The Naturalistic Worldview

[Unbeliever]

Those who don't believe in any gods or supernatural aspects of the universe have, since 9/11, finally begun to speak out about their naturalistic worldview. Several books by prominent atheists have recently made it to the best-seller lists, and, hopefully, more will follow.

And it's about damned time, too! Why it took Terrible Teusday to get people to start waking up is something that I've long wondered about, but at least something finally got people to start thinking about religion without the blinders on. It's time for the world to wake up and smell the cordite, and quit undermining the future life and reproduction of the planet. Only by seeing the world as it is can we hope to ensure the long-term survival of our biosphere.

I think eventually ID proponents will run out of gaps for their God to fill, leaving them entirely without even the (holy) ghost of rational support. The trouble is, though, that unless we begin to properly educate our youngsters, people will continue, en mass, to believe absurdities. Holding an absurd worldview is not conducive to survival, especially on a scale larger than the individual. If we don't start teaching people how to think, and motivating them to use those critical thinking skills, we're doomed.

Many have noted that our technology has outstripped our wisdom. But how could this be, given that religion, the alleged source of all our wisdom, has been around as long as we've been human? Tens of millenia have gone into trying desperately to figure out how to appease the gods, and where has it gotten us? Using our technology to kill each other in ways never dreamed of, merely an extension of the first ape picking up a big stick and bashing a fellow ape to death. And yet serious technology has only been around for a couple of centuries! Modern science is only about 300 years old!

It's time we use the true wisdom we've gained from the labour of people willing to see the universe as it is, it's time we gained some maturity as a planet and as a specie, because the fate of the Earth is in our hands, not the hands of some absurd supernatural entity that exists only in the minds of the willfully ignorant.

We humans pride ourselves on our wisdom, hence the "sapiens sapiens" in our specie's classification. But the truth is that we're not really very wise at all, and we do too many dangerous things without thinking ahead to see if we can minimize the danger. We think we've thought of everything, but the truth is that we've only begun to scratch the surface of what there is to know. And so nature continues to surprise us with its "murphiness", its tendency to obey Murphy's Law.

We have become, through reason and the scientific method, the eyes and mind of the planet. The observations of science are the eyes of the rational mind. Through scientific observation, using tools never before available with which to percieve reality, we can now see both the big picture and the small picture, the macrocosm and the microcosm, where previously we could only partially observe even the mesocosm.

We will never likely be able to claim omniscience, so there will always be gaps in our knowledge - but filling those gaps with "God" is to define "God" as "ignorance". Since neither "I", nor "we", can know everything, then, if God is ignorance, I'd have to admit to a belief in God. But that's a far cry from the all-powerful being of the Bible, which certainly does not exist. And, if God is ignorance, then it's the job of science to kill God, or at least to grind away at it, by eliminating as much ignorance as possible, reducing the number of gaps available for God to hide in. If seeing is believing, then seeing what isn't real can only lead to false beliefs about the world and existence. False beliefs are not conducive to behaviour commensurate with survival.

The Earth has been blind for 3.8 billion years, but now, thanks so science and reason, it can see - not only itself, it can see the universal home in which it exists. Earth was blind, but now it sees!

Not only can the Earth see itself and the universe, but, since the Earth's minds were engendered by the universe, we are the universe observing itself.

Organized religion and the right wing political machine want to keep the planet blind, choosing to see only a fantasy worldview, and doing its utmost to force that self-delusion down everyone's throats in order to maintain power, to control the masses and garner obscene amounts of wealth for the "elite" few. We must not let the theocrats put out the eyes of reason, we must continue looking as deeply and as far into the nature of reality as possible, and motivating others to help. Reason is not the best tool for interpreting what we see, through scientific observation - it is the only tool.

The Earth has been exploring, since its birth, as many of the myriad ways as it could manage of being alive. Now that it has awakened and become aware of itself and its circumstances in the universe, the Earth can attempt to find the least-hostile path through space/time - the path to abundant life.

The Earth has long been considered as our Mother, but I view it as an Egg, as well.

If an eagle egg dies before it hatches, it will never become an eagle.

If Earth, as a planetary Egg, dies before it can hatch, what is it that will never be born?

If the Earth can succeed in spreading its biosphere to the galaxy as a whole, many trillions of individuals can eventually come to be. How much responsibility do we have to those potential beings, to give them their chance to live and love? Some may say that we have none, but I think there's no better purpose we can serve than to bring the galaxy to life, and maybe even the entire universe, given enough time.

We won't do that by being purposely blind to what we can become.

[Sandy Price]

One cannot help but believe in Evolution when looking at life itself on this planet.  My concern is with the lost civilizations that simply stop reproducing and left no language for the reason for their demise.  I fear we may be heading in the same direction only this time we will self-destruct under the directions of the bible bringing on Armageddon. 

Carl Sagan sent a disk to outspace describing the human body, animals, plants, art, music and I assume our political differences.  He claimed to have done this to introduce life on the earth to others who may have evolved in a different environment. 

I want to send another disk from the leaders of our Atheist and Scientific groups to explain our self destruction through the wars between the Gods.  I guess what I want is a time capsule to warn the next life on earth to live through the actions of the developed life and not through the threats of Gods bringing only terrorism. 

We have language and now an awareness of the evils of turning a developed brain over to some made-up God and this must not happen again on earth or anywhere in our universe. 

I cannot stop the madness of the religious extremists but maybe I can warn the leaders of American Atheists who are meeting in Virginia the last weekend in September to set off plans for a time capsule and put it in orbit for at least 100 years or more as a warning to future life forms on earth. 

We are discovering advanced civilizations all over the planet who suddenly were gone with only relics and some bones to show they ever existed.  How can such a high percentage of humans still believe what the bible tells us about our creation? 

We have no future without knowing our past; warts and all.