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victim might thank God he survived (rather than cursing Him for the inconvenience), but did God really cause these things to happen?

While the lottery winner thanks the heavens for beating such amazing odds, the lottery company has made sure that there would definitely be a winner somewhere. It just happened to be that one woman. Meteorologists know that lighting just has to strike somewhere when it storms. It just happened to be that man, and credit for his survival belongs more to the doctors who saved him than to God.

The thing with luck is that the person experiencing it finds it so amazing that the only way to digest it is often to thank a god. The thing with the universe at large is that it forces things, even things that appear rare, to happen all the time.

This applies to very the existence of humanity. Given the structure of the universe, it just had to happen somewhere, and in happening, it had to happen here because if it didn't, we wouldn't be here to ask the question. The universe is so huge that, even if there's only a one-in-a-billion chance of life forming on one particular planet (far tougher odds than lightning or the lotto), there are still probably a billion planets with life out there.

Life might be everywhere. We're just too small and ignorant to fully grasp why, because the numbers are so gigantic.

That's just fine, by the way. Another thing atheists understand is that it's okay to say "we just don't know," without the ignorance of a true cause compelling us to cram "God did it," in the gaps. It's definitely better to admit not knowing than to believe something that's probably untrue.

As for the universe needing a cause, and thus evoking God as a cause just because a cause is needed, why doesn't God need a cause? He does, and we don't have one. We could make up god-making-gods that stretch on and on backwards, but that leaves us no better off than where we started, with no supernatural cause at all.

Finally, atheists are often humanists. We understand that human beings, no matter what they believe or what they do, don't deserve to suffer in any kind of netherworld for anything near a million years, and more than a few "chosen believers" deserve to be happy for as long as they exist. Just last week, a friend of mine was told at a bus stop, by an old woman clutching a rosary, that AIDS is a plague sent by God to get rid of homosexuality.

Ignoring the terrible job God did of it (it's been two decades, and gays are still all over the place while heterosexuals contract the disease on a very regular basis) - how can that be okay? Just for being gay, you deserve to die, and probably burn? Just for being a little sexually quirky by "normal" standards?

Humanists are more progressive than that. Well, so are most religious people too, but still: making someone suffer in return for doing harm isn't usually the best answer, and more importantly, most of the things people do (they fall for the same sex, sleep in on Sundays, rebel against their parents, and pick their noses) aren't that bad anyway.

Atheists, being open minded thinkers who don't let their brains fall out, are not only down with the facts, but morally skilled, too. A lot of atheists even reject religions for moral reasons. They're less concerned with tradition, and more concerned with progressive learning. These are all traits more reflective of the truth than religion is, and more helpful than harmful to humanity.

Learn more about this author, Currie Jean.
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