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There has got to more than this, surely? No, why should there be? Consider the oak tree. Four hundred years of fruiting, tens of thousands of acorns each year, on average one will flourish. Oaks don't do it for you? Then think of cod's roe, eggs the size of sand grains, eggs by the million. Nature is extremely profligate. Life is very cheap. Why should the fact that we have a greater level of self consciousness, erroneously called “a soul”, have any effect on this? No reason at all.
Bacteria have no soul or reason to expect immortality. Where should the line be drawn? With animals with more than one cell? With animals that have eyelashes, the kind of animals that schoolgirl vegetarians don't want to eat; or with the human race? Is an ape that can recognize its own reflection and grieve the loss of an infant less worthy of a soul than a three hour old human embryo? No, the soul is an illusion, it is a software fiction, like the Windows desktop, run from the hardware hidden underneath. Windows desktop is a directory on a hard drive, the soul is a similar illusion running on the wetware of your trillion synapse organic computer.
I am a pure atheist, not a wishy-washy humanist. Deifying our species is no answer to anything. We have evolved, we are not the pinnacle of life, not even the most amazing animal, I rate elephants as equally highly evolved and equally amazing. Elephants have huge powerful brains, long lives, language, long range communication and the most amazing organ of manipulation known to science. Not to mention a five foot prehensile penis! As a general rule I think that respect is due to animals that are self conscious, sentient, with the capacity of having emotional as well as physical pain.
I cannot see how animals can have rights. There is a responsibility on us to treat sentient animals as if they have rights. We would expect other sentient animals to do the same to us. I cannot see where a line can be drawn between those worthy of total respect and living things that can be disregarded, like the bacteria we wash off our hands. All life must be respected and never used simply as a means. That does not preclude eating plants or animals.
We should treat each other as if we have rights. That is how we would like to be treated. There is no way to guarantee fair treatment but the golden rule of do-as-you-would-be-done-by is the best we can do to make a start. If we all understood how important this rule was then life would probably be much better. As an atheist coming up with a set of Ten Commandments or their equivalent is not possible. The only answer is to treat others as we wish we would be treated. This is a fundamentally Christian idea and I have no problem with that, good ideas can come from anybody, even people who are dangerously insane.
We should act at all times as if we could at any time be instantly reincarnated as the other person we are relating to. This will not happen. No matter how evil you are there is no great leveller to come along and right your wrongs. The God fearing moral crusaders fear this aspect of atheism the most. The theory is that if the masses get to know that if they can escape the Police they escape all punishment then they will be uncontrollable. But crime is rife in many religious countries. Most of the school bullies, thieves and thugs I came across as a child were believers in God. Many criminals have a fear of punishment in Hell but carry on regardless. There is little or no evidence to show that belief in God limits wrong-doing. Among western democratic countries the USA is head and shoulders above the rest for religious belief and observance, it is also in a different league for criminality too.
People can act morally with or without a religious faith. People can act immorally with or without a faith. Bad people will act bad regardless of religion. However religion or some other equally strong justification meme is necessary to make moral people act immorally. Many of the crusaders were given Papal blessings that absolved them of all sins that they had committed, and of all the sins they were about to commit. When you are asked to murder, pillage and rape for Allah, Hitler or Jesus everyday rational, God-free morality unfortunately tends to take second place.
I do not believe in punishment for your sins in Hell. Or punishment by your sins on Earth, cute idea but there is no evidence and no mechanism. The only way to punish is by the use of Government control, mob rule or direct vengeance. Of these Government power and control is very much the lesser of evils, the least worst way. Science and rationality cannot answer as to what is the best form of Government; tribal, national or global. All are possible answers. Science can only tell us what is, what was, what will be; never what should be. That is not a satisfying thought in itself but ultimately I know that my world view is based on the best evidence I am aware of, it is, to the best of my ability to understand, the truth.
Death
True believers in many religions do not fear death. Doctors will attest to this. Convinced Christians accept death placidly. So do atheists. Only the unsure panic, most deathbed and death row conversions are caused by doubt and fear. Atheists have no fear of death.
I want to avoid death because I fear pain and I want to enjoy more of my life, I have much more to learn, much more information to pass on. I will rage against the dying of the light but not out of fear of what is beyond death, I know that whatever happens after death there will be no more "I".
“Why should I fear death? If I am, death is not. If death is. I am not. Why should I fear that which cannot exist when I do?”
- Epicurus
I suspect death may be painful. I remember my Uncle Ross on one of his visits one morning after a particularly heavy night telling my Granny “Auntie, you've gotta be AWFULLY sick before you die...”
It has been said of my Uncle Ross that he saw a poster in his youth in Toronto that read Drink Canada Dry, so he made that his life's work. A man's got to have an ambition.
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“It's not that I'm afraid to die. I just don't want to be there when it happens.” |