Why We Believe

The argument is often made that we have the right to believe whatever we want. I reject that argument. Why? Because we act on our beliefs. There can be no stronger proof of that statement than the terror wreaked on the USA on 9-11. 

Can anyone in their wildest imagination believe that a conspiracy led by atheists could have brought about that kind of death, destruction and financial ruin on another country or people?  Remember, those 19 hi-jackers were not common everyday thugs. They were well educated and financially secure. Their young malleable minds were polluted with rigid false beliefs before they had developed enough to be able to reason and think critically and they acted on those beliefs.

But the truth is, having a right to believe is far different than having a reason to believe.  Our beliefs should be anchored in evidence, not what some preacher, “youth minister” or Imam tells us.  Children are indoctrinated into religion before they even have the reasoning skills to understand that Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny are make believe characters. This is a heartbreaking tragedy.

Most children whose minds are contaminated by religion are unable to leave their faith when they become adults.  Those who have the intelligence to see the absurdity of what adults have told them are still constrained from admitting their disbelief because they know they will be ostracized by their community and their own families. This is more than some can bear. They had rather live a lie and become a hypocrite than face the prospect of rejection.  

I do not live with this fear.  The most important thing in my life is truth and I refuse to sacrifice truth on the alter of delusion. One of the greatest disappointments in my later years is coming to the realization that with the exception of a few thoughtful individuals, my family are victims of irrational, illogical and unfounded beliefs. 

Sadly they cling to these beliefs for three reasons; fear, ignorance and intellectual laziness.

As of this writing it looks as though Willard Romney will be the Republican choice to run against President Obama. Here is what Romney told a group of Baptist leaders on December 6th, 2007 when he was  campaigning for President and trying to reassure them about his religion:

"There are some for whom these commitments are not enough. They would prefer it if I would simply distance myself from my religion, say that it is more a tradition than my personal conviction, or disavow one or another of its precepts. That I will not do. I believe in my Mormon faith and I endeavor to live by it. My faith is the faith of my fathers - I will be true to them and to my beliefs.”

No better confirmation of the point I just made about the indoctrination of children can be found than in that statement. Romney actually believes what his forefathers believed...that his religion's founder was a prophet who, at the direction of an angel named Moroni, dug up a golden text written in a "lost" language that  could only be "revealed" by Joseph Smith by peering through some magic reading stones. He  believes that because he was taught to believe that by adults when he was a child, who in turn were taught to believe it by adults when  they were children. Now read what Robert Ingersoll had to say about the faith of our fathers  some 100 years earlier.

 “If we are in any way bound by the belief of our fathers, the doctrine will hold good back to the first people who had a religion; and if this doctrine is true, we ought now to be believers in that first religion. In other words, we would all be barbarians. You cannot show respect to your parents by perpetuating their errors. If you wish to reflect credit upon your parents, accomplish more than they did, solve problems that they could not understand, and build better than they knew. To sacrifice your manhood upon the grave of your father is an honor to neither.  Why should a son who has examined a subject, throw away his reason and adopt the views of his mother?  Is not such a course dishonorable to both?”

As I have written before, even if one of the religions were true, then at least two-thirds of the world's population is being taught lies. If you hold the protestant religious belief, and take the teaching of Jesus to be true, then you have no choice but to believe that 4.7 billion alive on our planet today, hold false beliefs and are doomed to suffer unimaginable torment for all eternity. Can anything be more reprehensible? 

It’s about time those of us who value reason challenge all the candidates about their religion, and this includes President Obama.  It’s high time we dropped our delusions and begin to focus on the real problems in the world.  Our very survival depends on it.