by Frank Toplitsky

Created on: May 30, 2008

Atheism Tilting at Windmills.
There is much talk these days about Atheism, popular books on the subject are now on the market and New York Time's best seller's lists. One of the reasons for Atheism's popularity is the rise of Fundamentalist Islam and Evangelical Christianity, which seems reasonable under these circumstances. Something just occurred to me as I wrote that. Are these books listed under fiction or non-fiction? If under non-fiction, does that not give them a kind of intellectual legitimacy? Atheism is a perfectly logical alternative to Religion in general. I suppose they catalog books defending Religion under non-fiction also, which poses some interesting questions. If Atheism is the antithesis of Religion how can they both be considered non-fiction?

There is even a moral position on the legitimacy of Religion called Agnosticism. Let us consider this for a moment: there is also secularism; orthodoxy; and fundamentalism. Secularism applies to a person of a particular religious faith, who does not stick to the rules at all, and at best gives his Religion lip service. He may apologetically acknowledge that he "believes in God" but not in Religion. The Orthodox follow the rules to the letter, they play the game, wear the designated clothing, eat the specified food, go to their church regularly and donate money and time as a matter of moral principle without question. Thus, we have to question how the Orthodox differs from the Fundamentalist. All Major Bibles demand total obedience and subservience to God. The Orthodox draws the line at total submission for all of mankind. He may like his Religion and feel some kind of neurotic comfort and security in being Orthodox, but he feels no need to draw non-believers and infidels into the fold according to the word of the Lord. The Fundamentalist demands the entire world submit to his God, and is willing to kill in order to achieve this moral perfection. Religion does not have total authority on Fundamentalism; The Communists and Nazis also had Fundamentalists, ergo the Second World War. And then back to the Agnostic. He holds primarily, Maybe there is, and maybe there is not. Talk about hedging ones bets. Heads I win, tails you lose. If there really is a God, I'm safe, and if there is no God, well, I have that covered also. What church does he belong to, and does it really matter?

In the final analysis Religion is a predatory force, and that is its Fundamental Purpose. No one on earth really believes in Religion,

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