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May 19th, 2011
03:00 PM ET
My Take: Doomsdayers show what’s wrong with all religion
By David Silverman, Special to CNN Let nobody doubt that religion hurts people. Good, intelligent, caring people suffer every day and everywhere at the hands of religion, the happy lie. Religion is used by dishonest people who claim to know the way to the one thing humans want most: immortality. To combat fear of death, religious people ignore their intellect, believe the lie, and follow the preacher, usually blindly and sometimes to the point of insanity. We are witnessing one very good example of this right now, as a group led by Christian ministry leader Harold Camping prepares for the end of the world this Saturday, May 21. Of course, the weekend will pass without incident and thousands of Camping's followers, having spent or donated huge amounts of money on his behalf, will be gravely disappointed. Victims will be broken. Families will be damaged. Lives will be ruined. All because someone made a good pitch, and followers believed. Opinion: May 21 Doomsday movement harms Christianity I am not sure if Camping is a liar, but I think so. He realized that religion is a great way to make tax-free money off the backs of well-meaning people, through donations to his ministry, all without fearing eternal damnation. You see, I suspect that he, like many others of his ilk, doesn’t believe in God at all. It may seem odd that I would accuse this man of being an atheist like me, but rest assured that he is nothing like me. Like most atheists, I’m a pretty nice person and would never scam someone out of his or her life savings or convince someone to quit a job just to line my pockets. The truth is that religion and ethics are completely independent of one another. Follow CNN’s Belief Blog on Twitter Consider how Newt Gingrich could campaign against President Bill Clinton's adultery as the darling of the Religious Right while actually being an adulterer himself. Consider how evangelical superstar Ted Haggard could preach against homosexuality, in God’s name, while hiding a gay lover. And consider Camping, who can get donors to cough up what appears to be a lot of money in God’s name while ruining his followers’ real lives on Earth. These are not people who fear God or hell. In my opinion, they know very well that gods are myths. They are just bad people. Atheists have bad people, too, the worst of whom feign religion for their own personal gain. Next week, Camping’s victims will ask our forgiveness for being so foolish, and we will forgive them, because we’ve all done stupid things. They will ask for money and we will help them, because most people are charitable. And then Camping victims will ask us to forget all about this whole ugly scam. That is something we must never do. We must remember that Camping, atheist or not, is no different from any other preacher. Religion thrives on fear–the constant threat of any-time-now Judgment Day coupled with eternal punishment in hell for those who don’t believe strongly enough. Since rational minds question irrational things, believers constantly have doubts, and therefore fear that they don't have enough faith to pass muster during the eventual Rapture, when the righteous will be saved and the unrighteous will be damned. Fear of hell makes believers desperate to ease those doubts so they can be sure to get into heaven. It’s a recipe for fear-based obedience, which is exactly what religion craves. It’s the method used by Camping, and by the rest of Christianity, too. If we forget about Camping, this apocalyptic madness will happen again. Next year is 2012 and, just as was supposed to happen in 2011, 2004, 2001, 2000, 1999, 1997, 1994 and other years that the world is supposed to end, according to one religion or another. What will we do in 2012? Will we sit still while preachers take advantage of the gullible again? Will we refrain from confronting the fools and continue to revere religion? Or will we, as a society, demand that people use their intellect and pay attention to their preachers, priests, rabbis or mullahs and see them as the scammers they really are? This weekend, preachers from coast to coast will talk about why they are right and Camping is wrong, and I ask you all to listen closely. They will try to justify why one interpretation of the Bible (theirs) is right while the others are wrong. In the end, they are all interpreting the “perfect word of God” in their own imperfect way so that God agrees with their own agenda. It’s obvious if you look for it; no preacher ever says "God disagrees with me." Yes, this weekend we will giggle at the fools who follow the preachers that earn their living spreading happy lies. Religion will have been proven wrong yet again. But we all must remember that people have been hurt this weekend. We hope the victims of this year’s end-of-the-world will lift themselves back up, dust themselves off, and come out of this as better, less gullible people. Hopefully, they will use their experience to help others avoid future scams by shouting loudly at tomorrow’s victims, without fear of being irreverent about something which deserves no reverence at all. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of David Silverman. soundoff (1,927 Responses)« Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 Next »
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The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.  |
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Editor's Note: David Silverman, an atheist since age 6, is president of 
why?
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Mel Gibson's passionate faith
A wise man once said,
" A belief in science can fly to the moon, a belief in religion can fly you into a building."
These followers will be flown into a 'building' on May 22nd.
whoa, that's deep man. pass the joint
I am amazed at the energy these people focused on the next life. These poor delusional souls have forgotten to live the unique and wonder life they have been given.
I hope for his and all atheists sakes that they are correct about no God. I know I'm not weariing gasoling underwear 😉
what?
"Just in case" is no reason to believe in god.
Common sense says there is no god.
How would you form underwear out of liquid, especially liquid that evaporates as readily as gasoline? Personally, I'm a fan of cotton.
I think it's funny how atheists claim to be so much better than religious nutjobs. Atheists are just as bad, they claim to be rational by refuting the existence of a God but the time and energy the spend doing it is practically religious and fanatical in itself. If you believe in nothing, then do so. If there's no God then why bother with ethics? As a biologist I find that as animals we should be worrying about continuing our species or at least advancing what we have. Atheists need to stop getting so worked up over the whole religion issue. Do something productive. Invent something, educate yourself in mathematics and the sciences. Contribute to our species for goodness sake. It's either that or descend into hedonism. Since you believe there's no God there is no real imperative to be good. Sure some of my evolutionary biologist colleagues claim that good behavior and kindness are facets of modern human mating rituals, but as a pragmatist I find it to be extremely tiresome, boring, and just a waste of energy and time. Use your brains, it's all you have (evolution/God didn't give us talons, wings, alligator jaws, etc... if you haven't noticed). Atheist logic is stupid, you can talk about how there's no God but can you prove it? The ultimate judge in the universe is the laboratory. Religious people believe that judge to be God, Atheists believe it to be their own reasoning. Well both reasoning and "faith" have their flaws. Your ability to reason is just a result of natural chemical processes. Who knows where those processes came from. Logic and reasoning alone can get you no where, all atheists end up in circles this way. But the laboratory, now that's where you can at least try to find the truth. It's easy to live life believing in religion, and it's even easier being an atheist. But if you really care about truth, look for it. Convincing yourself or something through pure logic is ironically very stupid.
I think it's funny how atheists claim to be so much better than religious nutjobs. Atheists are just as bad, they claim to be rational by refuting the existence of a God but the time and energy the spend doing it is practically religious and fanatical in itself. If you believe in nothing, then do so. If there's no God then why bother with ethics? As a biologist I find that as animals we should be worrying about continuing our species or at least advancing what we have. Atheists need to stop getting so worked up over the whole religion issue. Do something productive. Invent something, educate yourself in mathematics and the sciences. Contribute to our species for goodness sake. It's either that or descend into hedonism. Since you believe there's no God there is no real imperative to be good. Sure some of my evolutionary biologist colleagues claim that good behavior and kindness are facets of modern human mating rituals, but as a pragmatist I find it to be extremely tiresome, boring, and just a waste of energy and time. Use your brains, it's all you have (evolution/God didn't give us talons, wings, alligator jaws, etc... if you haven't noticed). Atheist logic is stupid, you can talk about how there's no God but can you prove it? The ultimate judge in the universe is the laboratory. Religious people believe that judge to be God, Atheists believe it to be their own reasoning. Well both reasoning and "faith" have their flaws. Your ability to reason is just a result of natural chemical processes. Who knows where those processes came from. Logic and reasoning alone can get you no where, all atheists end up in circles this way. But the laboratory, now that's where you can at least try to find the truth. It's easy to live life believing in religion, and it's even easier being an atheist. But if you really care about truth, look for it. Convincing yourself or something through pure logic is ironically very stupid.
You know, the main reason that irrational religion has such a grip on our society is that the majority of atheists thruout history have done exactly what you said they should do and just gone about their business, inventing things, making things, holding down jobs, paying taxes, living decent ordinary lives, etc. We're notorious for NOT proselytizing. And look where it's gotten us! Half the population is so imbued with irrationality that they deny evolution and global warming.
No, it's long past time for atheists to speak up and point out insistently and often that the emperor has no clothes, Santa Claus doesn't exist, and Jesus is dead, dead, dead and ain't never comin' back.
Wellsir, I'm an atheist and i don't believe in any god or afterlife, I don't kill people and steal stuff 'cause its kinda a dick thing to do, not cause I fear eternal hellfire.
I think you fundamentally misunderstand how normative ethics work. I too have a degree in biology but I would encourage you to A) look at occam's razor B) think about the fact that the burden of proof lies on those who assert C) look into the problem of induction and the Quine/Duheim thesis which illuminate certain problems with science and D) think about the fact that science gives us descriptive information but no prescriptive information. To claim that because there is no god Atheists would devolve into hedonists is to fundamentally misunderstand the process of rationality and ethics itself.
Being good is how we all function in society. I’ve been an atheist my whole life. I donate blood, work at a summer camp for handicapped kids, and treat people the way I want to be treated. People (even religious people) like me because I’m a nice person. I don’t need an imaginary friend to guilt me into being a good person. I can respect the opinions of other and they respect mine. I don’t push my beliefs on anyone but people try to change my mind all the time.
Also you misused the word ironically in your last sentence.
As an atheist my main problem with the religious is not the individual but the power structure behind the church. I have watched silently and for far too long as charitable tax breaks have given rise to political movements advocating the use of educational vouchers and the subversion of public education. This religious structure allows political manipulation of the credulous. To me, the Christian religious school of today could lead to the madrassa of tomorrow. It needs to be called out and actively resisted.
You know what would be a better idea? Paragraphs! When you divide your comments into readable chunks, more people will actually take the time to read it.
this is all bullhockey
Interesting how he uses isolated incidents, people who have twisted religion to suit their needs and wants, to generalize that this shows "what's wrong with all religion," religious people are "blind," and preachers are "scammers." I could... also write a big list of atheists or simply nonreligious people who have commited horrendous crimes, but I am intelligent enough to realize that this does not mean that all atheists and agnostics are evil murderers. In fact, he even claims the people who have twisted religion are probably atheists like himself...Doesn't this only implicate athiests?!? This dude needs to learn how to make a better argument!!See More
أكبرالله
If it makes someone feel better about the world and feel safe and happy to believe in God, then who has the right to take that away from them if they aren't harming anyone (the important part of that sentence is "if they aren't harming anyone")? To the same extent, if I am not going to heaven because I don't believe in God, that's my problem, not anyone else's.
I have the right.
It's funny how some atheist people condemn a person for their beliefs in attempts to place themselves above others.. you know... like how some religious people do...
You're worried, are you, that some people are too judgmental? Well, I despise white supremacists, suicide bombers, and child molesters. I guess that makes me judgmental. So sue me.
you hear that loud whooshing noise? yeah, that was the point whizzing by your head.. Point being, It's hard to take hypocrites seriously...
You seem to think it's hypocritical to point out that other people are mistaken or deluded. It's not. It's simple honesty.
Religion is the panacea of the great unwashed masses, always has been, ever since it was invented to pacify otherwise miserable existences. NONE of this horsecrap has any bearing on the reality we all face in this world. If you have "faith", you are a lemming. Period. End times according to who???? It is all fabricated in the minds of man. There is no deity controlling or creating anything. Just saying.
Aethism is becoming an organization much like religions are. Common people sharing common views organizing together to try to convince people to accept their views.
Atheists are like the Rural Electrification Administration — they live for and long for the day when they can put themselves out of business.
I consider myself a believer, but honestly, I agree with a lot of what this man says. Religion has nothing to do with God. Its a human creation. Truly, an opiate of the masses.
I also know that atheism is just one more faith as well that cant be proven. Their faith just lies in their own beliefs, just like the rest.
The biggest problem I have with modern christianity is that the Bible isnt even preached. Just small tidbits or verses on a weekly scale. Sure, there's some authenticity somewere, but I've yet to find it on this blog.
Just my honest thoughts.
The Dude! Your name isn't Tom, is it? I would have agreed with you a few years ago, but I promise you there are true honest Christians out there along with churches who preach the Truth from the Bible. I have found one that speaks to my heart and has changed my life. Too many churches and Christians are in it for the show...keep looking! I'll be praying for you!
As for the athiest, I am glad that yall want to have a party when all christians are gone. I will be having a party for the rest of my life when the rapture happens.
Oh great, I don't have to study for my final test next week.
Although he has some decent points but as a Christian I caught one thing. He says there good and bad aethists. There are also good and bad Christians but his article says all religion and Christianity is bad. If he doesn't like that "some" Christians claim non-believers go to hell. Then he shouldn't be a hypocrite and say that all Christianity is bad. I have friends who are aethists. I have no qualms with them. I have doubts too. But I do believe Jesus rose from the dead and died for mankind. Other people can fight over this dogma or that. I have little interest in that. But word to the aethists who don't like being judged. Then don't throw all of Christianity into one basket.
You are all invited to the Blasphemer's Ball on Saturday evening at the Beverly Hilton, 9PM. Free drinks to all who blew out their American Express Cards, expecting the End earlier that day.
Mr.Silverman,
Check your facts ... Mr.Camping receives no compensation from Family Radio
Check again Sherlock. Just because he says that, doesn't mean his stock in the stations he owns is not profitable, or receives dividends, or that the loans reported on his IRS forms are not "compensation".
No the true meaning of Christianity is haveing a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. It isn't about money, Jesus didn't say give me any money for me to forgive you of your sins. As for preachers asking for money how do they pay the bills or make a living if they don't ask. why don't you try working for free.
Among several other areas is your characterization of what Camping and his ilk do as "work". They produce nothing of value. They are leeches.
Woops, meant "errors", but my fingers went ahead and typed "areas" instead.
If you're right, that Christianity isn't about money, then why do so many Christians think it is? The sad truth is that there is no single "true meaning of Christianity." Christianity means whatever it means to whoever claims to follow it. Period. To assume there are "'Real' Christians" out there, inherently distinguishable from "'non-Real' Christians," is untrue. To think so is to fall for what's called "the No True Scotsman fallacy."
Hmm. I think I remember being granted a plenary indulgence for a contribution to the Vatican Museum. I won't bother you with what that means, but you can look it up.
To religion, there is no 'middle ground' – it's all black and white, white and wrong, clear as day and dirty as sin. You have no 'justifiable sin' or rationalization as there is no room for it and confusion impedes blind faithful obedience.