BenPaddon.co.uk

I’m reading Andrew’s latest blog entry, in which he does a spEak You’re bRanes on the comments left on this Times Online article about Richard Dawkins. Mostly he’s having a pop at some of the more stupefying comments left by the Intelligent Design crowd as well as various stupid people who believe in some kind of Big Beard in the Sky* who feel that Dawkins’ unwavering belief in the non-existence of God is somehow wrong and that he should be cast out of human society, possibly even beaten and/or hanged in the process. It strikes me as particularly ironic that these are usually (and evidently) the same people who harp on about respecting the beliefs of others.

One commonly occurring argument that seems to be popping up there, however, basically boils down to this: Believe in God and Heaven and Angels and so on, because we don’t know if there is or there isn’t so you might as well just in case. Besides, how will children react when you tell them that there’s no Heaven? Where will all the calculators go? Best not to have to worry about that sort of question - tell them about Heaven and God and everything will be alright.

That’s a bit of a shitty argument, really.

The fact is, regardless of whether or not there is an afterlife of any description, these people are pretty much choosing to believe in an afterlife purely because the alternative - that when we punch out at the end of our shift we’re not coming back - isn’t pleasant enough for them. It’s like choosing to watch The Care Bears Movie instead of The Empire Strikes Back or The Dark Knight because it has a more upbeat, pleasant ending despite being a crock of shit.

---

*Not to imply that all religious people are stupid, of course, but rather that there is a small subset of religious people who are incredibly thick. You all know the sort of person I’m referring to, here. I feel it’s probably fair to point out that Atheists can be stupid too - I’m a prime example of this.