Collegiate Times

Ernest Hemmingway once said “all thinking men are atheists.”

It sounds abhorring to a god-fearing nation, but people who think for themselves, relying not on faith but their own capacity for reason, show that humans can function and thrive without the help of a god. Everybody does it when they try to think rationally, setting aside the fantasy world of myth and faith to reach a real understanding of the world as we know it. Yet atheism faces so many stigmas in America that any attempt to wean people off these old dogmatic beliefs is met with so much animosity that some are militant in defending them.

Religion as we know it has become an absurdity. It has given rise to illogical movements such as creation science and the Christian Right. The very idea that there's some omnipotent deity who loves us and gives no proof of his existence, but will send us to Hell for not doing things his way is just illogical. America has become a breeding ground for these beliefs and it goes against every bit of common sense mankind has spent generations evolving.

Atheism is the only religion that embodies true freedom. The idea that there is no supernatural, all-knowing, all-powerful being liberates people from the irrational fear that they are just insignificant specks in the eye of God. Atheism opens minds to think critically about what is right and wrong in the real world. It moves beyond the idea that humanity is just a pawn in the grand scheme of a deity and places us as a part of a complex universe full of beauty and wonder.

In generations past, religion was a powerful controlling force. From the Catholic Church of the Middle Ages to the high priests of the Maya, religion was a great excuse to give people who questioned the supreme authority of the state. After all, who could argue with God? God wasn't there to debate them and those who spoke to God had the power. It wasn't so much a choice as it was a social institution.

But times have changed. The secular state has become the supreme authority.

Society is not under the thumb of an invisible God. Laws now reign supreme and laws have the advantage of flexibility. They can change with the times and adapt to the demand of the people. Religion can't do that as easily. The will of God is far more difficult to change because we mortals are so intellectually primitive we can't possibly ascertain his will. Not only does that demean people, it takes advantage of them.

Religion is just mythology with better PR. The stories of the Bible and the Quran are no different than the tales of the ancient Greeks and Egyptians. Yet millions of people, especially in America and the Middle East, believe them to be absolute truths. Nobody stops to think about what these texts say and why they say it. They negate that these texts were complied by multiple authors in multiple languages over a thousand years ago in an entirely different environment, society and culture that didn't know a fraction of what we know about the world today. They also negate that people by their own uniqueness interpret the same thing in different ways. And by its own nature, religion fails to adapt to the changing times.

Religion can breed unity, but it can also breed ignorance. A few years ago, religious enthusiast Kent Hovind visited Virginia Tech and lectured on creation science. His key source of evidence was the Bible. His qualifications included a degree from an unaccredited university that is well-known for being an illegal diploma mill. And his understanding of even the most basic scientific concepts was sketchy at best. But because he champions God, he is given credibility. It is an insult to rational thinking.

Religion stirs charity and goodwill, but it also stirs hatred and violence. The men who crashed planes into the World Trade Center were on a mission from God and nobody could tell them otherwise. After all, nobody likes to be proven wrong. What better way to stay protected than by using an invisible, unknowable, unprovable being that cannot be rationalized? It is tantamount to cowardice, using only faith to justify yourself and not dedicating time and energy to stop and think about the how and why.

Religion has had many positive affects on civilization, but it has become a liability in contemporary society. Religious beliefs that do physical and psychological harm such as subjugating women, slaughtering innocents and instilling irrational fears cease to be religious and become a social illness. Atheism is the true faith of freedom, and in a nation that champions freedom, it is time to move away from age-old myths and start thinking rationally for a change. God has served his purpose, now it's time for us to take over. The greatest faith we can have is faith in our own humanity.