Anti-theist manifesto

The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once wrote: “God is dead.”

But I don’t think God is dead. I think he never even existed. This atheist belief seems to be coming to the forefront of American pop-culture. Bill Maher’s “Religulous,” follows the success of recently published atheist manifestos by Oxford professor Richard Dawkins and Atlantic Monthly contributor Christopher Hitchens. My similar atheist views lead me to critique all religion.

Why is religion above reproach?

Whenever people unapologetically criticize any religion or faith, they are vilified and unfairly marginalized by society. Religion does not deserve any special respect or caution. It is an idea and choice like any other and must be scrutinized and investigated.

Religion is an archaic superstition started by ancient charismatic leaders, which pervaded all human civilization and development. Believers are led astray by leaders who often behave rather worldly. The Pope, for instance, is the head of his own state and once blessed a fleet of Ferraris during a religious ceremony.
There is no God.

A rudimentary study of the problem of evil reveals the impossibility of God. If by definition, God is the all-powerful, perfect and benevolent creator of the universe, then how can evil exist or have existed in the past? 

Evil can only exist if there is no God, especially not the Abrahamic God.

One only has to look to the story of Abraham’s attempted sacrifice of his son, Isaac, to realize the dangers of faith. Abraham is considered the founder of the major monotheistic faiths: Christianity, Judaism and Islam.

According to the Bible, God tells Abraham to take his only son, Isaac, to a mountaintop, then he binds Isaac and prepares to slay him with a knife. Just before Abraham can deliver the coup de grace, God stops him and tells him to kill a ram instead.

What a terrible test. Even the Danish Christian philosopher, Kierkegaard, dissected the story’s meaning to be that faith allows for a suspension of normal ethics.

Put the story of Abraham in modern context: Imagine that an old man takes his son up to a mountain and attempts to murder him with a knife. He stops short of killing the poor boy and raves that an invisible man in the sky told him to stop. What would happen to this old man? The police would probably throw him in an insane asylum.

Yet, with all this damning evidence, believers still have faith in a superstitious god. Their favorite argument is: You can’t prove that God doesn’t exist.

Here’s Dawkins’ easy reply: You can’t prove that Zeus doesn’t exist. You can’t prove that Thor doesn’t exist. You can’t prove that the other major faith’s Gods don’t exist.

However, it is overwhelmingly improbable that God, Zeus or Thor exist.

I am an atheist for the same reasons why believers choose to believe in one faith and refuse the others.

I don’t think we should believe in make-believe.