Atheism

I was asked by some of my English speaking friends if I would consider writing in English - well here goes nothing.

Tonights topic is atheism, what it is, what it's not and why that's the only rational choice.

A lot of people, especially those that are religious, think that atheism is a belief.
First things first, atheism is not a belief, it's quite the opposite - it's lack of belief in a claim. This claim is the existence of gods. In comparison, one might say that I'm also an atheist when it comes to the existence of ghosts, faeries and other mythological creatures. One would not say that this is based on belief?

That aside, there are several levels of atheism, but they all fall under the cathegory of atheism. These might be described as strong or weak atheism, agnostic or gnostic and so on. These terms describe knowledge. Where some atheists say that they simply do not believe in any of the gods that have been described up to this date - some say that there are no gods.

I fit somewhere in between those. I do not believe in any of the gods that I have heard of, simply because I have never seen sufficent evidence or proof of their existence. Do I find it likely that there might be presented a god with sufficent proof in the future? Not likely, but I cannot say with 100% certainty. This simply means that I fit into the group of those that are agnostic-atheists. In strict terms, those that are agnostic think that the question cannot be answered, which is the only objection I really have - that's why I simply say that I'm an atheist and do not say anything about being gnostic og agnostic. I simply state that I haven't seen any proof for any gods existence, yet.

Why is atheism the only rational choice? Well, it's quite simple actually - first, let's find out what the word rational really means. In my dictionary "WordWeb", it's described in several ways - but I guess this is the description that fits best: "Consistent with or based on or using reason."
So, what does this word reason mean? "A rational motive for a belief or action" and "Think logically" are two meanings where one of them is a noun and the other a verb.

Some say that it's not fair to compare God with faeries, unicorns, trolls and other mythological creatures. I say: "Why not?" I do not believe in Santa either, even though I see him every x-mas. When someone asks me if I believe in God, I usually reply: "Which God are you talking about?" It's like most religious people, think that their God is the only God ever conceived. To mention a few of the gods I dont believe in; Zeus, Thor, Zeke, Loki, Mithra, YHWH, Mars and Ares. These are some of, but not exclusively, the gods I do not believe in. As Richard Dawkins stated: "We are all atheists about most of the gods humanity has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further."

I care whether those beliefs or ideas I fill my brain with are true or not. I try to believe as many true things as possible and hold as few false beliefs as possible. Those that know me, know very well that I cannot rest untill I have looked something up, if there is a disagreement.

The most popular argument I meet during my discussions with religious people is: "What do you have to lose?" What they mean is: "If God is real you win, if he's not real you really haven't lost anything. If you reject him, you are sendt to Hell." This is called Pascals Wager, since it was first posed by the French philosopher Blaise Pascal.

This argument is flawed in several ways, those that are most important are the following:
1. What if one of the other gods are the real one and that god sends you to hell?
2. Wouldn't the all mighty and all knowing God, see through my false belief? It's not enough to say that you belive in God to do so. Wouldn't it then be safe to say that god would appreciate the honesty of a sceptic, non-believer?
3. What if the true God, hasn't been discovered yet?
4. Going through your life, believing a lie is a bad thing. Not only because one as a believer would spend time and money on this belief, but also because it's generaly a bad idea to believe false claims.
5. If god is all knowing, he knows what it would take for me to belive in him, so if he wants to save me from Hell, he knows what to do. If he does not want to save me from Hell, one might say that he's quite the evil bastard.

Most people make choices based on what they know to be true. You do not stick your fingers in the socket - more than once, unless you are really stupid. Neither do you drink bleach, just to try it. In all other aspects of their lives, people base their decisions on rationality, evidence and logic - why is the question about whether there is a god and which of the thousands of gods to chose from, any different? This brings me to my point, the only rational choice is to be an atheist, up till the point where there is proof for a god. Then comes the question, does that god deserve my praise?