While Robin Williams has played many great roles throughout his acting career, I will always remember him most as John Keating, the wise, rebellious educator in The Dead Poets Society. Coincidently enough, that film was all about depression and suicide; two themes now closely associated with Robin Williams.
Tag God
I’m an atheist and I write a lot about atheism. People come to my blog or read my articles usually knowing that I am an atheist and yet I get accused of “throwing atheism in everyone’s face.”
I often criticize and argue against religious fundamentalists because I think there are more of them than people realize and that they wield a great deal of political power in this country. However, many religious criticize me and other atheists for “picking low hanging fruit.” They claim that we aren’t arguing against “real” Christians and that fundamentalists have religion all wrong. That’s interesting, because it seems that God in his all-knowingness couldn’t foresee that fundamentalists would or could “twist” his message so easily.
One hundred years from now we will be dead but it is entirely probable that our children may still be alive. I say “probable” and “may” because it really depends in large part to who wins the culture war. For simplicity sake, let’s look at the two opposing worldviews and see which one offers the best hope for our future.
Even though I am pretty open about my atheism to everyone except maybe the people at my part-time job, I still sometimes feel like I live two lives. I have one life with my wife, kids, family, and friends, and another life online. Well, real life is distracting me from my online life again.
Anyone who is a superfan of Star Trek: The Next Generation would know that before the Federation of Planets initiates first contact with an alien world, the people of that world must first develop the capacity to travel at warp speed. Warp drive is the test that the people of a planet must pass before First Contact can occur. But what if in reality the test is something different? What if the test is that a culture must abandon religion and/or supernatural beliefs?
Rabbi David Wolpe was named the most influential Rabbi in the country by Newsweek Magazine in 2012. He is also no stranger to high profile debates with atheists like Christopher Hitchens and Sam Harris. Recently he posted an interesting meme on his Facebook page which inspired me to make a comment. Wolpe responded and I want to share our brief exchange and my thoughts about it in more detail. Here is the meme:
I recently received a comment from a Christian pointing out that the Bible supports fasting for health reasons and that a scientific study has shown that fasting can be beneficial to cancer patients on Chemotherapy. The commenter then added that “this was another case of science catching up with God’s advice.”
Picture this, you are walking on a beach and all you see for miles is sand. Then, out of nowhere you find a perfectly formed rock. How do you suppose it got there? How could a rock have formed naturally?
The argument goes like this:
The universe is made up of matter and energy.
We are made up of matter and energy.
Therefore, we are the universe trying to understand itself.
Therefore, we are God.