Why I am an Atheist

The title of this post in a variation on "Why I am a Catholic".  G.K. Chesterton published a short essay with this title in 1926.  I could pick out no coherent argument as to why Chesterton was specifically a Catholic as opposed to a member of any other possible religion.  Gary Wills published a book of the same title in 2002.  I read Mr. Wills' book.  Well, actually I read parts of his book.  I expected to find some coherent argument as to why he was a Catholic.  Mostly I got large chunks of personal history so I started skipping around looking for the core argument.  It turns out that he is a Catholic because his parents were Catholic and he was raised Catholic.  This is hardly a compelling argument.  Mr. Wills is well known for his disagreements with some aspects of Catholicism.  Some of this is on display in the book.  Again some kind of analysis as to why Catholicism, especially in view of his disagreements, instead of something else was lacking.  I will be addressing this issue further in other posts.  But for the purposes of this post I will follow in Mr. Wills footsteps and lay out a history of my path to Atheism.

Like Mr. Wills I was born a Catholic and had two Catholic parents.  My father was a Catholic to his death.  My mother is still alive and still a Catholic.  So, unlike Mr. Wills, my choice of religion has changed over my lifetime.  This is the result of some effort on my behalf to figure out what is right and true.   "Right and true" are the core of what religion is supposed to be about.  It makes no sense to me to hold to a religion which is either wrong or false.  So I am completely perplexed as to why Mr. Wills holds to a religious belief that he finds flawed in important ways.  In any case, . . .

I went to Parochial School for 8 years and then to public schools for the rest of my education.  During High School I went to 4 years of CCD (religion school).  So I have the standard religious upbringing for a Catholic.  I began to have doubts in High School.  One reason for this was exposure to history.  It turned out that my public school history books covered events of profound significance to a Catholic that were completely absent from my extensive Catholic education.  These events were those leading up to and including the Protestant Reformation.   These events did not show the Catholic Church in a good light, and justifiably so.  The Church behaved shabbily.

I went off to college at a state university.  Initially, I was ambivalent.  My approach was "keep your options open".  Even if it does not seem true, why take the chance.  This went on for a couple of years.  I eventually decided this approach was dishonest as I no longer believed.  So I quit.  I became what is called a "lapsed Catholic".  But my thinking continued to evolve.  One influence was the book "Stranger in a Strange Land" by Robert Heinlein.  It is a work of Science Fiction and in it the main character literally invents a religion.  The events in the book parallel in important ways the life of Christ.  This experience led me to the conclusion that it was not that hard to invent a religion.

This book was not even the only Heinlein book to deal with the invention of religions for political reasons.  Modern Science Fiction is now replete with invented religions.  The recent "Battlestar Galactica" TV series deals extensively with a made up religion within the context of its continuing story arcs.  And, most famously, another Science Fiction author, L. Ron Hubbard, has invented an actual religion, Scientology.  Scientology is no different in its general structure from other religions.  The details of its rituals and belief system are not the same as any other religion but it falls well within the range for a typical religion.  But this is like saying Dashiell Hammett wrote different detective fiction than Raymond Chandler did.  It's still detective fiction.

This exposure to made up religions in Science Fiction was part of the process I went through at this time.  For the obvious question was:  Well if there is a problem with Catholicism then what about other religions.  I quickly discarded other christian religions.  One way of looking at the Protestant Reformation was as an attempt to fix Catholicism.  The initiating event was Martin Luther's identification of a problem with Catholic practise, namely selling indulgences.  I certainly agreed with Luther's criticism.  But what happened afterward was that many other problems were identified and Christianity quickly splintered into many factions and wings.  I concluded that there was no core truth.  From my perspective, Catholicism was the best of the lot but the whole lot was bad.

I will confess to have not made an exhaustive survey of religions.  I have spent a little time looking into a small number of alternatives.  We are all exposed to a little Judaism in the western world.  I have read one small book on Islam and another book on Confucianism.  That's it.  That is less than a serious attempt.  But another thing I have done is generally observe religious practise around the world.  I am looking for evidence of "right and true".  Does the religion have a fundamental commitment to truth?  What I find is that the commitment is to dogma and truth is denied if it conflicts with dogma.  There is also supposed to be a moral aspect to religion.  What I find is that most religions are immoral.  They encourage ignorance and bigotry.  They frequently support and encourage wars and other forms of bad behavior like slavery and torture.

Finally, Catholics make a distinction between Agnosticism and Atheism.  Can I absolutely prove that "there is no God"?  No!  But this is a case of asking the wrong question.  In the U.S.A. "God" means a christian god not some kind of super smart space alien.  I absolutely believe there is no christian god.  So I am an Atheist.

My fundamental observation about religions is that they are essentially political.  Religions follow all the rules of politics.  Politics is an inherently human endeavor.  Religions are the invention of humans and subject to the failings of humans.  Once you adopt this perspective religions make perfect sense.  The way to analyze religions is not with the tools of theology but with the tools of political science.