"god" Does Not Exist
T.E. Lawrence
Issue date: 4/23/09 Section: Op/Ed
"Lighthouses are more useful than churches." - Benjamin Franklin
I would like to make a point of stating that I am an atheist and not an agnostic. I don't think there is no "god", I KNOW there is no "god". I also know that most of the rest of the world knows that as well, but they just won't admit it they know something else. They know they are eventually going to die, and it scares them. Most people don't have the courage to admit they know there is no "god". Instead, they try to suppress that feeling and, if you bring it up, they get angry. Why do they get angry? Because it freaks them out.
Life is filled with tragedy, and life is also filled with something worse than tragedy: the unknown. Every time you get into your car, every time your parents get onto an airplane, every time somebody goes off to do anything, every time Natasha Richardson goes skiing, there's a chance they won't come back. And when you see something like that happen to a talented, famous and seemingly healthy person, such as Mrs. Richardson, you realize that that could have been your mother, your sister, your wife or worse, you. Therefore, you feel the need to make sense of it. Is it not easier to think "well 'god' had a plan for her"?
Religion was created thousands of years ago; before the discovery of science and mathematics. I want to stress the use of the word "created" because no one discovered religion. Instead, people invented religion to give meaning to events (such as: life, death, sickness, weather, the stars, etc.) that couldn't be explained at that time because the science we know today, which can explain all of these events, hadn't been discovered. Yet somehow, religion is the only thing which remains today from the earliest days of the Homo sapien. (I'm pretty sure we've all accepted that the Earth isn't flat…right?)
Humans are the only creatures on Earth who are aware they are going to die, and it freaks us out. Ask yourself this question: If, thousands of years ago, someone came up with a religion that said "Be good to others, stay out of trouble, don't worry about those spots in the night sky, and when you die, it's over. You just turn into dirt." Do you that concept would have been embraced? Confidently, I can say it "no".
I would like to make a point of stating that I am an atheist and not an agnostic. I don't think there is no "god", I KNOW there is no "god". I also know that most of the rest of the world knows that as well, but they just won't admit it they know something else. They know they are eventually going to die, and it scares them. Most people don't have the courage to admit they know there is no "god". Instead, they try to suppress that feeling and, if you bring it up, they get angry. Why do they get angry? Because it freaks them out.
Life is filled with tragedy, and life is also filled with something worse than tragedy: the unknown. Every time you get into your car, every time your parents get onto an airplane, every time somebody goes off to do anything, every time Natasha Richardson goes skiing, there's a chance they won't come back. And when you see something like that happen to a talented, famous and seemingly healthy person, such as Mrs. Richardson, you realize that that could have been your mother, your sister, your wife or worse, you. Therefore, you feel the need to make sense of it. Is it not easier to think "well 'god' had a plan for her"?
Religion was created thousands of years ago; before the discovery of science and mathematics. I want to stress the use of the word "created" because no one discovered religion. Instead, people invented religion to give meaning to events (such as: life, death, sickness, weather, the stars, etc.) that couldn't be explained at that time because the science we know today, which can explain all of these events, hadn't been discovered. Yet somehow, religion is the only thing which remains today from the earliest days of the Homo sapien. (I'm pretty sure we've all accepted that the Earth isn't flat…right?)
Humans are the only creatures on Earth who are aware they are going to die, and it freaks us out. Ask yourself this question: If, thousands of years ago, someone came up with a religion that said "Be good to others, stay out of trouble, don't worry about those spots in the night sky, and when you die, it's over. You just turn into dirt." Do you that concept would have been embraced? Confidently, I can say it "no".