Artificial God -- Speech by Douglas Adams.
This is rather as if you imagine a puddle waking up one morning and thinking, 'This is an interesting world I find myself in - an interesting hole I find myself in - fits me rather neatly, doesn't it? In fact it fits me staggeringly well, must have been made to have me in it!' This is such a powerful idea that as the sun rises in the sky and the air heats up and as, gradually, the puddle gets smaller and smaller, it's still frantically hanging on to the notion that everything's going to be alright, because this world was meant to have him in it, was built to have him in it; so the moment he disappears catches him rather by surprise.
His initials are DNA and his speech is located here.
Being an atheist is something that I occasionally find difficult to explain. I don't believe in God. I don't believe in an ultimate plan. I don't interfere with other people's rights to believe in God or higher plans, so I'd actually rather prefer that they left me and my lack of belief alone, just as I leave them and their beliefs alone.
At the same time, I'm also not a Buddhist despite having been raised in a Buddhist household and Buddhism being a system of belief (my parents insist it is NOT called a religion because it doesn't involve any gods) that's compatible with atheism since Buddhism doesn't require you to believe in a god.
However, the particular branch of Buddhism that I grew up with does require you to believe in reincarnation as the basic premise is that if you're suffering in this life, it's karmic retribution for something you did bad in a past life. And likewise, if you're doing well in this life, it's because you have good karma from before.
I don't believe in reincarnation and I don't believe that my good luck/bad luck is a result of actions in a prior life. I think that luck is random, albeit something you can influence (for example, if you look both ways before crossing a street you'll probably never have the bad luck of getting run over).
Ergo, atheist. Not an agnostic, because that requires me to say that there could be something out there that I might believe in, and quite frankly, I've haven't seen anything that would lead me to believe that there's a possibility of a greater being (or multiple) watching over us.
Faith is a crutch. Maybe it helps to have a hope that your suffering is not just random and things will be better when you're in Heaven, but for me, it would feel dishonest to pretend to believe in a God when I don't, just in the hopes of having someone to blame/thank for my own actions and the consequences thereof.
His initials are DNA and his speech is located here.
Being an atheist is something that I occasionally find difficult to explain. I don't believe in God. I don't believe in an ultimate plan. I don't interfere with other people's rights to believe in God or higher plans, so I'd actually rather prefer that they left me and my lack of belief alone, just as I leave them and their beliefs alone.
At the same time, I'm also not a Buddhist despite having been raised in a Buddhist household and Buddhism being a system of belief (my parents insist it is NOT called a religion because it doesn't involve any gods) that's compatible with atheism since Buddhism doesn't require you to believe in a god.
However, the particular branch of Buddhism that I grew up with does require you to believe in reincarnation as the basic premise is that if you're suffering in this life, it's karmic retribution for something you did bad in a past life. And likewise, if you're doing well in this life, it's because you have good karma from before.
I don't believe in reincarnation and I don't believe that my good luck/bad luck is a result of actions in a prior life. I think that luck is random, albeit something you can influence (for example, if you look both ways before crossing a street you'll probably never have the bad luck of getting run over).
Ergo, atheist. Not an agnostic, because that requires me to say that there could be something out there that I might believe in, and quite frankly, I've haven't seen anything that would lead me to believe that there's a possibility of a greater being (or multiple) watching over us.
Faith is a crutch. Maybe it helps to have a hope that your suffering is not just random and things will be better when you're in Heaven, but for me, it would feel dishonest to pretend to believe in a God when I don't, just in the hopes of having someone to blame/thank for my own actions and the consequences thereof.