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Date:      Wed, 19 Apr 2000 12:20:38 -0700
From:      Francisco Sanchez <FranciscoS@nbci.com>
To:        "'Anonymous Athiest'" <anonymous@god.com>, cldfsn@aol.com, presence@irev.net, Che Devine <che@websocietyinc.com>, lan@irev.net, tblue <tblue@inetworld.net>, questions@FreeBSD.ORG, baxterjacken@webtv.net, "Shields, Jaymie" <jshields@palomar.edu>, slashdot@slashdot.org
Subject:   RE: OFF TOPIC Atheists Manifesto
Message-ID:  <4BA40B5A514ED311B9A40008C7DFB0A101297849@exchange2.snap.com>

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not to be too blunt, but you are a jack-ass.  i would like to take
snippettes of your manifesto and comment them, as i would normally in this
type of forum, however, your manifesto displays such a lack of education and
seems to embrace ignorance with such enthusiasm, that i do not believe that
my (meager) words could influence you.  also, your defensiveness and desire
to spam this hollow rant appears to be a cry for confrontation.  i will
submiss to this, but please keep it off of this mailing list.  this is a
forum for FreeBSD, not a "someone made fun of me because i'm an atheist, and
now i'm insecure in my beliefs" mailing list.  ta-ta.

-=f=-

-----Original Message-----
From: Anonymous Athiest [mailto:anonymous@god.com]
Sent: Tuesday, April 18, 2000 10:45 PM
To: cldfsn@aol.com; presence@irev.net; Che Devine; lan@irev.net; tblue;
questions@FreeBSD.ORG; baxterjacken@webtv.net; Shields, Jaymie;
slashdot@slashdot.org
Subject: Atheists Manifesto


This is document has not been run through a spell checker or edited
properly.  The text isn't what's important.  The message is what's
important.  Feel free to run this through a spell checker before
redistributing the message.  If you agree with what is said here, please
distribute it further.  If you do not agree, at least consider what is being
said with an open mind.


   The Athiest's Manifesto



 We live in a world full of Gods.  Many different cultures have many
different Gods.  There are two classes of Gods.  The Gods of the past, which
usually come in groups, which were generally used to explain things that the
people did not understand.  From the roaming patterns of buffalo, to
lightning and echos, people have made up stories to explain things they did
not understand, because ignorance of a subject leads to fear of it.  Lack of
knowlege can be frightening.  Still, the people of today look back at these
anchient religions and call them "myths".  They chuckle when they think of
the ignorance required to believe that the sun is a God's Chariot.

 This brings us to the Gods of the present.  Today's religions are commonly
Monotheistic, relying on the belief of a single all powerful God.  Today's
Gods usually provide us with two messages.  One is a social code which lays
out a model of society for people to abide by.  The other is a explination
of the fundamental questions which people tend to ask.  "Where did we come
from ?"  "Why are we here ?" and "What happens when we die ?".  None of
these questions can be answered to anyone's true satisfaction.  Ignorance
creates insecurity, therefore the people need to find a way to fill in this
gap in their knowlege.  The most common religion in the world today is
Christianity and it's derivitives (Catholicism, Mormon, Islam, etc).
Christianity provides the social code, and it also fills in the gaps in our
knowlege, explaining the answers to these questions via the written and
translated stories of people who lived 2000 years ago.

 What kind of people existed 2000 years ago ?  By our standards today, they
were ignorant, violent, socially obtuse, and worse.  They treated women as
objects, and slavery for both sex and labor was common.  The people of this
era were far less advanced than the Greeks, who's beliefs we laugh at today.
And yet, some how, the words, stories, and beliefs of these people are taken
as absolute fact by millions of people all over the world today.
Christianity speaks of Jesus of Nazerith, the Christ, the son of God, who
was born of a virgin, and walked about the people of the time and performed
miracles and preached the word of God.  Because of the historical impact of
the man referred to, one can hardly deny that a man named Jesus of Nazerith
exists, however, in order to believe the rest of his tale, you must take the
word of ignorant people  of the past as fact with no proof, evidence, or
other information.  This is commonly referred to as "blind faith".

 Millions of people choose to dedicate hours, days, and years of their life
worshipping this Christian God.  They are so certain that these people of
the past, whom they probably aren't even decended from, are speaking the
truth, that they are willing to devote their entire lives to this "story".
They believe in a God, who in the past performed many many miracles, but for
some reason has decided to discontinue his supernatural behaviors.  God no
longer comes to earth and speaks with men, as he did in the past.

 Why is it people are blind to the fact that they are emulating the same
behaviors they criticize the Greeks, American Indians, and others for ?  How
can anyone honestly take this 2000 year old story as fact, with no evidence,
and devote thier entire lives to it ?  I would like to put forth my theory
on that subject.

 As we've estabished, the people of today have the same types of
insecurities that need "explaining".  The fear of death has made men invent
the world of spirituality.  The idea that when one dies, that is the end;
that one's bones go into the ground and decompose, is too frightening or
depressing to people.  So instead, they have to believe that some part of
them is immortal.  That they can always live on in some form or another.  I
call this an emotional crutch.  It's a way of dealing with one's
insecurities about our lives.  It makes us feel important, like we're
something more than a street sweeper, or garbage collector.  We're all
immortal souls with a much more glorious future ahead of us.  This emotional
crutch helps many people get through the day with a little self esteem and
hope, and I don't begrudge them their crutch.  What I do disagree with is
the ignorance, but I would not be one to demand that others give up their
emotional crutches in the name of enlightenment.  I believe that enforcing
your beliefs on another person, especially beliefs based solely on blind
faith, to be the highest crime one human can do to another, short of taking
their life.

 So if we, the atheist, are going to allow the street sweeper to believe,
and we're going to choose not to believe, then what is the problem ?  What
is the purpose of this manefesto ?  I believe that atheists are condemned by
the majority of the population.  Those of us who are secure enough in our
own existance, and who feel that the 70 plus or minus 5 years on this earth
is all we have, are treated like unholy fools.  Those who will be punished
in the afterlife.  Those who are infected with this mental epidemic tend to
react to the atheist in one of several ways.  One way is to try to convert
or convince the atheist that the 2000 year old story is true, and that the
atheist needs to change his/her ways, lest they face eternal hellfire.  The
second way is to simply exclude and disassociate from the atheist, perhaps
making comments about the "poor" soul to other believers.

 You'll notice I referred to religion as a mental epidemic.  Many believers
take this as an insult.  I label religion such, because of certain behaviors
that today's "evolved" religions have.

 (1) Questioning the religion's validity, asking for proof, expressing
skepticism, etc, are all considered to be "sins" or crimes under the
religion.  In other words, independant, logical, unbiased thought are not
allowed.  Back in the earlier times when the followers were a little more
"rabid" people were burned to death for expressing such ideas.

 (2) Religion is taught to children at a VERY young age.  Basically, from
kindergarden to adulthood, a believing parent is supposed to enroll the
child in some kind of religous program like Sunday School.  The reason for
this is to expose the child to religion at an early age, before rational
logical thought develops.  This way, the child grows up with religion, so
that any thoughts, ideas, concepts of atheism or disbelief are completely
alien to them.  An analigous example would be Hitler's Youth.  Hitler also
knew this concept well.  If you wish to spread an idea, and have it safe
from independant or radical thought, ingrain it in the children before they
can reason.  Today's religions have it down to a science, with songs,
videos, and activities designed to make the child a believer before they
truly even understand what God is.  If people waited until age 13-15 before
introducing religion to their children, so that the children could
rationally decide if this was what they wanted to believe, religion would
not be such a wide spread epidemic.

 (3) Religions instruct their people to attempt to convert (or in some
radical cases, kill) any disbelievers.  The kinder, more passive religions
will simply ask their congregation to bring new people into the church every
week.  Once a person visits the church once or twice, the church has them
added to their mailing and phone lists.  They attempt to get the person to
regularly attend.  Then they attempt to get the person to participate in a
ritual, such as baptism or confession.  These are relatively benign
activities, and usually can only trap the weak minded.  The more "active"
religions send people out to visit your home.  They want to come in and talk
to you about god and convince you that the 2000 year old story is true
(because they say it is).  They run commercials, and give your free
literature or free copies of the bible.  They'll do anything to convert you
to their way.  Why ?  Because their religion specifies it.

 (4) Religion requires that you disbelieve anything scientific that might
possibly contradict the religion.  We've all seen and heard religous people
sit and argue about how the entire sciences of Biology, Genetics, and
Physics are just plain wrong, because the 2000 year old story contradicts
it.

 (5) Religion covers every base.  No matter what kind of argument or
evidence you can bring up to attempt to contradict religion, the believer
can always simply make up a little story or "possibility" of how God, using
his supernatural powers, can simply have "made it that way".  Take for
instance the Dinosaurs.  Either they didn't exist, and the bones "are really
from contemporary animals, which are being fitted together incorrectly to
look like a creature that never existed", or "God put those bones down
there."  No one knows why.  Or how about how we are all decended from Adam
and Eve ?  Adam and Eve must not have truely been human, or mankind would
have died from inbred genetic diseases (insufficeient gene pool), after the
first couple hundred generations.  And how did those people in the bible
live for hundreds of years ?  Were the laws of physics and the nature of
human biology that different back then ?  Religion fields these questions
with ease.  "God made it that way".  "It's all part of God's plan".


 Beyond the grievences I have as an atheist living in a belief based
society, I also have grievences as a human being.  I have a personal care
and interest in the well-being of my species.  I would like to see mankind
reach out into space, establish colonies on other planets and systems.
Become something more than the proverbial 2 day mold on a piece of bread
(before it is thrown out), before conditions in our solar system change and
erase us from existance.  Truthfully, everyone should care about mankind's
development.  The problem is this.  The religions are "anti-science" in many
respects.  There are many things, like cloning, which we should not do
because that is God's territory.  "Playing God" is not allowed.  Add that to
the fact that many of man's best minds, people who could be possible
Einsteins of certain fields, are robbed of their potential because they are
infected with this mental disease.  If John Doe grows up believing that
evolution, biology and genetics are in conflict with his religion, he
certainly wouldn't excersize the possibility that maybe he would have become
one of the best Geneticists in the history of the science.  Not only that,
but those who don't believe, and wish to advance mankind's knowlege are
restrained by the believers.  They are forced to move at a slow enough pace
so that the religions can readjust, reevaluate, and reinterpret the words of
their religion so that they don't reach a point in which they cannot explain
how their religion can be true with science showing the oppisite.  Then
there are such fanatics who spend every waking hour worshiping God, to the
point which they're throwing away the most valuable thing they own.  Life.
Real life, here on earth.  One only has so much time.  If one spends all of
that time trying to get ahead on the "next" life, they are throwing this
life away, and not contributing to the society and species as a whole.
Religion is a serious drain on mankind's most important resources, manpower
and time.  And no matter how much science proves that the world is 4 billion
years old and not 15,000 years old, and that the universe was formed through
the mixing and spreading of elements, and not by the wave of a magic wand,
and no matter how many times scientists try to show that life on earth was
formed by the interactions of nucleic acids (and it still is every day),
it's absolutely impossible to convince a believer that the simplest answer
is the correct answer.  The world is as it seems.  There is no second world,
second life, greater power, or magic that makes it all possible.  And it's
sad, because we need every one of those believers with us, here on earth,
helping out, not praying in some church or temple in front of some clown in
a suit or fancy religious outfit.

 I am an atheist.  I live in a world full of people, blind to their own
ignorance, dedicated to a 2000 year old story written by people who's
intellect doesn't even compare to an 8th grader.  I have to live with these
people, respect thier beliefs, and endure their constant attempts to convert
me into one of their ilk.  I have to watch as millions of man-years go down
the drain, wasted away in foolishness.  I watch as other atheists have to
hide their beliefs, to avoid being condemned by the believers and ostrasized
from society.  But as I'm watching, I'm waiting.  I see with every
generation, more and more people are simply "going through the motions".
They take part in the process, but they don't really believe in it.  They
simply do what is expected of them.  Soon, they reach a certain age or time
in their life in which they no longer attend the church, but they "still
believe".  They don't pray anymore but they "still believe".  They go about
living their real lives, pretending to themselves and others that they
believe.  These are a kind of "Casual Christians".  This behavior shows the
deterioration of the true believers as a whole.  A pattern author Frank
Herbert referred to as "rot at the core".  As parents become more and more
lax about their own religious patterns, they begin to spare their children
the foolishness of church and Sunday School.  Slowly the religious base of
mankind is deteriorating.  People are giving less and less credability to
the 2000 year old story, as they grow up in a world of computers, cloning,
genetic therapy, and microbiology.  It's only a matter of time until,
hopefully, enough of us break free of this mental disease and begin to live
life for the here and now and not to please some imaginary God in order to
gain entrance to some fantasy land.  I am not alone.  Talking privately with
many others of my generation, I know I'm not the only one who thinks
religious people are foolish.  While most will tell an adult they believe in
God, it's simply because they don't want to experience the social punishment
of being a disbeliever.  So we watch and wait.  Wait for the world to wake
up from this 2000 year old dream.  Some day people will look back on
Christianity the same way people look back at Zeus and Apollo.  They'll ask
how a people who've mastered genetics, computers, atomic physics, etc, can
possibly believe in such childish nonsense.  The answer is, most of us
don't, we're just afraid to admit it, because we've seen what kind of
violence the rabid religious can bring forth when their beliefs are
threatened.  So rather than rising against religion and preaching against
it, we watch and wait for it to die of apathy.  If we're wrong, we'll be
condemned to hell for all eternity.  If the religious are wrong, then
they'll have thrown away the single most valuable thing they possess.  Their
life.  I am an atheist.  This is my manifesto.  It is the first step in
curing the disease.





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