Graphic Rule

Cliff Responds:

This is deflecting the question at hand ("Is there a god?") by pointing to personal flaws (real or perceived) in the person asking the question. To do this is to play dirty. The several Christians who wrote to me were also playing dirty and calling me names AND getting personal, rather than observing proper decorum in a discussion.

This can explain why I was not happy while writing those letters. I do not like having to teach people what they should have learned themselves, from their mother, or in school: how to talk politely with others.

Oh, I accept that other people think there is such thing as a god. Usually, though, I can't figure out what they are talking about. In some cases, I can clearly see that they are lying to me. I still don't know what a "god" is, because nobody has made sense when they told me what this "god" is like.

Some people are unhappy because they have a depressive disorder. (Did you learn about emotional and mental illness in psychology class?) Being religious does not change a mental illness.

Some people are unhappy because their husband just died in mid life. Being religious won't get that person's friend back.

If I wanted to feel very happy, all the time, I could shoot lots of morphine into my veins. If I wanted to go with second best, I could find someone who really, really likes to perform oral sex. Perhaps if I surrounded myself with puppies and kittens and bunnies I would be happier. Way down the list, I could join a religion which demands that I believe everything is the way their god wants it to be -- even though things don't seem very okay to me: Who am I to question the god of that religion?

Realistically, I am happy doing the best I can with what I've got, and by being honest with myself and others. I think to ask for more is to ask for too much. I work very hard and owe very little.

None of this has anything to do with whether one believes there is such thing as a god.

According to an ancient myth, a man named Job was unhappy but still yet still clung to his belief in a god. As implied in another ancient myth, a rich man popularly called "Dives" was happy and did not believe in a god (or at least did not act like he believed in a god, as that god forbade wealth and Dives was rich despite his god's commandment against wealth).

Happiness and faith have little to do with each other, except that faith can sometimes cause happiness in certain people, just as morphine can sometimes cause happiness in certain people. I don't think happiness causes faith. Usually it takes a great catastrophe or or a swindle or the threat of death to prompt someone to change their faith. Barring a serious crisis, people usually get religion or change their religion or abandon religion because they are unhappy with the way things are going in their lives.

No. The reason I do not believe in any gods is because nobody has made sense when telling me about the 5,000 various gods that mankind has endorsed. These claims about gods have always either made no sense at all, or have shown themselves to be obvious falsehood.

If you believe in a god, you need to be able to tell me about this god in such a way that it makes sense to me and to others. What you tell us needs to be true. This is called making a claim about your god. Since you know about this god and I do not, it is your job to make the claim. It is my job to listen and to see if your claim makes sense.

Cliff Walker
Positive Atheism

"I am a perfect specimen of the human species in that I am perfectly human."
-- Cliff Walker

"A stupid man's report of what a clever man says is never accurate because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something that he can understand."
-- Bertrand Russell

Graphic Rule
