Why I am not a Theist.(Thank you Bertrand Russell)

This post is part of a continuing series of posts about atheism that I intend to write. I believe in actively promoting your politics, values and ideas and this is one of my attempts to do so. I also would just like to clarify that I am most certainly a layperson and have never attended an accredited(or indeed even a non-accredited) post secondary class on philosophy, religion, theology, sociology, psychology, math, or any of the physical sciences. Any errors or omissions in my ideas or statements are most certainly my own, and while I will occasionally use famous persons(both living and dead) words I certainly do not ascribe to their entire world-view. I simply believe that nothing I'm saying is entirely original and why not use words of far greater eloquence than my own.

To begin I'll discuss morality and theism. Often I find that when I express my religious beliefs to people I know who are more socially conservative, or moderately religious, I encounter the question(usually politely phrased) of 'how do you know right from wrong'? This is usually couched as a serious question. I think that from a common sense perspective, very few people would point to a specific religious text for their most prominent moral figures. Parents, older siblings, mentors, and heroes fill the role of moral advisor's in a far more relevant capacity. Not only are their values not distorted by 2 millenia of moral zeitgeist, they also present more familiar experiences to draw from than the bible. If however someone were to hear a voice from the heavens demanding them to sacrifice their firstborn son, one could certainly turn to the bible for relevant examples of moral judgment(or preferably to a psychologist).

Often religious people have a hard time with the source of moral authority without god. They often argue that without god, anything and everything is permitted. To answer this one needs only a very simple grasp of logical thought. Either the things that god commands us to do are moral because god commands us to do them, or because they have moral worth independent of gods commands. If god commands them because they are good, then why do we need him to tell us? If an action has observable moral worth then we don't. If however you believe that only gods commands have moral worth then anything is permitted in principle. Any act no matter how repugnant can be legitimized by a divine decree. And lets not forget that the god of Abraham specifically allowed and encouraged his subjects, to conquer, kill, rape, commit genocide, infanticide, genital mutilation and numerous other atrocities. And no take backs here theists. If god is omniscient then he doesn't make mistakes.

I wish more Christians would read the old testament. It's a terrible book filled with vile bigotry, and horrible atrocities. All done in the name of the entity that would become Jesus, meek and mild(after he had been sated for centuries on the blood of his enemies and people).