not a Christian...

I present to you 'faithful' readers of my blog, a disquisition in the form of a list (hoping to reach a catchy number like 50 so I can re-title the page) explaining the many reasons I do not subscribe to any form of blind faith, superstition or mythology. Faith in God as creator of Man, the Earth and indeed the Universe is a notion shared by the vast majority of our species, and for the life of me I have no idea why it remains so prevalent in 2010. I can remember figuring out the absence of a God about the same time I worked out the impossibility of Santa Claus around age 8. Even my childish imagination found it a stretch to accept the flying reindeer circumnavigating the globe at the speed of light, and the realisation that the 'True Meaning of Christmas' was equally plausible followed shortly afterward. If I had figured this out to myself as a mere child, why had not more people reached the same conclusions, I pondered. Further research in my adult life has cemented my 'non-belief' and complete certainty there is no God, Heaven, Hell, Angels, Demons, Judgment Day, Soul or Spirit. Far from being a non-belief, Atheism must replace religious 'answers' with cold, hard, demonstrable facts. For me, it's not enough for a person to say they have no religion or belief without saying what they DO believe. Thought must have been given as to why one does not accept the story (and it is a story) of Creation, Moses, Jesus & Pals, Noah's Ark or Mohammed's ascension to Heaven. Atheism is not an easy way out, one must be able to answer it's critics - the believers - and combat the arguments that present themselves when one admits (proudly) that they are an infidel. Atheism demands an understanding of Logic, Reason and Science (all 3 disciplines). An ignorance of these subjects will render the skeptic defenseless when confronted by the Preachermen. I am aiming for 10.

1. The Presence of other Religions. I could equally have titled this entry as Why I am not a Muslim, Jew, Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Scientologist, Mormon, Pagan, Voodooist, Rastafarian, Taoist, Shintoist, Jedi, Shaman, Catholic, Protestant, Methodist, Baptist, Unitarian, Zoroastrianist, Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox... need I continue? Each one lays claim, arrogantly, to be the 'One True Faith', and that their God is the one and only. You can't all be right chaps, logic dictates so. The ancient Greeks had their Gods, so did the Romans and the Vikings. Don't see many followers of Odin and Thor these days, what if they were right?

2. The concept of God as Creator. In order to explain the fact that we are here, The Earth is here, the moon and stars and the planets are here, each major religion claims God was able to create life, matter and energy from nothing, and using the Christian example (I am more familiar with it than the others, and I make no apologies. I have read about the others as much as I felt necessary) in 7 days. So in order to explain something so complex, we have to imagine an entity, some supernatural being, God, did all this. Wouldn't a being/entity/force/energy/God capable of such a feat require a damn sight MORE explanation than what it was we are trying to explain originally? Very much so. The Big Bang Theory is not quite comprehensive enough, as science still searches valiantly for the Grand Unified Theory - I hope to see it in my lifetime, but it offers a lot more to me than 'God did it' ever will.

3. Evolution. The Bible tells us that God created life in all its forms in one day, and therefore no room for improvement would have been needed. Perfection was achieved in the Garden of Eden, each animal 'designed' to live in it's habitat as it was placed there (presumably Polar Bears did not walk out of the desert, and birds dig themselves out of the ground). Evolution is fact. Not something you can choose to believe in or not. Fact, you can accept it only if you understand it. There is no 'argument from design' as put forth by William Paley and the Blind Watchmaker analogy. If Predators were 'designed' to be great hunters, why is the prey so well 'designed' to out run the predator? Why were these animals places next to each other, and not on separate Islands? Maybe the Creator enjoys the spectacle of bloodsport, in the War of Nature. More likely it is the War of Nature that forces animals (us included) to adapt to our environment as we compete for food and mates. Marry the Fact of Evolution with genetics and the argument is air-tight.

4. The Fossil Record. No mention in the Bible about Trilobites, Woolly Mammoths, Neanderthals or Dinosaurs then? Our Creator found the time to build them, give them life, provide them with a means to survive then let them die out, or kill them? Seems like a waste of time, effort and resources. These creatures existed, and cold hard evidence is there for us all to see in the Natural History Museum. I once knew a man, a Muslim, that denied the existence of Dinosaurs outright. I have to admit giving up the debate shortly after his admission.

5. Genetics. The Human Genome project is a brilliant achievement. Mapping our DNA, saving lives and curing diseases. Would any of this be even necessary if God were benevolent, omniscient and omnipresent? What kind of God would allow genetic disorders to exist in the first place and be passed from person to person? We shared a common ancestor with chimps. We did not evolve from chimps. Our similarities have been accurately noted at around 98% - the 2% is massive in Gene terms don't forget - but this is proof enough for me. Demonstrable, measurable tangible evidence that a 2000 year old book cannot provide.

6. Geology. The Earth is not less than 10,000 years old. Simply by adding up the ages of the Bible characters is no way to date the Earth from 'Creation' to present day. Especially as some guys lived to be 900 years old. Funny how life expectancy has shrunk to less than 10% of that sort of age despite huge advances in scientific medicine and economic living standards. The Earth itself, fossilized animals and dinosaur bones can be dated accurately with Radio Carbon Dating. Again, not something to choose to believe in, something you either comprehend or you don't.

7. Contradictions of Biblical proportions. If you made it further than 'In the Beginning, God created the Heaven and the Earth' then there are even greater fairy tales to be had. Some that I have trouble getting past are virgin births, talking snakes, parting seas and an Ark so big it was able to take 2 of every animal, feed them, house them and keep them from eating one another. We are then told that some of the Bible is not to be taken literally, but no key is given, nothing is italicised to aid the poor reader. Are the Ten Commandments to be taken literally? Is Creation a metaphor? You have the option to pick and choose to suit your cause it would seem. Myriad examples, of which here are just a few:

EXODUS 15:3 The LORD is a man of war: the LORD is his name.
ROMANS 15:33 Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen.

JEREMIAH 13:14 I will smash them one against the other, fathers and sons alike, declares the Lord. I will allow no pity or mercy or compassion to keep me from destroying them.
PSALMS 145:9 The Lord is good to all, he has compassion on all he has made.

My personal favourite:

EXODUS 34:14 Do not worship any other God, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.

Just what the Lord of Heaven, Earth, Creator of Life and Light has to be jealous of is beyond me. His next door neighbours' new car? His bosses salary? His friend's hot wife? Hang on, didn't he create all these things? God really does move in mysterious ways.

8. Ethics & Morality, the presence of Evil. If we discard the idea of Creation (seems like a big part of the whole set up to me, but for arguments sake leave it to one side) we are left with the teachings and guidance the Word of God is supposed to provide. If you need an ancient text to tell you that murder and stealing is wrong then there is something wrong. The Church - especially the Catholic variety - has been responsible for an awful lot of suffering, war and atrocity over the last few centuries. The Bible has a lot to say about Morality. Adulterers and homosexuals are to be stoned to death, apparently. The presence of Evil in the world is also something I find increasingly hard to overlook. Good things happen to bad people. Bad things happen to good people. I read an article about Madeline McCann's parents, in which the mother said that she found her faith tested when so many thousands of prayers were being said for her daughter. Clearly they are either being unanswered, or more likely, not heard beyond the skull of the person uttering them.

9. War & Jerusalem. The Holy Land really is an unfortunate place. Ravaged by war for centuries. Seemingly it is due to one set of people claiming an area of land to have been promised to them by God. Another lot dispute this, claiming it was in fact promised to them by a different God. It also just so happens that Jerusalem seems to straddle the faultline between 3 or 4 Holy places of worship each belonging to different religions. Neither side possessing a shred of proof, war is inevitable. See also the Crusades, The Troubles in Ireland, the Inquisition, Jihad, the War on Terror and George W Bush. Nobody has ever been to war over disputes within Atheism.

10. Heaven & Hell, Angels & Demons. The end of the World is nigh. Judgment Day is upon us. The Four horsemen of the Apocalypse are approaching. Are they? When? I'll need to iron a shirt for the occasion. In my mind as an 8 year old, the vicar telling us that good people go to heaven and bad people go to hell was just the same as my parents telling me that Santa only delivers presents to those that are good. God has a naughty list just the same. One word for this, scaremongering. A belief that people live on after death (or come back as an animal, or have 72 virgins waiting for them) needs a great deal of other beliefs to work. Somewhere the place has to exist literally. The mind and body are separate entities (The Duality of Man) and that the spirit leaving the flesh has to travel somewhere and be judged. No grey areas, you are good or evil and your fate is sealed. Modern life is just not like that. Good people can be driven to do bad things, and bad people can be rehabilitated. War, famine and disease have been allowed to cause immense suffering, with no intervention.

So I reached a nice round number. My work is done. This is by no means comprehensive, I gave Evolution 1 paragraph, it deserves the volumes that have already been written. Rest assured I do know that the truth cannot be proven either way, but on the strength of the evidence before us and the logical reasoning our species is capable of, there is no doubt in my mind that there is no God. We are but groups of organic chemicals standing on a rock, hurtling through space with no rhyme or reason, no higher purpose than to enjoy ourselves, live out our one and only life and make the most of our insignificance. That we are here using electricity, browsing the web, venturing into space, conducting stem cell research, flying aircraft, gazing at distant galaxies with our own technology, producing art, literature, poetry, music, understanding mathematics, physics, economics, politics and anthropology is more wondrous than I could have hoped for.

I owe alot of this article to Richard Dawkins, and The God Delusion, which is my Bible. There is grandeur in the Godless view of life, I hope that you share in it.

This view of life.

Welcome to my blog. As I write, the sun is setting on a cool spring evening as I sit writing in our nation's capital. The city that, I think, occasionally takes a nap, but is overall somewhat sleep deprived. I've spent four weeks here in the South East and have slotted into the pace and energy of London with remarkable ease, and finding myself suddenly inspired to write I signed up to the internet colossus of Google. Like the city buzzes with movement, people, traffic and energy so too I find my mind is racing with ideas and in need of a creative outlet. I hope that while this weblog serves as a therapeutic tool for my burdensome brain, it may also provide stimulus, entertainment and debate for those of you that care enough to read it. I hope to share my thoughts, views, musings with you in HTML and hope that after a few posts my view of life will become abundantly clear. As an un-muddied lake, as clear as an azure sky in deepest summer. As you may well have noticed, I am a big fan of quotations, lacking as I do so much originality. Points will be awarded for those that spot them and correctly identify their source!

I am a man of limited talents. I was not endowed with sporting prowess, good looks, musical or artistic ability or any great affinity for charming members of the opposite sex. My talents lie in essay writing, the ability to formulate arguments, analytical thought and the odd dash of razor sharp wit. I hope to bring to the page my thoughts on topics that interest me and are worthy of my time. You can expect the odd book, film or TV program review along the way, as well as commentary on current affairs and news items of note. I tend to see the world in very simplistic terms, boiling things down to their essence. I have no time for superfluousness, insipid or vacuous topics and am often criticised for using 'too many big words'. Such harsh criticism of a natural attribute, and as much as I try I cannot see a drawback. I suggest to those that lack the necessary vocabulary function or enough perspicacity to endure my manipulation of English to keep another tab open on their browser set to www.dictionary.com. Others have criticised me for being too cynical, too negative and downbeat. I prefer to think of myself as realistic.

The title of the blog is, to some of you, an obvious homage to an oft quoted passage from Darwin's 'On the origin of species'. Evolution and the related topics of genetics, science and atheism will no doubt all make an appearance along the way, atheism being one of my favourites.

Hopefully given time I can persuade some of you that there is grandeur in MY view of life.