-------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Read V.M. de Malar's latest Column: | | | | Politics of Destruction | | | | http://www.goanet.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sidA6 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear Jerry,
Santosh has answered many of your questions and I hope you forgive me for adding my Cdn$0.02 to this thread. There are many who reject atheism or non-theism as a valid worldview without really understanding it. It is always difficult to begin to question values and ideals that we have grown up with, particularly religious ones which have always hidden behind a cloak of mystery. Belonging to a particular religion has it's social benefits but we really have to question those when it pits neighbour against neighbour. For me, the last few years have been particularly difficult socially but extremely rewarding intellectually and emotionally. Going public with my views helps me understand them better and hopefully helps others understand me (at least those who genuinely care). <But what is Atheism? > It carries a negative connotation that it is 'against theism' or anti-religion. However, this is not as true as that it is a disbelief in a supernatural deity that created everything we see around us and that guides the day-to-day destiny of that creation. <Who started atheism? > The question really should be 'Who started Theism'. The evolution of religion is one that has paralleled the evolution of the intelligence of humankind from the tribal hunter-gatherers who attributed natural geographical events to supernatural deities to the deepest thinking theologians, St. Thomas Aquinas being one of many. Through the ages, there have been thinkers who have defied the common beliefs and gone out on a limb to espouse their 'heretical' views publicly, occasionally at great risk to their own lives, but eventually enriching the scientific view for the rest of humanity. <What are its principles? > There are no principles of Atheism per se but the underlying concept is that we are responsible for our own destinies without any influence from supernatural forces. In other words, and in one's often quoted in scripture, 'God is within each one of us'. However, this does not mean that atheists are a selfish bunch. Secular Humanism sets out a common manifesto of what it is to live a fulfilling life as an atheist. <Do they believe in life after death as most religions believe?> No. There is no 'life' as we know or understand it past the moment we take our last breath and the vitality of our essential organs, primarily the brain, fail. Our 'soul' is a sum total of our experiences and influences we have had on others and what lives on is the memories we have created and for those fortunate enough, the genetic material they have left in the form of offspring. <(Either, as heaven or hell, or rebirth)> We experience our heaven or hell here on earth, while we live - creating a desirable environment or suffering an intolerable one by our actions towards others. <Or are they believers of Darwin's principle of evolution that man came from monkey?> That is the only logical way we can explain how we came to be and it has been verified by several different and unrelated scientific disciplines. Once we understand that we are an integral part of the web of life and not the ones given 'dominion' over the rest of the earth, we start to realize that we need to clean up our act and that there really isn't anyone out there who is going to help us straighten out the messes that our society has created. Thank you for giving me an opportunity to 'shed some light' Kevin Saldanha Mississauga, ON. -------------------------------------------------------------------- mail2web - Check your email from the web at http://mail2web.com/ .
