Steven Crowder (whose comedic works I adore, by the way) thinks that Atheism is a "Mental Handicap" and wants atheists to tell him if he's correct in that evaluation.

As an atheist, I have to say, "it depends on WHY you're an atheist".

Me, I'm an atheist-by-reason. I just don't see enough evidence to believe in a being that both created the universe and also occasionally intercedes in day-to-day events on behalf of individuals. I'm more of a "the universe just is, and things just happen" kinda guy.

The atheists Steven spends most of his time talking about are atheists-by-morality. They're actually immoralists who claim to be atheists. They see the Christian code of morality, find it inconvenient or uncomfortable, then reject the existence of God as a means of rejecting Christian morality and often ANY hard & fast sort of moral code.

And I would agree that lacking a moral compass constitutes a mental handicap, because my observations indicate that embracing a moral code leads to a happier, healthier, longer life, all things being equal.

A functional moral code requires accepting responsibility for one's actions, and reflecting on those actions from time to time for the purposes of correcting past mistakes and avoiding future mistakes.

For Christians, this takes the form of prayers for forgiveness of sin, and prayers for God's guidance. For me, it's just "thinking things over".

The other part is how you treat others. For Christians, it's "do unto others as you would have them do unto you", and "turning the other cheek". For me, it's "be courteous" and "don't waste time pursuing revenge against idiots - get on with your life".

People who reject morality usually do so in order to avoid either self-accountability and/or self-correction and/or good manners. After they make the conscious decision to be thoughtless jerks, they cover their asses by saying, "it's ok to act like a reality show contestant all my life, because I refuse to believe in a God that tells me otherwise".

So, Steven, you don't HAVE to be a mentally-handicapped Hollywood jerk to be an atheist, it's just that a lot of people get there that way, and they give the rest of us a bad name.

Posted by: Harvey at 10:10 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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