Atheism: The Ultimate Guide (COMPLETED)

10. Answers Part 1

I received a lot of awesome questions yesterday! I'm going to split them up into several parts. I'll answer all the questions from yesterday, and then I'll wait a bit to let other people comment more questions, and then answer those in another part. 

@rapflow asked: How does it feel to know that though the other person is wrong you can't do shit about it? 

Well, it's not very fun, but it just comes with the job. When you're talking to people about topics like religion, the chance that they're going to change their mind solely based on your arguments is incredibly slim. If the other person is blatantly wrong, like if they insisted Frodo Baggins was Bilbo's son instead of his nephew, I'd be furious because it's obvious to look up the answer and find out! But when it's about bigger topics to which neither person truly knows the answer, it's more tolerable. 

@Hyperactive_Angel asked: Are you bitter towards Christians/Catholics? If so, is there any particular reason? Like, you've had some negative meetings with them before, or you feel shunned? 

I'm only bitter towards religious people if I have a reason to be. Simply being religious isn't going to make me hate a person or think negatively of them. I've definitely had some unsavory meetings with religious people, but I've also had great experiences with them as well. I will say, if I find out a religious person is a homophobe or they think the Earth is 6,000 years old, I definitely feel a tiny bit of resentment and bitterness, but it's not nearly enough to make me feel completely bitter towards them - unless they were hateful. Not every religious person thinks the same way, there's a variety. 

@JoshMcNallyayres asked: What do you think of apatheism, the indifference towards God's existence rather than active disbelief? 

I think it's perfectly fine and normal. In fact, I know many people who just don't care whether God exists or not. That's really all I have to say, I think it's a perfectly respectable way to live, it's probably easier than being religious or atheist! 

@lying-llama asked: Is anyone in your family atheist/religious? Do you like argue a lot about it? 

My immediate family is all atheist, but my extended family are entirely Christian. I don't talk about religion with any of them though. I don't like debating about religion with my family. They don't either, and honestly I don't think even half of them know I'm an atheist.

@HolyDisease asked: If you were once religious, what was the point in your life as an atheist where you carried on exactly as before and finally felt completely unbound from the religion of your family? 

As explained in a previous chapter of this book, I was religious when I attended a Christian preschool. It was after I left when I was about 6 years old when I stopped believing, for my family didn't enforce any religion in the house and the whole idea felt silly to me. My cousins would all go to church first on Christmas before coming to the family party while my family stayed at home. I never felt like I wanted or needed to go to church, or that it was even necessary for them to attend. I've been unbound from my extended family's Christianity from a very young age.

@Elsaandabanana asked: Very few scholars, believing or atheistic, deny the accuracy of the Bible as a historical account. Very few scholars, even atheist scholars, deny that Jesus lived. What's your opinion on the historical accuracy of the Bible? 

Jesus was a real historical figure. There's no argument there. Jesus was most definitely a real person, denying that would be like claiming the Earth is 6,000 years old - it wouldn't make any sense. The Bible, as a historical document, isn't entirely fiction. However, all the supernatural and magical stuff is completely made up. Noah's Ark, for example, could have never been scientifically possible. A good video to watch would be Bill Nye's breakdown of the story of Noah's Ark, it outlines how impossible it really is (I have the video in the media section above). As for the flood, there's a small chance something like that could've happened, but at least not in the past 6,000 years. Adam and Eve, the Garden of Eden, Satan disguised as a snake and forcing Eve to sin - false. The stories that have wild, fictional, and magical story elements are not true. Scientific explanations have been provided for some stories, another thing too broad to answer here but you could look it up if desired. As a whole, the Bible is mostly just a bunch of magical stories, but most of the core elements like Jesus are definitely true. 

@Elsaandabanana asked: Is Darwinism vs. young Earth creationism the biggest conflict you see with science and the Bible? Why does that one issue matter so much? There are plenty of theories about theistic evolution that I as a scientific mind think are perfectly plausible. If you could prove evolution once and for all, why would that be proof for no God? 

Yes, I believe it is. I don't think the two can coexist in harmony, because they're simply too different and they contradict. Darwinism is the theory of evolution taking millions of years for a species to change and adapt to it's habitat and conditions over time. Young Earth creationism states the Earth was created 6,000 years ago by God. If the Earth was created 6,000 years ago, evolution could not have ever been possible. Therefore, it's either one or the other. Considering the mountains of evidence for evolution by natural selection and the mountains of evidence actively against young Earth creationism, it's clear which one is actually true. As for your final question, I think evolution has been proven once and for all. It may still be called a theory, but it doesn't mean it suddenly loses credibility. Gravity is still considered a theory. I personally don't believe evolution and God can coexist. In the Bible, it states God made Adam out of the earth, and made Eve from his rib. According to the Bible, humans are descendants of those two humans and not tiny biological species from the ocean. If God hadn't created Adam from the earth and Eve from his rib, and instead used the process of human evolution, why would the Bible state that?

@Elsaanabanana asked: Have you read the Bible in recent years? Have you ever read it to understand it?

I haven't read the Bible cover to cover, but I've read enough of the stories and heard enough about it to understand the gist of it. Reading the Bible doesn't make me reconsider my atheist beliefs, in fact, it strengthens them. I find the Bible as evidence against religion more than evidence for it. 

@Elsaandabanana asked: Why is there suffering? If the world is evolving to be better, why is there so much more war, conflict, and unrest these days? In thousands of years, wouldn't humans evolve past it?

Who ever said the world is evolving to be better? It's human nature. You can't "evolve past it", that doesn't make any sense. That isn't how evolution works. Suffering is a natural part of reality. It's not like as humanity evolves, all of our bad tendencies suddenly vanish - we're humans. We wouldn't be humans if as we evolved, all of our emotions went away as well. We'd be turning into mindless robots! But once again, that's not how evolution works. There isn't any more war or conflict than there was back then, in the olden days either. Humanity is still evolving too, but war never changes. There's always going to be suffering on planet Earth, until the day humanity is extinguished. When you have intelligent life like humans, bad things follow. Bad things aren't just eradicated during evolutionary processes. Why do you think there's more war and conflict then back then? Even thousands of years ago we were doing the same thing. War, conflict, suffering. It's not like it's ever going to change. I'll say it once more, that's not how evolution works. 

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Thanks everyone for all the questions! Again, if your question isn't here, it's because you posted after this chapter came out, and once I get more questions I'll make another chapter. Great questions!