I am an atheist. You must bear that in mind as you read the comments I am about to make. I do not claim there is no god, but I have found no reason to believe there is one. In the absence of evidence (other than books and crowd-sourced assertions), I choose to live a life in which god plays no part. That having been said, I accept, admire, and follow many of the precepts of various religions. I think religious thought can influence society in positive ways. Who would argue against the ten commandments? (Well, adulterers might take issue…and I can think of a few others.) What are the ten commandments other than proclamations of human decency? Belief in god is not required to behave decently and to believe in decent human interactions. I don’t fault people who are believers; while I think they may be deluded, most of them are good people. Okay, I covered those bases because what I’m about to write may stun you; I do not want readers to dismiss what I write simply because I am an atheist. Here goes.
The time has come for the elimination of humankind. Nuclear annihilation may well be the best thing for the future of our planet and beings who will replace us. We have failed; there can be no reasoned, legitimate argument about that. We kill, maim, burn, destroy, poison, and otherwise abuse the earth on which we live and the solar system upon which we depend. We have long recognized our roles in polluting and otherwise sullying our own environments. Yet what have we done to atone? A lot, you say? Bullshit, I respond. We claim environmental regulations demonstrate our intention to fix the problems we cause. I respond as follows: self-delusion and inefficiency do not, in and of themselves, correct problems we would rather overlook. Radical changes in behavior suggest willingness to find solutions; our soft and fluffy adjustments to calm our nerves constitute collusion with the worst among us.
No, here’s where I’m going. The world would be a better place if Israel and the USA and China and India and Pakistan and Russia and the UK and France and North Korea simply said “launch.” We’d all perish, but that, I argue, would be a good thing. The billions of innocent animals and plants that would perish with us would be a loss of immeasurable proportions; but humans, not so much. We are an evil mistake. We claim to be the only conscious, thinking species. Instead, we are the only unconscious, delusional species. We are crap painted in reflective colors.
I wish my religious friends were correct. I wish we lived under the watchful eyes of a benevolent god. If someone can show me evidence that would hold up in the court of my skeptical opinion, I’d be grateful. But, back to the issue at hand. I wish the world were different. Safer. More hospitable. I admire my religious friends for being able to overlook the horrors of the species to which we belong and find, on the horizon, hope. I wish so much I could find that same hope, waiting for me to find it. But I can’t. I believe I belong to a species that merits extinction. I just hope it will be quick and painless. At least I can wish for mercy from a universe in which mercy has no measure.
Being religious would be so much easier. Than being a realist. Being a realist is painful and unfulfilling and lonely in the extreme. I don’t want to be a realist. But there’s nothing else to be that allows me to retain my self-respect. And even that seems out of reach from time to time.
If I had my life to live over again, what would I choose? I would choose to pass the opportunity to someone else, someone who might find decency in the reliving. I cannot say I would not be curious to explore a different perspective. But I would know things don’t always turn out as they’re planned. And that could be catastrophic. So I don’t turn around to look.
I have a Christian friend who says she prays for me. I find that so generous and warm; I almost wish I believed alongside her. But even in my disbelief, I find such expressions heartwarming and demonstrative of the goodness of human beings.
It’s too bad that such goodness would be snuffed out in the event of a nuclear holocaust. Yet the elimination of humankind may be the only way to perpetuate the concept of decency and compassion. Odd, isn’t it? Odd, indeed.
