Excerpt #65 from my book, Religion, An Obstacle to Human Progress
The Israeli-Palestinian quagmire is not just their respective problem; it is humanity’s problem.
Instead of recognizing the security that is found in our oneness, we (humanity) create all kinds of divisions, all kinds of tribes.
We have nation-state tribes, political-party tribes, religious tribes, corporate tribes, and on and on.
As a consequence, we live not more secure but less secure.
We have created a destructive and unsustainable momentum that must be arrested and reversed if we are to sustain humanity and advance our civilization.
EARTH IS BECOMING A BETTER PLACE TO VISIT THAN TO LIVE.
“Atheists have evaluated the probabilities, done a risk-benefit analysis, and found that the existence of God is so unlikely that they prefer to live their lives without all the baggage that such belief forces you to carry.
“The baggage of belief is heavy.
“Not only are you expected to donate time and money to your church, but, more importantly, you are expected to turn over your mind.
“When you are a faithful member of any religion, you are not free to use your own judgment on what is best for you, your family, and society.
“You are expected to defer to the judgment of others who claim supernatural authority.
“And since they can offer no real evidence to support their claim but their own word, you are asked to suspend your own intellect in the process.
“Throughout the ages, many attempts have been made to provide a rational foundation for supernatural belief.
“All have failed.
“Preachers can still attract customers among the unsophisticated by logical sounding arguments such as: “How could all this—the universe—life, and mind—just have happened from nothing?””
“They then assure their listeners that God made it all.
“But consider the absurdity of the argument:
“Something can’t come from nothing, and so it came from God—who came from nothing.
“Ultimately, belief in an undetectable, transcendent reality comes down to faith rather than reason.
“Churches have convinced the majority of the human race to believe in the unbelievable, to give credit to the incredible, to rationalize the irrational.
“An atheist is someone who can’t believe in something that has no rational basis, that is nothing more than a fantasy and delusion left over from the ignorant and superstitious childhood of the human race. (Excerpted from “Why I am not an Agnostic” by Physicist Victor Stenger.)