Special Guest Post by David Orenstein

David Orenstein has written on my blog before. He does me the honor of doing so again, this time on being good without god:

Being an atheist requires a moral obligation to show the world that those who may actively choose to be free of religious dogma and faith, can be so while at the same time bring productive and positive goodness to the world. This positivity can take may shapes and forms, but is generally characterized by helping individuals or communities which are in crisis. Whether it is rebuilding after Hurricane Kartrina, or working in a local soup kitchen, or working with those with mental or physical illness, many atheists go unaccounted for in the war on poverty and the humane treatment of others, as society perpetuates the false notion that helping others remains squarely just in the domain of those with faith.

It is critical that we acknowledge and document the good work and the other labors, the social action, the building of community, and the efforts of those who may not believe in supernatural forces, or have religious faith, or believe in god. This is because those who are godless are not immoral as they are assumed to be by religious forces and figures who make atheists and secularists out to be an enemy. Indeed, as we learn from each other, those who are faithless do have strong ethics and a strong moral compass as finely tuned or in some cases greater and more nobly set than those who believe or have religious faith. Especially when one considers history and that the faithless cause little or no harm, while the religious have done horrible things in the name of their faith.

Surely those who isolate others because of religious doctrine, or deny civil or human rights based on sect, ethnic or clan affiliation, or disallow equal access to education, or kill in the name of their god, or treat women as second-class citizens, or bar others because they may choose to pray (or not believe) and carrying out misogynist and inhumane actions. If one’s faith or dogma bars marriage between consulting adults, or stills another’s reproductive rights, or impedes access to medical treatment, then we can easily make the leap that interpreting one’s religious belief is most certainly doing the opposite of what any kind and loving deity would request from us, if such an entity actually existed.

The late and certainly great Christopher Hitchens was often heard to say that religion and spirituality were each modern humanity’s first attempt at understanding the nature of the universe, a way at getting at some truth. Hitchens would entrance his audience by noting that placing spirituality as a first or any cause for the mechanics of the universe had in fact long ago become a poor and ineffective method to learn about the natural world. Supplanted by great works of literature, or mathematics and advances in astronomy, biology, chemistry and a host of social and physical sciences, the modern rational mind gets nothing from religion that it cannot receive through other means or ideas found within the realm of our common secular humanity.

The scientific method, scientific thinking and science in general have shown religious cause for any level of creation as false. This is based on evidence, not philosophy. If one feels the need to fill in the gaps of one’s life with any creation myth, they are in essence harking back to an urge to learn about and define the planet through some ancient and long discarded set of ideas, philosophy, ritual of thought and action. And that’s fine if one keeps that to themselves, but the construct of most modern religions do not allow for philosophical solitude.

Most religious people want to share, and are eager to extend their “teachings” whether we want to hear from them or not. In fact, they are called upon to pontificate by their faith. This is why religion can be so destabilizing and destructive. It essentially requires practitioners to bring others to live with them in a fantasy world detached from nature and reality for the sake of religious community building. It demands adherence to values and ritual which have never proven to be true except for those who wish such ideas and miracles to be true. Missionaries of all faiths have, over time, destroyed more indigenous culture and language around the globe than almost any war has ever accomplished.

So as atheists, now is the time that we stand up and stand out. Now is the time that we decide on a global scale that our time has come and we are ready, willing and assuredly able to chart a new course of humanity. A good, just and kind course and one that is free of oppressive faith. A course that liberates the mind and body to fulfill one’s destiny unobstructed by false theistic rules, so that we can help ourselves and others not based on anything but our common human sameness. And to truly evolve our humanity way past any faith could ever allow or imagine.