The Life of a Godless Unbeliever Must be Hell
Did you know that Atheists are driving people away from science and into the loving arms of religion because we’re such meanies? Yeah, neither did I. But according to Mary Midgley, moral philosopher, that’s exactly what we are doing:
People are not going to accept scientific fact if they think it is morally pernicious. When people are asked why they are persuaded by intelligent design, they often say that it’s the only alternative to scientific atheism and Darwinism which are pernicious moral doctrines; they see it as the only refuge from this anti-human bloody-mindedness. It’s at the level of attitudes to life that these choices are made. And people will think scientists as a whole believe this.
Not that I think this is true but let us suppose, just for a moment that some people are put off of Science by us morally pernicious Atheists and our ungodly talkativeness. Why would this be?
It couldn’t have anything to do with the fact that the godly have spent the last few centuries denouncing us as baby raping, puppy eating fornicates and liars, could it? Midgely continues in this grand tradition by framing us as morally pernicious in her first sentence as if that’s just a given. “We know Atheists like to masturbate with crucifix’s but did you also know they rely on science to build all their arguments?” Yeah, we totally do that last one, but the first one, not so much.
PZ Myers takes this whole argument apart quite succinctly and if you aren’t reading Pharyngula on a daily basis, I suggest you at least read his post on this matter (and you really should be reading Pharyngula regularly, so that you can learn cool things, like that Velociraptors had feathers). But I want to go off on a slight tangent.
Midgley doesn’t come right out and say that Atheists are murderers and rapists, she just tucks us all into the higher order category of “Morally Pernicious” (wink). However, a lot of conservatives and True Believers do come right out and say that without a belief in God’s wrath* to stop us, we’d all be rapists and murderers. It’s always struck me that these two Morally Pernicious acts are at the top of their list of things to do when they are confronted with the idea of there being no God. It implies that, if they had their druthers, this is the sort of thing they’d do in their spare time, when not lieing, cheating and stealing. Which strikes me as odd. There are plenty of atheists in the world, far more than there are murders and rapists. Yet, in the mind of the True Believer, disbelieving in a wrathful God is the first step on a slippery slope towards blood and madness. As if no Godly person ever took up a machete or a machine gun and started hacking away for the Lord.
I can’t speak for all Atheists out there but you want to know what I did when I realized there wasn’t a God? I went out and met a nice woman and got married. Then, horror of horrors, I went to grad school, got my MLS and started a career as a librarian. From this you can guess that it would only be a matter of time before I started writing a novel. In my spare time I also photograph cats. I know that this behavior might seem shocking to the True Believers out there but well, without the belief in God and hell and eternal spiritual torture to keep me in line, I just went and did whatever felt good to me at the time. Morally Pernicious of me, I know, but some of us are just beyond saving.
But don’t listen to me. The life of a godless unbeliever must be hell. If it weren’t, some moderately religious people who question their beliefs might notice we’re just ordinary people, albeit ones who don’t like to be condescended to. Then they too might stop going to church, voting Republican and fearing death. We can’t have that now, can we?
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*Notice that there arguments are never motivated by the eternal love of a benevolent creator, but the fear of torturous punishment. This is also why they don’t mess about with all that stuff about loving neighbors and helping the sick, poor and less fortunate. That would require an emotional motive based on empathy for their fellow humans. Who has time for that when you run around, worrying that the invisible tyrant in the sky will read your dirty mind and find out what you really think of your fellow creatures.
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