Dromedary Hump - The Atheist Camel Chronicles: Debate Themes & Arguments for the Non-Believer (and those who think they might be)

Copyright 2008 Dromedary Hump

All rights reserved.

Cover concept by Harley Edmondson

ISBN: 1-4392-3697-6
E-Book ISBN: 978-1-61550-797-9

EAN13: 9781439236970

Visit www.booksurge.com to order additional copies.

To Carole-Anne, Josh and Justin,
the people
who give my life meaning.

Religion is the most malevolent of all mind viruses.
We should get rid of it as quick as we can.

Sir Arthur C. Clarke (19172008)

Contents

F or almost seventeen hundred years, since the Emperor Constantine made Christianity the state religion of Rome, Christianity has grown in power and influence over the Western world. Along with it came abuses of power that were contradictory to the message the figurehead of Christianity was credited with promoting. Wars, persecutions, torture, executions, the breadth and impact of those abuses in Gods name are well documented and rival or surpass the genocidal acts of modern day tyrants.

Christianitys hold over European governments steadily declined and was all but a shadow by the end of the 13th century as monarchies shook off the Churchs influence. Today, while many European countries claim Christianity as their state religion, it holds no sway over governmental policy. Even the Churchs influence on the general population, once absolute, is now viewed largely as quaint suggestions for adherence to outmoded sectarian doctrine, except among the most devout. A poll conducted in 2005 reported that 52% of European Union citizens do not believe in a God, spirit, or life force. Only 20% of Europeans attend church regularly. This downward trend in religiosity represents a remarkable turnabout from what is the seat of Christianity.

In the United States, however, atheists and agnostics represent only 8% to 16% of the populace. Yet, while the upper end of those estimates exceeds the percentage of Jews, African-Americans, and Latinos in the United States, atheists wield little power or influence. The dominance of the Christian faith remains strong not only among the general population, but on the political front. Its adherents exert significant influence over local, state, and federal governmental policy. Its tenets, its dogma, are deep seated among legislators, some Supreme Court justices, within the military, and for eight years under George W. Bush, in the Executive branch. The result has been an attempt to dismember the Wall of Separation between religion and government as guaranteed by the First Amendments establishment clause.

This religious taint has given rise to governmental funding of faith-based charitable initiatives with no oversight as to how the funds are spent, opening the door for taxpayer/government funded proselytizing. It has influenced the decision making of the FDA, impeding the approval of new birth control drugs. It has attempted to reinstate school prayer and impeded genuine scientific learning with creationist aka Intelligent Design pseudo-science in public schools. It is dedicated to dictating acceptable sexual practices; exerting control of familial life and death decisions of pregnant women and the terminally ill; and seeks to subjugate the rights of people whose life style preferences are considered an abomination to their God. Most frightening, the name of their God has been invoked as justification for foreign policy decisions, including those that led us into war in Iraqshades of the Old Testaments God of the Israelites who led them into battle against pagan neighbors with genocidal results.

Christianity is not alone in the power it holds over the mind of man, and the injustices it provokes. For the past forty years radical Muslim faithful have been waging a war against its fellow Abrahamic religions (Christianity and Judaism) guided by their scripture, in the name of their prophet, and with the blessings of Allah. Some theocratic Islamic nations have purged Hindus from their lands, destroying their ancient temples, declaring them an affront to Islam. Hindu extremists in India threaten the murder of secular Indians who dare to observe the innocuous secular Western tradition of Valentines Day.

In short, religion, specifically fundamentalist religious belief, has transcended its original ancient purpose of establishing and promoting societal mores, solidifying cultures, and proffering supernaturally based answers for the unknown in a pre-scientific age. It has become a source of intolerance, an obstacle to scientific advancement for the betterment of mankind, a tool for intrusion into personal freedoms, and a justification for waging death and destruction all under the banner of a divine dictate. The intolerant and provocative texts and doctrine of the three major monotheistic religions have caused misery for thousands of years. But with the advent of the nuclear age their dogma, their scripture, specifically Christianitys and Islams with their promise of a better world with the destruction of this one, represents a real and present threat.

This is not to say that all theists are evil. Its my experience that the majority of believers are good, fair, and reasonable folks whose beliefs give them personal comfort. Most that I know, and all those that I love, abhor the excesses and rigidity of their fundamentalist brethren, and understand the necessity of the separation of church and state. I bear no ill will toward those people regardless of their preferred belief system, even while I find their clinging to superstition archaic and irrational. However, if they fail to speak up and against their fundamentalist fanatical counterparts and the threat they represent to all of us, then they are a part of the problem not part of the solution.

Thanks to atheist activists like Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris and others, where atheistic thought was once kept hidden usually by necessity, it has now come out into the open although still far from being perceived as a positive attribute by the believer majority. While the voices of the Free Thinkers grow there is as of this writing still only one avowed atheist in the US Congress. A recent poll reported that most US citizens said theyd vote for an openly homosexual Muslim before theyd cast their vote for a Godless atheist. There are still state laws held over from the 18th & 19th centuries that deny atheists the right to hold public office, albeit they have been declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court and thus not enforced.

These essays are a collection of my perspectives of the human condition as impacted by religion. They were prompted by debates and discussions with theists online and in person; news articles/current events; religious blog postings; and my observations of society at large. Many of the arguments I proffer are in response to timeless theistic fallacies. Others are a product of, response to, modern turns in religious thinking or theist activism.

I am not a scientist; I only play one in chat rooms and message boards. But I admire the contributions that science has made to civilization. I respect the scientific method. I have no faith in anything in the religious sense of the word. Indeed, I reject the concept of faith as a theological construct. That I fully expect the sun will rise in the east tomorrow isnt a matter of my having faith, its a matter of possessing a basic understanding of cosmology, general observation, and statistical probability. Thus, in lieu of mindless faith I possess a high level of confidence that the sun will rise in the eastyet againtomorrow.