Name: Rob Coulter
Born: 1965
Location: Grand Prairie, Alberta, Canada
Former Religious Affiliation: Never baptized
Label: Independent Atheist
Gradual Awareness
Things that aren’t rational really bug me. I believe about half of what I see, and even less of what I hear. I prefer to find things out for myself, and if something doesn’t make sense, I’ll tear it apart to see why it doesn’t work.
My parents never had me baptized; my older brother was baptized, but my parents decided to leave it up to me, or maybe they had doubts, or maybe they didn’t see the point in it. Whatever their reason, I never thought it was any of my business. If I’d wanted to get baptized later, I probably could’ve asked, but I didn’t.
Now, rapidly approaching middle age, I started questioning why. Not just the baptism thing. I mean the BIG “why.” I started looking around at what was happening to me, my family, and society and why things didn’t seem to make sense. I started to read things I’d never been interested in before, thinking that maybe someone else had the same problem I did and had figured out enough of an answer to let them ask better questions. I read George Carlin’s autobiography; his explanation that God doesn’t exist made sense. I started digging through the internet to look for other opinions and, on YouTube, I found Penn and Teller’s ‘Bullshit’ (self-explanatory), The Thinking Atheist, and The Atheist Experience and Matt Dillahunty. Matt explained things so clearly and directly:
“Assuming god exists and assuming a person has a soul, if god created everything, including hell, god also created the rules by which the universe operates, including the criteria by which souls are judged. Since everything happens according to god’s will, god is ultimately responsible for everything, and that must, by logic, include whether or not people go to hell. Therefore the decision to send anyone to hell is made by god.”
For me, this means that god is judgmental and vindictive, not kind and merciful. Are we to believe that a kind and merciful god would arbitrarily condemn someone he previously granted free will? If not, are we required to spend our lives apologizing for having been given the freedom to make our own decisions? I refuse to put any belief in that kind of system.
Why do I believe what I do? From Christopher Hitchens’ God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything:
“Religion comes from the period of human prehistory where nobody – not even the mighty Democritus who concluded that all matter was made from atoms – had the smallest idea of what was going on. It comes from the bawling and fearful infancy of our species, and is a babyish attempt to meet our inescapable demand for knowledge (as well as for comfort, reassurance, and other infantile needs).”
If one believes that God’s word is eternal and applies to everyone, then why do some Christians ignore sections of the Bible – which is said to be the word of God – and choose to follow only those parts with which they agree? The Old Testament includes references to God permitting slavery (even selling your own daughter!) and genocide (the killing of the first born of Egypt, for one example). Some Christians might say that they follow specifically the teachings of Jesus Christ, who said that “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4) Therefore, if you follow the teachings of Jesus, who said to live by EVERY word of God, either you live by ALL of God`s words, or you live by NONE of them. If you live by every word, you`ll have to agree with the practices of slavery and genocide; if you live by none of them, you can`t call yourself a Christian, because you`d be disobeying the teachings of Christ. You don`t get to pick and choose which parts of the Bible you`ll follow. I find the whole idea ridiculously self-contradictory.
So I used my ability to think and determined that since there is no proof of the existence of god, instead of “commandments,” I adhere to these morals:
• Treat others the way you want to be treated.
• Constantly look for knowledge and facts, and form independent opinions based on your own reason and experience.
• Always respect the right of others to disagree with you.
• Live in peace with everyone and without regret or need for apology.
• Protect the defenceless.
• Be kind to the ignorant; they don’t know any better.
• Hide your face in shame if you dare to harm a child.
• Don’t think about using people as private property.
• Don’t condemn people on the basis of their ethnicity or colour.
• Leave valuable contributions for future generations.
• Teach a man to fish, then fish with him.
• Be willing to renounce any god or faith if any of their “commandments” contradict any of the above.
• Support those who follow these ideas
9 Comments
Leave a Comment
Donate to our cause
Get Social With Us
Very well-educated and thought out. I enjoy reading logic!
Thanks. It was fun to write for an audience I knew would appreciate rational thought and clear expression.
Your morals are perfect. I’d also like you to include abstainance from illicit sex / drugs.
If you can live by that 100% without requiring assistance from things such as prayer etc WOW!!!
I believe your morals and live by it, but i need Prayer, to remind me, to follow the morals at all points in time. For at times certain temptations are too difficult to resist, at those times i resort to prayers and it helps.
Moral of the story we need not fret over the existence of GOD, we can live in peace, you not believing and me believing in GOD.
As I’m a recovering alcoholic, it’s probably a good idea for me to abstain from alcohol. I wouldn’t, however, presume to tell anyone else to abstain.
I think praying is presumptuous. I’ve often thought that people treat their god rudely. Think about it; trillions of prayers every day, asking and pleading for favours – “Do this, I need that, I want a better job’ – and most of this happens on Sunday – his day off. That’s no way to treat someone. I wouldn’t ask a butcher, for example, to carve up a side of beef instead of taking the kids to the beach.
I also think praying is arrogant and selfish. Suppose the thing you want isn’t in god’s plan? Should the plan be changed just because you have a special request? Doesn’t that seem a little arrogant?
Suppose your prayer isn’t answered; what are you going to say? “Well, it’s God’s will. Thy will be done.” Fine, but if it’s god’s will, and god’s going to do what god wants to anyway, why even bother praying in the first place? Seems like a waste of time and energy to me. If god is omniscient, god knows what I want, anyway. Why do I need to pray?
Have a day!
Praying is only needed if a person needs help in living a life as per the morals you’ve listed above. Since most humans don’t have the strength to live a life without sin, GOD says it is easier to do so if you think of HIM. This parying for i want this / that and the other is a human belief. All one can pray for is proper guidance to live life in the correct way, for most times people don’t know what is right and what is not.
Of course people are going to have trouble knowing right from wrong when their only means of knowing is to ask someone who never responds.
GOD is not the only means to know what is right or wrong, friends, law of the land, morals, strangers on websites EVERYONE / EVERYTHING can give one insights. It’s only when one surrenders to GOD does he ask HIM to know what is right and what is wrong. Please understand NOTHING IS RIGHT OR WRONG only situations / circumstances around it that determines what is right or wrong. When you get the connection going with GOD you know how HE responds untill such time it is only mindless sepculation, for a human mind has got nothing better to do but question EVERYTHING but accept NOTHING unless he feels it / sees it / tastes it. GOD is to be EXPERIENCED and it takes EFFORT / PRACTISE / METHOD / PERSEVERANCE.
Sanat, you understand that this is an atheist page, right? While I reserve everyone’s right to express their opinion, you should remember that most, if not all, of the people who read this page will disagree with you and suggest that you preach elsewhere.
Rob i’m not preaching am only asking people to read / understand / practise before they decide on the presence of GOD. It’s like learning to do something right – if one has not learnt or if one has been mislead doesn’t mean GOD does not exist, ask the one’s who have experienced GOD and learn, or just say I haven’t been able to experience GOD and leave it at that. Why say GOD does not exist when one hasn’t tried the right way?
The reason for me writing here is for people to understand themselves and not to agree with me. If a person hasn’t seen an elephant walk on a city road does not mean elephants don’t walk on roads.