American Heathen®

(Editorial Comment from the American Heathen® radio show – Air Date 10/23/09)

The background noise of thousands of years of ignorance has deafened humanity.  The vast majority of humans believe in supernatural beings, beings that don’t subscribe to the natural laws they supposedly created, and harbor all human imperfections and traits.  The blind faith of the masses, coupled with a convenient amnesia for the thousands of gods and goddesses that came before the big three monotheistic creatures, has not been to the benefit of humankind.  One only has to look at the history of human advancement, and those who have discarded faith, to see that the answers to humanity’s greatest questions haven’t come from the din of religious static.

Static.  It means different things in different contexts.  But, there are two meanings that present themselves in the context of my commentary.  The first is the “Static” of not moving, frozen, still.  The second is the “Static” of the din of background noise, cluttered, undefined, noisy.  The first meaning is assigned the dubious task of maintaining the status quot.  Bound to the word “tradition”, this “static” is the idea that what once was must continue to be despite innumerable and profound changes in the world around us.  It is not moving, it is frozen, still.  This perfectly defines the foundation of religious belief.  The second meaning is assigned to the din of background noise created by the thousands upon thousands upon thousands of religious views polluting the minds of millions of human beings, and striking them deaf to the answers of life’s questions that are answered everyday through scientific inquiry.  It is cluttered, noisy, undefined.  There is no order, no single definitive meaning, no central cognitive value.  Opposing views abound, striking discord between the millions of interpretations, becoming a dissonant clash of supernatural views and rhetoric, a toxic mishmash of ancient, primitive dung.

There are 6.7 billion human beings occupying this planet.  Of those, over three-quarters possess belief in the supernatural.  But, it is from within the remaining one-quarter of the population that we find the anechoic effect of science and natural law.  The static is minimal.  Tradition does not flourish.  There is little noise or clutter.  It is a place where humanity’s greatest achievements flourish, and progress thrives.  And, it is a place that we find reason and logic at work, striving to understand the world and humanity’s place in it.  Freedom of inquiry, unbounded, unrestricted, unbiased, far from tradition and free of the din of religious noise, it is here that progress is born and nurtured, based in natural law, not in the myths of the supernatural.

It amazes me that so many of us are so ignorant and feeble, and so few of us are so educated and empowered.  One has to wonder where humanity would be today if rigorous inquiry didn’t have to defend itself against attacks by primitive minds, minds that have sought to stifle knowledge at every turn.  Would disease and poverty be relegated to extinction?  Would bigotry and hate have fallen at the hands of enlightenment, knowledge, and understanding?  There are so many questions that can be asked of this travesty of human experience.  But, asking “What if?” is no longer relevant to the “here and now” facts.  The fact is that this nation, the United States of America, suffers from a regression.  We are quickly devolving to a critical state of ancient ignorance.

More than two-thirds of Americans don’t believe in the scientific fact of Evolution.  Yet, the process of Evolution takes place everyday; influenza, bacteria, dogs, cats, mammals of all kinds, plants, insects…the list goes on and on. Everyday we see the “here and now” of the evolutionary process, and new discoveries are made everyday.  Forget the mountains of evidence supporting the Darwinian model.  Forget the fossil and geological record.  Forget that science is the very foundation of human progress.  None of this matters to religion.  No matter what the flavor, no matter what extreme, religion stays static, creates static, and remains immovable in the face of hard facts.

But, what has religion ever discovered?  What has religion ever done for the advancement, the progress of humankind? Nothing.  When has religion ever subjected itself to rigorous scientific inquiry?  When has it ever tried to prove, scientifically, the existence of the supernatural?  Never.  Why?  Because if it did, religion would fail every scientific test. Religion cannot survive scientific inquiry.  And, this is why religion continues to wage a war against inquiry and knowledge.

Answers to life’s questions are not found in religious static.  They are found in the vast expanse of human inquiry and the rigorous testing of each and every idea.  Without this tenet, food, clothing, electricity, cars, boats, TV, PS3, health care, vaccines, antibiotics… these things would not exist.  And what has religion offered?  Prayer?  A game of begging for something and getting a yes, no, or wait?  You can play the same game with a jug of milk and get the same answers.  Worship?  Worshiping jealous gods hoping they don’t condemn you to an eternity in hell for not wearing the right clothes to church, tugging on your willy, thinking about the hot neighbor, or questioning a skydaddy’s existence?  What has religion really offered humanity?  Food, shelter and clothing to the downtrodden?  Of course!  For the right to shove the myth down helpless throats at the expense of individuality and freedom of mind.  Sure!  Why not!  But, where did the food come from?  Did the food magically appear?  Did the clothes magically appear?  Did the cars and trucks that brought the food and clothes magically appear?  More importantly…  Why didn’t the supernatural entity, who invented natural law, and supposedly has infinite power, simply feed and clothe everyone to begin with?

I’ll tell you why. Because answers don’t come from static.

This entry was posted on October 23, 2009 at 10:56 pm and is filed under Uncategorized with tags Atheism, Atheist, Christian, Christianity, Evolution, Religion, Science. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed Both comments and pings are currently closed.