Joey

Yesterday, I argued with some random girl. She was a theist (I would contend the assertion made by Dawkins that "no one believes in Thor or Zeus or Wotan anymore", as she followed the neo-pagan cult "Wicca" as do three other people I know) She told me that her belief in "a higher power and an afterlife" stemmed from faith and she didn't need or want to prove it. She claimed she believed these things because she derived happiness from the though that when her parents died, she would not be separated from them forever, but would one day be re-united with them. Essentially what we have here is a classic father Christmas-style argument, "it gives me happiness to believe these things, so I will". (Am I being psudoscietfic in contemplating that this infantile attitude is in some way connected with the fact that her baby teeth did not apparently drop out until she was fourteen?)I countered her reason for believing in an afterlife with the following analogy:Supposing a newsreader were to announce that the civil war in Iraq had ceased, and that peace and prosperity now reigned in that country. He would make a great deal of people very happy, and the story would be hailed as a testament to the ability of nations to rebound from even the very worst of crises, to the positive attributes of human nature. Certainly, it would be far better news than the frequent stories of bloodshed and suffering we hear almost every day, coming from Iraq. Now, suppose that a week later he were to be exposed as a liar, and the war in Iraq was indeed continuing. What would the public's reaction be? One of anger. But to whom would the overwhelming majority of people direct their anger at? To the people who conducted the expose of the fraudulent newsreader, since they clearly disillusioned many people, and brought them information which they did not want to hear. Or would they perhaps be more irate at the newsreader, for having lied to them?We all know the answer, and my Friend (I count her as such, despite her peculiar thought processes) did too. No-one would seriously object to being brought the news that the war in Iraq was still going on, they would object to the fact that it was still going on. And they would be outraged if a newsreader were to lie to them to tell them the contrary, even of believing this lie made them happy.Why? Well partly because of gut instinct to know the truth. (an instinct which does not seem to be common enough in matters of life after death and the existence of God.) But also, if anyone were to think about it for a moment, we would easily see that if we were to bury our heads in the sand and pretend that all the misery and pain that is being inflicted upon the people of Iraq is fiction, we would immediately render ourselves incapable of acting to halt it, or to learn from it and discuss hoe prevent such calamities from happening again in some other part of the world. Given the death toll, not to mention poverty, torture and other miseries suffered by the people of Iraq, this would be morally deplorable.How is there a moral deplorability in someone's belief in an afterlife or god, or anything else supernatural? Because, in adopting these positions, people are encouraged to believe that all our woes will be no more, when we enter the netherworld. This makes them complacent about how to improve their own lives. When they die, and, as all rational evidence suggests, their consciousness does not continue on in some eternal paradise, they will have wasted their time believing in whatever irrational delusional religious doctrine they followed in life, rather than trying to make the best of the life they had, for themselves and for others. This is not merely a personal problem, that the individual is wasting their life, they are not considering fully the needs of society, and the necessity of seeking to do genuine good for others around them (by being materially charitable, or by working toward a better society for all, rather than trying to convert them, so they may be "saved") It is morally deplorable to allow people to waste their time on earth like this, without at least some effort to open their eyes to reason and fact. While the delusion of a better world hereafter remains, humanity will never fulfil its full potential to bring maximum happiness to the world. Yes, it may be hard to accept that when your parents die, you shall never see them again, but aren't people mature enough to face harsh realities? Until we peal back the comfort blanket of white lies and unreason, we shall never be free to achieve our full potential.