The Path Less Traveled

My Road to Unbelief

“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood / And sorry I could not travel both... Oh, I kept the first for another day! / Yet knowing how way leads on to way / I doubted if I should ever come back... Two roads diverged in a wood, and I - / I took the one less traveled by / And that has made all the difference.” (Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken)

            I’ve done a lot of reading and thinking over the last year, and that’s led to me posting a lot of things on Facebook that probably offended some of my friends and family who are Christian. While I stand by everything I’ve posted, I realize that no one likes getting on Facebook to be preached at. That is why I am starting this blog. It’s a chance for me to take a stand on my soapbox and give voice to my opinions. I’ve found that it’s much easier to achieve clarity on an issue when you put your thoughts down on paper (metaphorical though it may be in this case).

            If you’ve read this far, I’d like to give you fair warning here and now that my posts may be rather lengthy. I didn’t write this whole thing in one sitting, so I wouldn’t expect anyone to read it that way. I will also warn you that a lot of the things I write in this blog might be offensive. The vast majority of people I know are religious, and most of those are Christian. Every religious person necessarily takes their faith very seriously. My hope is that nothing I write here is perceived as a personal attack, but rather as a fair and open criticism of religion. I think that everyone is free to believe what they want about the world, as long as they don’t force their beliefs on others. So while I don’t have the right to tell others their beliefs are wrong, I do stand by my right to think they are wrong. To be exact, I believe Christianity is morally, factually, and logically wrong. If you disagree with my reasoning or think that I’m just flat-out wrong about the whole thing, feel free to respond to me. I don’t take this subject lightly, but I believe that open discussion of all subjects is the mark of a truly free society. Without any further ado, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty of this post.

            The word Atheist carries with it a lot of connotations, some good but mostly bad. There’s been a lot of talk about Atheism during its resurgence in America in the last decade: they’re bad people who have no moral compass, who strive in every instance to put down or discard religion, and they are acting in collusion with the gays and the immigrants to destroy America. I’m not kidding; I’ve heard people say these things before. I promise you that Atheists are no worse of people than any Christians you’ve met. Chances are that you know more Atheists than you think; they don’t always make their non-belief known because their worldview doesn’t hinge on convincing others to believe. Atheists tend to get a bad rap in America because they push back against religion, which only makes sense as they are a minority here in America. Sometimes that means that they take it too far (like petitioning a university to ban players from putting crosses on their helmets to honor a dead teammate), and the actions and beliefs of the fringes of Atheism make it seem as though the idea is rather absurd.

            That being said, I’ve realized over the last year that being a Christian is infinitely more absurd than being an Atheist. The Bible is a comedy of errors (almost like the Purdue Football team); it’s full of historical inaccuracies, self-contradictions, questionable morals, and logical pitfalls. Several examples include: 1) if Jesus was born of a virgin, how was he born into the bloodline of David? 2) If the Ark had no rudder, sail, or motor, why did Noah send a dove out to seek dry land? 3) Why was it okay for Lot to stop the crowd from raping God’s messengers by offering up his virgin daughters instead? 4) Without eating the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, how were Adam and Eve supposed to know that disobeying God was wrong? This is by no means a complete list, but it should give you a good idea of the problems I have with the aforementioned text. I’ve also found out a lot about Christians through personal experience and observations of people around me. One of the things I’ve noticed is that many believers (and this is true in all religions) are very complacent in their view of the world. Speaking mainly from examples that I’m familiar with, Christians tend to acquire their entire worldview from the Bible. That’s perfectly fine if someone wants to structure their core belief system around a religious text, but they don’t seem to realize that there is so much more to the world than what is covered in any single book (even one as massive as the Bible).

            The Bible may be able to tell you what is morally right and wrong (I’d argue we don’t get our morals from the Bible at all), but it doesn’t tell you anything about the nature of the universe. If you went to a university – not a Bible college, but an actual university – and claimed that the only information you needed to get your degree was in the Bible, they would laugh you out the door. In the days when the Bible was written, the prevailing notion was that the Earth was the center of our universe and Heaven and Hell were physically adjacent. We now realize that the universe is bigger than we ever imagined, estimated to be approximately 93 billion light-years in diameter and almost 14 billion years old! Likewise, we’ve also discovered concepts like the germ theory of disease and how to replicate nuclear fusion in the core of our Sun. I can safely say that our knowledge of the universe and its inner workings has increased exponentially since Biblical times. And yet Christians will attempt to use their Bible, which is itself one of many copies of innumerable translations of ancient manuscripts detailing conflicting eyewitness testimonies, to refute all that we’ve learned.  I find it a constant source of amazement that so many people I know - people that I consider extremely intelligent and open-minded - actually accept the truth claims of that book. But I digress from my point.

            The point that I’m trying to make here is that life is an uphill battle, much like the ancient Greek myth of Sisyphus; he was forced to an eternity of rolling a boulder up a mountain only to have it roll back down each time he approached the summit. We are transient creatures, and thus have only two options: go backwards or press forwards. I’m convinced that to remain static in life is to be dead. We must constantly try to improve ourselves, whether it is physically, mentally, or spiritually. Therein lays the biggest problem with Christianity. Instead of embracing progress, Christians prefer the status quo. They teach that the world is how it is because God made it this way, and there’s no need to change it because it will all come to an end soon enough. That’s why many of them reject global warming, deny basic human rights (after they leave the womb, of course), and despise evolution. This desire to stubbornly resist societal and scientific advances is creating a lot of friction in America, considered by some the most progressive civilization in history. There is no driving force for change in Christianity, and many people are leaving the church because of it.

            The process of change for me has been a long, often confusing, and occasionally upsetting road to some form of personal enlightenment. I met special people along the way that have shown me time and again how to break from the mold and think for myself. I have read, and continue to read, many books about subjects ranging from science to history, and as far as philosophy and psychology. I watch debates on Youtube about the existence of God, the beginning of our universe, and the origins of morality. I encounter new arguments on an almost daily basis and try to determine which are true and which are false. I even continue to learn amazing new things about my own particular area of interest (nuclear power plants) in classes they hold at work. I won’t claim that I know everything there is to know or that I hold some great personal truth, but I’d like think that I become a better person with each new thing that I learn. The Nobel Prize-winning French author André Gide put it very succinctly: “Believe those who are seeking truth. Doubt those who find it.” One of my favorite lecturers that I’ve heard (though unfortunately not in person), Dr. Lawrence Krauss is fond of saying that all of his students should have one of their core beliefs – something which they feel they could not live without – proven wrong at least once in their lives. I tend to agree with that sentiment.

            The things that I held true for the majority of my young life seem to me in retrospect like those of a toddler. As we grow up and become adults, we put away childish things. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying that Christians are like toddlers. I’m simply asserting that adults, like children, tend to accept what they are told, because they don’t know any better. We believe in Santa Claus until one day we realize that our parents sneak the presents under the tree while we are asleep. Likewise we believe in whatever deity our parents believe in until we’re old enough to understand that it was just a legend, a tradition passed on by the generations before us. Religion is a tool that humans created to explain our origins and our purpose, defining what we knew about the world and our place in it. Science has since shown how narrow our knowledge was back then, and even now we can only imagine what the future holds for our species. The truth about our genetic origins is being uncovered and the reason for existence of our universe is out there somewhere in the vast unknown. I find the fact that there is so much more to know about this reality extremely tantalizing. How could a book that claims to possess ultimate knowledge ever capture the magnificence of the unknown?  

            I haven’t nearly covered everything I have to say about religion, but I think that’s going to be the end of this post. I want to thank you for reading this narrative of mine; I’m not immune to the vain hope that others read and take to heart what I write. In regards to the contents of this post, if you agree, disagree, or simply want to share your own thoughts on the subject, feel free to contact me anytime.

Sincerely,

A Follower of Paths Less Traveled