Why Nick Martin is an atheist

P.Z. Myers has a series of posts from folks who explain why they're atheists. It's enlightening to take a look at their reasoning.

Why I am an atheist – Nick Martin

October 16, 2011 at 10:28 am PZ Myers

Part of me wants to give a smart-assed answer to this question, because at my core, I am a smart-ass. Something like “because religion is evil” (which it is)

We're all evil Nick, and everything we do is tainted by this evil.

And no one believes in "religion". People believe in Christ, or Allah, or Yahweh, or Buddha, or themselves, Marx, or science, or money, or drugs, or power, or sex. No one believes in "religion".

We all worship something, Nick. Atheists no less than Christians.

There are two questions:

1) Is one kind of worship more or less evil than another?

2) Is one kind of worship true?

The question isn't whether "religion is evil". The question is whether Christianity (or whatever) is true.

You start with 'shit happened'. I start with Aquinas' Five Ways. You can go first.

And any assessment of "evil" must be comparative. You start with Marx and Stalin and Mao and Pol Pot. I start with Jesus and Paul and Augustine and St. Francis. Let's chat.

or “because the Flying Spaghetti Monster told me to be one” (which may also be true).

If you think that the Christian understanding of God is analogous to belief in your witless caricature, you're too stupid to hold an opinion on anything.

Try reading some real theology.

But, when I look at my core, the only answer I have to give is “because it’s the only position a skeptic can have”.

You're no skeptic. You're a dupe for trendy narcissistic gibberish. You fools can't even decide what to call yourselves. Let's see-- you guys are all sciency and stuff. How about... about... Scientologists!

The most gullible people are atheists.  Conservative Christians are the group least likely to believe in UFO's, Bigfoot, etc. You just jumped from the real skeptics (Christians) to the real dupes (atheists).

It’s something relatively recent in my life. I was raised in a conservative Christian household. I had to go to church every week, it was a requirement that I go to at least one service. But at the same time, my parents encouraged my love of astronomy specifically and science in general. And in retrospect, that is where it all started. That love taught me to question everything (which I most certainly did).

It's not "science" that sets your heart atwitter, lover-boy, but nature. And nature is very beautiful.

Question this:

How did something come from nothing?

Where do laws of nature come from?

How can morality be grounded without a Source for moral law?


A real skeptic wouldn't accept 'shit musta' happened'.

Atheists are intellectual poseurs. Dupes.

But getting out of the other side of my upbringing took time. I went off to college, Missouri State University (then Southwest Missouri State), and hooked up with Chi Alpha (XA) Campus Ministries. This was before they had Skepticon, a FSM church, or really any skeptical movement at all. Again, in hindsight, I feel a bit of shame, because I understand now that prosthelytizing my beliefs had to have done some real harm to people, something I can’t change.

Don't be so hard on yourself. There is an clear evidence that Christians are much happier and healthier than non-believers.

I only hope that by speaking out against religion now can undo some of that.

Yea. We need more atheism.

I was a skeptic with most everything else growing up. I didn’t believe in ghosts, ESP, aliens, or anything else in the pseudo-scientific range, but like so many other “skeptic believers,” I was not willing to turn that same scrutiny on my beliefs.

You're still not.

The reason that you didn't believe in these crazy things is that you were raised in a Christian household and culture. Christianity is the best insulation from crazy.

Atheists are much more likely to believe in crazy stuff.

Of course, like a college student, and to be fair, most human beings, it turns out I was also a fairly bad Christian, and a fairly normal college student, in liking loud music, drinking, sex, and skipping classes.

The usual cause for de-conversion to atheism isn't "rational". Nothing you've said is within a light-year of "rational".

The usual cause of de-conversion to atheism is that Christian faith gets in the way of your genitals.

That all started to change after some a series of bad events pushed me more into that “good Christian” category again. I went to church, went to small groups, and, dangerously enough, started to read my bible. And for some reason, one I still cannot explain, I started to question why I believed what I did. I looked back at myself, and what I had been crediting god for getting me through, and realized that he hadn’t done shit.

He just made everything, made you, and died for you. That's not "shit".

It wasn’t a slow process. I wouldn’t even call myself an atheist until, reading Phil Plaitt’s blog, he mentioned, off-hand, someone named “PZ.” It was some inside joke I wasn’t part of, so I dug. I found out who this “PZ” was… and read enough to understand that, as a skeptic, there is only one position to be had.

P.Z.'s like an atheist Paul.

You cannot dismiss all fairies except the one you like any more than you can deny a color you don’t care for doesn’t exist (otherwise, the world would be rid of mauve by now). I didn’t like facing it at first, but I couldn’t dodge the questions. And when you look at belief the same way you look at ghosts, there is no way you can’t see it for what it is.

Right. When you look at Christian belief the same way you look at ghosts, Christian belief is pretty hard to sustain.

But Christian belief has nothing to do with ghosts. It has to do with a clear-eyed understanding of reason and nature and man, and a clear-hearted gratitude for your life and your redemption. As Chesterton wrote, he came to believe Christianity because it fits life like a key fits a lock.

But you wouldn't know anything about Chesterton. P.Z. Myers never even mentions him.

In the end, it was my own skepticism that forced me to realize the only thing I could be is an atheist.

You're no skeptic. You're a dupe for an idiot ideology that lets you pretend intellectual and moral superiority while freeing you from objective moral constraint. It's sad to see you throw away the Truth for such shabby bilge.

My suggestion: apply your "skepticism" to your own smug atheist beliefs. If you're going to reject Christianity because of its intellectual content, get yourself some familiarity with its intellectual content.

Your soul (or whatever you call it now) will thank you, someday.