Wednesday, February 27, 2013

The Road Towards Antitheism


Christopher Hitchens introduced the word antitheist to me years ago when I began listening to his debates. It struck me kind of oddly at the time for me to consider if I was one myself. I've always been an atheist or an agnostic as far as I could remember, and I always remember being highly skeptical towards religious claims whenever they confronted me. Before my mid-twenties though, I cannot remember being openly hostile towards religious faith other than simply being skeptical. I did occasionally at times mock the creationist viewpoint of religion but I don't recall ever going out of my way to chastise the religion or its believers.

That is, until I started paying attention to creationism/evolution debate, which sparked my interest in the theism/atheism debate, to which I naturally sided with the atheists. Around this time I began reading the Bible and the Qur'an, which I had several copies of thanks to my religious mother. It was only when I began familiarizing myself with what religions actually say, that I began travelling down the road towards antitheism. Perhaps I could say that the Bible and the Qur'an made me an antitheist, but I don't think that's the full story. Christopher Hitchens' and Richard Dawkins' polemics helped give me the final push. Considering these religions are pushing to create a world that I do not want to see actualized at any time while I'm alive or even after I'm dead, I was naturally destined towards antitheism.

So you could say that before when I was ignorant towards what religions actually say, I was merely an atheist, but after having known what they're about and what they stand for, I became an antitheist.


2 comments:

  1. I'm antitheist on a case-by-case basis. Some religions I don't have a problem with, but still consider BS.

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  2. I agree that religions should be dealt with on a case by case basis, but, you need only to be against one version of god or one religion to be an antitheist.

    ReplyDelete

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