
Originally Posted by
Sinyalan
For those who are ignorant about atheism... please read this.
In understanding Atheism is to disregard all the lies and propaganda that religion has spread against it. Atheism is more than just the knowledge that gods do not exist, and that religion is either a mistake or a fraud. Atheism is an attitude, a frame of mind that looks at the world objectively, fearlessly, always trying to understand all things as a part of nature. It could be said that Atheism has a doctrine to question and a dogma to doubt. It is the human mind in its natural environment, nothing is too holy to be investigated, nor too sacred to be questioned. The Atheist Bible, it could be said, has but one word: "THINK." Atheism is the complete emancipation of the human mind from the chains and fears of superstition.
There is absolutely nothing negative about Atheism; truth can never be negative. The Atheist demands proof, or at least reasonable evidence, and simply rejects whatever does not meet the basic requirements of common sense. Throughout history all progress in society has come from doubting and rejecting old ideas, old customs, and old beliefs. The tree of human knowledge dies as it grows, with new growth growing out of the dead and dying parts, and replacing it with better and truer beliefs. The Theologian is an owl, sitting on an old dead branch in the tree of human knowledge, and hooting the same old hoots that have been hooted for hundreds and thousands of years, but he has never given a hoot for progress.
Morally speaking, Atheism has a great advantage over religion. The great failure of religious morality comes from their illusion of a morality above right and wrong. The religious mind has always known it is wrong to murder and torture, wrong to persecute and hate, wrong to force its beliefs upon others. Religion has always known these things are wrong, but the religious mind suffers from the illusion of a "higher morality," and because of that illusion all history runs deep with innocent blood. In the name of their "god" and a "higher morality," Christians have waged holy wars of extermination, have plundered, tortured and murdered those who could not agree with their religion, or who had never even heard of it. In the name of this "higher morality" Christians have hated, hunted, persecuted, and burned alive the "heretic," the "infidel" and the "atheist."
Source: Atheism: An Affirmative View by Rev. Emmett F. Fields