Grieving as an atheist

These are my thoughts based on a post written by a christian as a response to a post by an atheist on grief, entitled Grieving as an atheist- a surprising dilemma. I urge to read the two links to get the correct picture of the matter at hand.

A while back a dear friend of mine lost a baby boy, a small baby. When I went to see him, all those who had come to see him told him how his boy was in a good place- how they know is for another day- that god had his reasons for calling him. I don’t know and still can’t see how those words, no matter how reassuring they sound is of any help. I didn’t tell him much that evening, but I think just being there with him was sufficient. I recall back when my mum died, just knowing my friends were close by was enough for me and we would, to just distract ourselves from all the grief, tell jokes with one another. The passing of a loved one is indeed depressing to say the least and it is not any less for the atheist. To, however, presume there is something magical about telling those bereaved that their relative, friend, child or parent is another place I don’t think is a solution and does not make death any richer!

I  have a big problem when the OP writes

Ms. White is correct on a surface level. Being a friend is important and being a friend in the time of crisis is necessary, but if there is no answer to the grave, if there is no word of assurance which can be offered, friendship does not become a substitute

because the author here feels that since he believes in a heaven or whatever place people go after they die, to be a friend is on correct on the surface! I contend that all you really need is to know there are friends who will listen, offer a helping hand and most of all allow you to cry on their shoulders. It is only when you experience loss do you realize the hollowness of such words as be strong and so and so is in heaven. The only reason sometimes I don’t mourn when I think of ma is knowing that she is at rest, free from all willing and desiring. Do I miss her? Yes every moment!

As I have said in a number of articles, atheism answers to one question and the rest are for grabs. To claim that atheism is bleak because there are no talk of gods is to pretend to be unaware of atheistic religions and is to express an ignorance that shows how one holds their chosen religion in a place of privilege inspite of any evidence to the contrary. It is to act like a child, who having seen no other toys, thinks his wire toy is the best that can ever be!

If to believe that a god loves you and waits to meet you in heaven gives your life meaning, be my guest! I don’t ask you to live my life for me. If after looking at life and seeing it having no meaning or purpose beyond that which we give it is sufficient for me, why should it bother you? I ask though, if the religious person believes their lives have some special meaning, why do they get bored? And what, tell me, is this meaning? Is it same for the Jew as for the Muslim or the different gods have different demands or offer different meanings?

In the face of death, the words of the writer of Ecclesiastes ring true when he says in Ecclesiastes 3

19 Surely the fate of human beings is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath; humans have no advantage over animals. Everything is meaningless. 20 All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return.

The OP’s conclusion contradicts everything he has said about atheism and death. He writes,

As Christians, we must be clear that we do not believe in the hope an afterlife simply because it offers us a therapeutic response to death. Rather, we believe in the hope of heaven because of the truths found in Scripture namely, that Christ has come, Christ has defeated sin, and Christ has conquered the grave. There is a peace which comes to us and a satisfaction we can have by our faith in these great truths.

If this is not therapeutic and is told for that reason among others, then someone please educate me on what is meant by therapeutic.

I urge the author of the post to spend time to read Ingersoll’s address at his brother’s funeral, to read letter SERVIUS SULPICIUS TO CICERO on the loss of his daughter Tulia, where there is no mention of heaven or hell but still moving or to read the letter by Epicurus to Menoeceus where he tells him, in part,

Accustom yourself to believe that death is nothing to us, for good and evil imply awareness, and death is the privation of all awareness; therefore a right understanding that death is nothing to us makes the mortality of life enjoyable, not by adding to life an unlimited time, but by taking away the yearning after immortality. For life has no terror; for those who thoroughly apprehend that there are no terrors for them in ceasing to live. Foolish, therefore, is the person who says that he fears death, not because it will pain when it comes, but because it pains in the prospect. Whatever causes no annoyance when it is present, causes only a groundless pain in the expectation. Death, therefore, the most awful of evils, is nothing to us, seeing that, when we are, death is not come, and, when death is come, we are not.

And if at the end you still find this as bleak, then you need help.

Painful as it is to lose a loved one, a close friend, telling them they are going to heaven or that you are praying for them is a hollow reassurance. There is much more value in being by their side, listening to their sorrows and offering a helping hand when necessary. This my friends are my thoughts on the matter and I contend here there is nothing bleak about knowing that when I die, I will be no more. It makes this life worth living and fighting for.

I need no sympathy from you!

I recently commented on a post on a random blog on a post where the OP[I don’t feel like linking the post today] had written something to the effect that atheists need sympathy and had tried to set rules for the game. In short he/she said any discussions with christians has to be centred on Jesus, not god.  He says in part

So in looking at atheism, which is not merely a rejection of christianity, but of any ‘religion’ that may be described as theistic, I do have a great deal of sympathy. After all, if the existence of God had been proved there would be no need for much further discussion and we could all agree. But the fact remains that God’s existence has not been proved. There is still doubt and disbelief, and that is not entirely irrational.

I certainly have a problem with this especially that we require sympathy, but in general I think he was generally polite. There is one guy who commented and whom I think needs help. Am going to let his comment just stand as it is for you to see the problem with some of the religious, who tell us their’s is a religion of peace and love until you stop believing in their chosen god and then you are ripe for hell.

He makes the oft repeated mistake that people are born with a knowledge of a god and that the universe proves this point. I need not say more about his comment. Read on you atheists, you are going straight to hell and there god shall wait to punish you hundreds time over!

I think the problem with having “sympathy” for atheists, from this kind of perspective, is that it gives too much credence to their position. You did mention Romans 1 in your previous post. I don’t think Romans 1 is a weak argument for God, I think Romans 1 is more fundamental. Here’s v18-30:

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things” (Romans 1:18-30 ESV)

I don’t think Paul is arguing here that mankind should just be able to look around at the world and say “ah, clearly, God exists” (although that is an aspect of it). I think he’s actually saying that every single person is born with a knowledge of God. God has set eternity in the hearts of mankind (Eccl 3:11). I think the point Paul is trying to make is that no-one who has ever lived has a valid excuse to not believe in God. All of us are born with that knowledge, those who deny it are actually suppressing the truth. In other words, I don’t think there *is* such a thing as an honest atheist.

And this leads me on to the second thing I’d want to say. I would also not want to concede ground to those who want to judge God’s existence on entirely rational grounds, given the above. The Fall had an effect on our minds, our reason (“the noetic effects of the fall”, which is I think how theologians might put it). We cannot simply reason our way to God.

So if we say “I think it’s understandable to believe that God doesn’t exist, after all there’s not very much evidence” – it is basically conceding ground to the atheist that “reason” or rationalism is the correct way of going about determining whether God exists or not.

I feel that it’s important to bear in mind that it is not us who puts God in the dock and demand that he prove himself to us. I’d see humanity as being on the run from God, trying to flee from the inescapable fact that his existence is plain to us, in rebellion against Him, and that ultimately God will hold everyone culpable for unbelief.

something totally different

Those of you who are deeply in love must find this passage that am about to share in Anna Karenina deeply amusing. Levin has been married three months to Kitty. He comes home one evening to find her in low spirits with quite an attitude. Tolstoy, the very great narrator tells us

[…] It was only then, for the first time, that he clearly understood what he had not understood when he led her out of the church after the wedding. He felt now that he was not simply close to her, but that he did not know where he ended and she began. He felt this from the agonizing sensation of division that he experienced at that instant. He was offended for the first instant, but that very same second he felt that he could not be offended by her, that she was himself. He felt for the first moment as a man feels when, having suddenly received a violent blow from behind, he turns around, angry and eager to avenge himself, to look for his antagonist, and finds that it is he himself who has accidentally struck himself, that there is no one to be angry with, and that he must put up with and try to soothe the pain.

On creation of the Universe

We are gravely and repeatedly told that there is no effect without a cause, that the world did not make itself. But the universe is a cause, it is not an effect; it is not a work, it has not been made, because it is impossible that it should have been made. The world has always been; its existence is necessary, it is its own cause. Nature, whose essence is visibly to act and produce, requires not, to discharge her functions, an invisible mover, much more unknown than herself. Matter moves by its own energy, by a necessary consequence of its heterogeneity. The diversity of motion, or modes of mutual action, constitutes alone the diversity of matter. We distinguish beings from one another only by the different impressions or motions which they can communicate to our organs.

d’Holdbach in Good Sense

Thoughts out of season 3

A few weeks ago, one of my WP friends, wrote a post, what are you worth? 6 million dollars? that is relevant to this discussion and the link that am about to share. As you are all aware, the hostage situation in Nairobi has come to a close and families that lost loved ones will have to rebuild their lives afresh, there are businesses that have incurred serious losses and so much more and I don’t want to belittle their suffering any bit.

However, a few uncomfortable truths have to be dealt with, to see where we have come from and how humanity can move forward, how such situations can be prevented in the future. There are those among us who will argue that the government ought to be granted more surveillance powers, that security searches should increase and other such measures. I disagree totally with such propositions. These measures do not contribute to our safety in the long-term. They are temporary measures that are implemented by unthinking people. The real deal is to ensure that no society feels marginalized, oppressed and denied opportunities for self-expression. Ensuring the masses get proper education is going to ensure that our race frees itself from religious, political and other forms of bigotry.

Having said this, the question to be asked of everyone is why hasn’t there been a similar outcry for the countless and nameless Somali women, men and children who have lost their lives in the duration that the Kenya Defense Forces have been occupying Somali? Are their lives of less value? And in which planet is peace kept by killing civilians? What peace is that? As I have said before, I will say it here again, we have to re-evaluate ourselves as a race, to come up with peaceful and better ways of living with each other.

I have to admit it here, the reason am against all this senseless killing is because of self preservation: The will to live. I, however, know that nature doesn’t give a bat-shit whether I live or die. It maintains the will in the general and not the specific so that there will always be a striving to live whether I exist or not. In the meantime, while I live, I realize there are 1000 plus things trying to kill me and the odd terrorist is the least of them. Why a lot of money is wasted on the war on terror is beyond me.

Nairobi attacks: what about the casualties of Somalia’s war zone?

On confessions 2

Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived[ Isaac Asimov]

Friends, I know those of you who have followed this blog long enough have read the post I wrote a while back on my journey of faith. I have in the past at different intervals kept a diary/ journal. This has not usually been very consistent. Why am telling you this is because today I found some journal entries I made towards the end of March 2011.

It reads

These are notes of a believer out on journey of truth. A journey that leads to knowing what is true and false about those beliefs that until now has been held and treated as sacrosanct.

It starts with looking to find if indeed the bible is actually the inspired word of god. To find out if Jesus was a special son of god or was as all believers are sons of god?

At the end, the believer wants to find out about god and then find himself. In looking at the bible critically, the believer acknowledges that where god has spoken, this has been clear requiring no interpretations and where it was through a prophet of god, an explanation always followed so that it was always clear in his intentions.

Many times in online debates with theists, many of them have taken the position that the atheist has not sought god sincerely. I don’t know about you, but at this point in time, I had really high hopes about meeting god. I think what I believed about the bible is here quite evident. Any theist who thinks my disbelief is because of a misfortune that befell at some point in the past. No, no, I have lived quite a jolly good life and although the death of mom 5 years prior was a low point, I had always believed that the god I had been taught to believe in was real. Am here now, a non believer for several reasons; I know better, there are no gods and while at it, whatever is meant by god hasn’t been defined to allow me or any rational person to make a judgement on whether such a being could exist.

It is important to add here that I was nudged in this direction by two close Muslim friends of mine who had said there were contradictions in the bible, something I wouldn’t accept. So I took them on their word, bought a notebook and set out to find out if this was really the case. Whatever happened after that, as they say, is now history.

My notes on the same day lists chapters that contradict each other.  I will list the verses below and suggest you dust your bible from wherever you keep it and read them for yourself

We have 1 Kings 15:14 and 2 Chronicles 14:3

1 Timothy 6:16 and Exodus 33:11, Genesis 32:30

James 1:13, Deut 32:4 and Jeremiah 18:11

On 28th March 2011

James 5:11 and Joshua 10:11

Isaiah 1:11-13, Jeremiah 6:20 and Exodus 29:36

On 31st March 2011

Mathew 5:16 and Mathew 6:1

Luke 12:4 and John 7:1

I can’t find all the other notes where I wrote them.

On a very light note

At last women can drive in Saudi Arabia.

Have a great week you all.

Thoughts out of season 2

Friends, my countrymen and women are a really a peculiar group of people. I don’t mean to take lightly the ongoing siege that has been on since Saturday at one of our shopping malls, that is not the aim of this post. In this post I want to make a few observations that make us a very peculiar lot. My sincere sympathies and condolence goes out to those who lost their lives, those whose lives have been forever shattered and all those who still find themselves holed up in this mess. I hope that it ends quickly and well for those still held hostage. These are not in any hierarchy:-

1. The belief that their god is somehow in control

There have been enough prayers said on twitter on the last two days than have been said since we went to elections early in the year. What I find really worrying is there are people have heard thanking their god they were not in the mall while we have so many who were either injured or lost their lives, who should they petition? Is it not time they fired their god for allowing this mess to go on for so long. From where I sit, I ask myself a simple question, if these people believe their god is in control, what the fuck is it waiting for and where the hell was s/h/it when these people were planning this attack? Wouldn’t have been prudent to scatter their plans at the planning stage as he seems to have done in Genesis when he scuttled the plans of those who building a bridge to heaven by confounding their language so they couldn’t communicate with one another?

2. Patriotism and unity

Am not a patriot. But my countrymen, who ordinarily would go for each other’s jugular now show a solidarity that is unprecedented. The last time they were this close was 15 years ago when an Al Qaeda cell bombed Nairobi. In fact I think the only thing that unites us is a national tragedy or athletics. And since I abhor war, maybe there should be enough sporting events in the year where Kenyans win gold, that way they may just forget they are a patchwork of tribes. The show of unity is amazing to say the least, I hope they keep it this way when we have to deal with corrupt and inefficient legislature, executive and judiciary. I look forward to a day when they can say it is enough and send all the thieves we have in government home. That will be a great day and I hope I will be alive when that day comes.

3. Kenyans and risk

Whereas in most places people would run away from gun fire and allow security personnel and medics to access the scene, the reverse is true here. Kenyans will run closer to the scene just to be able to have a story to tell. The police have had quite a difficult trying to manage the crowds around the shopping mall. I understand you want to help or help yourselves to something, but please, what is the point in making an already dangerous situation even worse still?

4. Our useless fourth estate

These are a bunch of some not so bright people. While people are trying to hide for their lives, they were busy with footage showing where people are hiding, showing us gory images, whether to scare us to numbness or to get viewership, the jury is still out. Maybe it is how or the duration of their training, but I hope someday, the media will be populated with more brains than they currently have.

5. Our borders and the situation in Somali

We have had porous borders, as porous as a damaged sieve, for so long that one could sneak an elephant through. There has been filtration of small arms, the domestic situation hasn’t been any better. Unemployment is on the rise, the cost of living getting ever high and the gap between the rich[ the thieves] and the poor getting ever larger that there is not a shortage of youth to be recruited, with the promise a few of a few shillings, to such cells. The country should recall our soldiers in Somali and let them continue to butcher each other as they have done in the last over two decades. Maybe someday an intelligent lot will rise out of that piece of rock and stop the senseless killing. As long as we have men and women in that vast country, we will be sport for Al Shabaab and anyone with the wherewith to acquire a grenade or plan a similar attack.

End of observations, I will continue to populate the list when and if I feel like it.

The world will not be a safe place as long as their will be someone ready to kill another in defense of their god or because of an idea. Let us be reasonable. Let us, as a race, for once, rise up to the challenge of acting with intelligence that every man prides himself to have above other brutes and have all the stockpile of weapons destroyed. Guns, bombs, grenades, missiles, chemical weapons and other arsenal were made with only one thing in mind, to kill or to make killing many people easy. It is time we stopped the merchants of death from making profits by helping us kill each other quickly, violently and easily. Let us all work together towards a world where there is equity. We must act with courage. We must act with resolve to ensure resources are equitably distributed, that no one group of people are exploited. Let the hate and bigotry, that is fueled by religion come to an end. Let us be reasonable. If the religious people can’t do this on their own, then dear atheists, naturalists, agnostics and other non believers out-birth them. There is not enough love to spare some for gods that don’t exist. Let us love each other and forget about the gods.

Not so pleasant news

Friends, those of you, who, like me, don’t watch TV and rely on other news sources maybe unaware of what is probably one of today’s big stories around the world concerning the motherland, maybe only second to the suicide bomber somewhere in the middle or far East who killed people at a funeral. There has been a security situation, I think as far as I can tell, the second of its kind, if you count the 2005 incident in which balaclava clad men raided a media station holding journalists hostage for a few hours, good thing no one was hurt, where armed and I think masked gunmen have raided a shopping mall and so far many people have lost their lives.

I feel sad for those in the middle of this mess and sorrow for all those who have lost loved ones in this incident maybe because it is death that hasn’t come naturally or in a way of their own choosing similar to all those who have lost lives in suicide attacks, malaria deaths, road accidents, and in of 1000 ways to die.

This situation made me think of this documentary

And a few twitter updates

condolences to the affected and berieved families, what a terrible #Westgate attacks. God pliz protect us.

— NEVINE WILLIS (@nevinewillis) September 21, 2013

I'm so scared nd im miles away from Nairobi. wht happens to those at #westgate. take heart guys. God is in control

— I'm judy (@jayrutto) September 21, 2013

Hope all my friends are safe, GOD BE WITH YOU, so sad #westgate

— RINYE (@Kihara_John) September 21, 2013

God, this has been going on for far too long. Bring it to an end #Westgate

— Joyce Mwaura (@mwaura_j) September 21, 2013

More on the atheist’s god challenge

A few days ago, I did write a post where one christian apologist, Tim Koop, invited atheists and agnostics to a challenge which I pointed out was far from polite. Those atheists who have commented on his page have said a lot of things that he ought to have addressed but hasn’t but keeps delving deeper into buffoonery and idiocy, that only an idiot of the first degree, as M. Twain would say, can get into. 

I asked him, before we could continue with the challenge, to tell me what he thought god was. In his response, he told me god is the one who originally designed and created the world. This as you all know, is crap. It is only in the mind of one so steeped in religion who thinks the world was designed and created from nothing by his god. Such a response doesn’t tell us what god is but multiplies problems tenfold. We will ask, how did he create, what did he use and why did he create it among other questions. This however wasn’t the reason for his challenge. He wants us to say a few things to convince ourselves a god exists. I have a very simple question for him, what is god? 

After calling his response BS, he writes finally

Maybe you are blinded not only to the existence of God, but also to what he is. Try taking the test, but instead of testing yourself on how sure you are convinced in his existence or not, test yourself on how firm a definition you have of what he is.

(Comments are limited to 7 deep, so you get the last word)

which apart from being deeply condescending is really quite stupid. Tim, you can wear blinders all you want, maybe you want to go to heaven and sing hallelujah for eternity or maybe you are afraid the sky will come crushing down if you were to admit there really is no god. That is good for you! To expect me, to wear stupid blinders, then repeat some silly words for a month to test whether phantoms really do exist is to push your luck with me and am not going to try it. 

For your benefit, I have no belief in anything supernatural and I will not take your stupid test. Ask yourself, though, what the word god means to you. Is it so hard a question? And if it is not a hard question, then, provide an answer, but don’t tell me he did ABC. The world exists, I exist and these cannot be used to define what your god is. 

And what with warnings? Who is the administrator on your blog Tim. You can have the last word all you want.

Get your foolish blinders off, for that is what they are, and start answering some questions!