Dad links son's suicide to 'The God Delusion'
Offline Dad links son's suicide to 'The God Delusion' Says atheism-promoting book hidden under mattress, last page bookmarked
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=81459
A New York man is linking the suicide of his 22-year-old son, a military veteran who had bright prospects in college, to the anti-Christian book "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins after a college professor challenged the son to read it.
"Three people told us he had taken a biology class and was doing well in it, but other students and the professor were really challenging my son, his faith. They didn't like him as a Republican, as a Christian, and as a conservative who believed in intelligent design," the grief-stricken father, Keith Kilgore, told WND about his son, Jesse.
"This professor either assigned him to read or challenged him to read a book, 'The God Delusion,' by Richard Dawkins," he said.
Jesse Kilgore committed suicide in October by walking into the woods near his New York home and shooting himself. Keith Kilgore said he was shocked because he believed his son was grounded in Christianity, had blogged against abortion and for family values, and boasted he'd been debating for years.
Discover how atheism and immorality are being cleverly sold to Americans in David Kupelian's controversial best seller, "The Marketing of Evil."
After Jesse's death, Keith Kilgore learned of the book assignment from two of his son's friends and a relative. He searched Jesse's room and found the book under the mattress with his son's bookmark on the last page.
A WND message seeking a comment from Dawkins or his publisher was not returned today.
What makes them think that it wasn't PTSD or just the fact that the process of becoming an atheist in what is obviously a very conservative household isn't what caused his suicide?
Position: This group does not at all agree with my vision of American society: I would disapprove if my child wanted to marry a member of this group:
Atheist 39.6% 47.6%
Muslim 26.3% 33.5%
Homosexual 22.6% NA
Conservative Christian 13.5% 6.9%
Recent Immigrant 12.5% Not Asked
Hispanic 7.6% 18.5%
Jew 7.4% 11.8%
Asian American 7.0% 18.5%
African American 4.6% 27.2%
White American 2.2% 2.3%
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This is just post hoc ergo propter hoc. Successful suicides are always the result of a great many facets of depression - the one thing they all have in common is those around them didn't recognise the problem. Guess what, dad? You're at fault, too.
In fact, I'm going to go so far as to say that, in this case, Christianity is largely to blame. His father used it as a way to deny any sign of his son's depression and its effects. Dad, ol boy, Christianity in no way protects people from mental illness or its consequences. Being a good Christian boy left him as open to suicide as being a good Jewish boy, or a good Atheist boy.
"Anyone can repress a woman, but you need 'dictated' scriptures to feel you're really right in repressing her. In the same way, homophobes thrive everywhere. But you must feel you've got scripture on your side to come up with the tedious 'Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve' style arguments instead of just recognising that some people are different." - Douglas Murray
All it took to drive this young man to commit suicide was to read a book that challenged his faith ?
Speaking as a former Christian, I wholeheartedly agree.
Yeah, cause the article totally indicated that he ignored the signs due to Christianity.
Oh wait it didn't......
"Anyone can repress a woman, but you need 'dictated' scriptures to feel you're really right in repressing her. In the same way, homophobes thrive everywhere. But you must feel you've got scripture on your side to come up with the tedious 'Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve' style arguments instead of just recognising that some people are different." - Douglas Murray
That still does not indicate that the father ignored any signs. It doesn't even indicate if the father knew of any signs.
P1 There were signs (all suicides come with signs)
P2 The father's shock indicates he saw no signs (meaning he ignored 'em or was ignorant of what they meant)
P3 The father assumed being grounded in Christianity is contraindicative of suicide. (as the sentance reads)
P4 The father was unaware or ignorant of the signs of suicide because he felt his son was "grounded in Christianity", so he didn't need to know about the signs of suicide.
C1 Christianity was one cause in his inability to recognise the signs.
"Anyone can repress a woman, but you need 'dictated' scriptures to feel you're really right in repressing her. In the same way, homophobes thrive everywhere. But you must feel you've got scripture on your side to come up with the tedious 'Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve' style arguments instead of just recognising that some people are different." - Douglas Murray
Why is a 22 year old veteran of war, having to hide a book under his bed? Sounds like misplaced blame to me.
Your mind will answer most questions if you learn to relax and wait for the answer. - William S. Burroughs
I could just as well turn it over that signs could have been missed by his uncle due to his expression of atheism.
So once again a complex tragedy is turned over to scape goat religion.
"Anyone can repress a woman, but you need 'dictated' scriptures to feel you're really right in repressing her. In the same way, homophobes thrive everywhere. But you must feel you've got scripture on your side to come up with the tedious 'Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve' style arguments instead of just recognising that some people are different." - Douglas Murray
Does no one think that it could be partly the fact that the guy was a military veteran!! I mean, presumably he's seen some pretty gruesome stuff, lost close friends etc. It's just one hypothesis. We'll never know what drove the guy to kill himself. It could be atheism, but it could also be a range of other causes. To point the finger solely at the lack of a belief in an iron age myth, is entirely unfounded.
Atheist Books
Suicide victim's family/friends expression of shock due to suicide is not uncommon.
That's what I first thought too, like some sort of PTSD?
Unfortunatly the article doesn' elaborate on this (such as time between deployment, presumbaly Iraq(?)and the suicide etc....)
So we may never know.
"Anyone can repress a woman, but you need 'dictated' scriptures to feel you're really right in repressing her. In the same way, homophobes thrive everywhere. But you must feel you've got scripture on your side to come up with the tedious 'Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve' style arguments instead of just recognising that some people are different." - Douglas Murray
Actually, it's not even evident that religion/atheism had anything at all to do with his suicide. The article only has his father's imagined connection. Unless there was a note of some kind, it's hard to say what was in the kid's head when he decided. It could have been about a girl, or about ostracism, or something completely different. Maybe he was gay, and that's the reason. Who knows? The father surely doesn't. He's just making connections to try to blame something/someone else for his son's death.
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In short, you're wrong, at least in part. When I'm suicidal no one knows unless I want them to. Yes there could have been signs, yes the father could have been ignorant of them but it is completely foolish (yet not impossible, just very improbable) to say a man would ignore signs dangerous to his son's life (if he recognized them) just because he thinks his son probably would never commit said dangerous acts because he is a christian.
Let's examine this objectivley, a young college aged veteran commits suicide shortly after reading a book promoting atheism and challenging many theistic beliefs. It is entirely possible this young man had his world rocked after reading this book and decided that he had been living a lie and ending things would be the best course of action. Maybe he was overcome with guilt because he doubted a god he had believed in and served so duitifully and couldn't live with these feelings. In either of these cases it would be the promotion of atheism that primarily caused his demise.
It is also possible that having been through war he was disgusted with the world and having read the book was angry at god and thus took his life. Maybe he had been suffering from serious depression for a long time and kept to himself and he finally gave in.
We can't know any of these things for sure, we can logically assume that some may be more likely than others but to say outright that the man and his family's belief in christianity caused him to take his life or prevented someone stepping in and helping him just sounds irrational to me.... as well as a convenient way to "point the finger" unjustly at religion.
"Who authored the blueprints and made us captains?
Someone proclaimed creation, people listened
While children by the millions are thrown into this zoo
The so-called gift of clarity!
Oh what was God up to?"
Do not blame this on Dawkins.
DAWKINS intent was not to tell this kid to kill himself. He was showing the absurdity and placebo and danger god belief can be. AND the value of science. The kid had problems long before he read the book.
I have suffered depression as a Christian and I have also suffered depression as an atheist.
I susspect, because I have suffered from it as well, judgment from society and family, that one may not be living up to a standard, RATHER than valuing oneself first.
AND there may be biological brain history that may be coming into play here.
Dawkins does not want to hurt humanity and to even suggest he had a part in it simply by writing the book, is as rediculous as Metalica being blamed for someone's suicide. People who do that have problems long before.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
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I agree. Though my only actual attempts were as an atheist, I was actually even more miserable as a Christian, just afraid of going to hell.
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Of course this leads to open ground.
If converting to atheism is the cause for this death then it stands to reason that christianity is to blame. Had the boy not been a christian in the first place then it would not have happened.
See?
Neither argument holds a basis. Jill's analysis of the fallacy is correct.
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Doubtful. Humans (including yourself) follow predictive patterns that are much easier to follow to logical conclusions that we like to think. Perhaps not every suicide has obvious signs of it's impending arrival, but I'd say it's safe to say that 99-98% of them do.
No, it isn't foolish at all.
Perhaps you (and certainly the good Cap'n) have been wearing your blinders for all of the previous instances where children were denied medical care or a blind eye was turned to their molestation due to the religious beliefs of the parent?
Note that your argument has now become internally inconsistent in order to try and buy more excuses for the dogma.
Anything is possible. The question is: What is likely?
Naked assertion / speculation. We can follow 'maybe' tangents onward ad infinitum, and we'll never get anywhere.
You're also shifting the focus of the argument. What does any of the above have to do with his father's ability or inability to see signs of suicidal depression in his son?
Answer: Nothing.
What part about, 'I was shocked; I thught he was a True Christian (TM) like me!' don't you understand? The man spelled-out the reason for his awe and outrage right in the friggin' article! His son was a Christian, Christians don't commit suicide, therefore the only way his son could've taken his own life is if the evil atheists slathered their taint over him.
His son may have had any number of reasons for becoming depressed and ending his own life (...and, who knows? Perhaps they were even perfectly justifiable reasons. Certainly they were justified sufficiently in his own mind)
The reason his father had for ignoring warning signs and blaming atheism is singular, and well-outlined in the article.
Perhaps you should consider giving it a read?
- Leon Trotsky, Last Will & Testament
February 27, 1940
truly, this guy is an imbecil.
i obviously don't think dawkins intended to kill anyone by writing a book on the subject of atheism. but even if he did, as a fellow atheist, i must bring to light that we all have our fair share of skeletons in the closet, as a result of going slightly insane possibly after discovering the truth about the universe / found out she was cheating on me all of three years.
oh hai
Here's a fun little thought experiment for you and Jill Kev!
Imagine if the guy came on here saying he lost his faith read the God Delusion etc...
Would you have noticed suicide signs?
I HIGHLY doubt it.
Here's another one!
What if that relative ignored signs because he thought that questioning faith was normal and didn't notice it as a (potiental..) sign of suicide?
Don't you guys think that questioning faith is a normal thing and should be encouraged? (kinda goes with my first thought experiment...)
Pot meet Kettle
Non-sequitor.
Go back and read what I said about 'what ifs', Cap'n.
You're also falling back on the same non-sequitor.
- Leon Trotsky, Last Will & Testament
February 27, 1940
Now go back and read your post and see how many what ifs you have.
For example name me one sign that the father ignored.
Oops, I didn't read the whole article, just the quoted part. I see now that religion/atheism probably had some part to play. Although, I would agree that if anything is to blame it would be religion, not atheism. Being shown reality isn't a cause for suicide. Having your fantasies shown to be a lie is. The distinction is subtle but important. The problem with religion is that it gets so deeply entwined with a person's identity. That's why people get *personally* offended when you mention that you are an atheist. It's like declaring "I am not like you. In fact, I reject you." When really all it means is that "I don't believe the story you are telling me." It is only because of a person's attachment to religion as a crucial part of their identity that they can be so offended by another's lack of belief. Likewise with this suicide thing. If the kid did not have his whole identity wrapped up in religion, he would not have been so shattered by reading a book that contradicts his beliefs.
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Cap'n, that humans follow predictive patterns is not a 'what if'. I went back over my post; I didn't posit a single imaginary scenario/framework to project my own expectations into. I highlighted what the father's response was and pointed-out that Jill is correct to assert that suicide most often accompanies warning signs.
The most pressing warning signs would be severe depression & suicide ideation. Symptoms to often accompany this are expressions of hopelessness, insomnia, ahedonia, anxiety and awkward (out of character) expressions of morbidity.
Frankly, it's not terribly tough to sense that something is wrong with someone you're intimately familiar with when they start idealizing suicide. It creates a wholly new paradigm for themselves that they express through.
- Leon Trotsky, Last Will & Testament
February 27, 1940
Might have been a girl..
Nickname: Jkrapture
Bio: Jesse Kilgore who conducts this blog, is conservative and mainly independent. I am a culture warrior and traditionalist. I have been debating since I was in 5th Grade, and never looked back. It is a habit I can't let go of.
From his other blog titled: I'm am doing something I will regrethttp://www.tagworld.com/profile/01028880101882810000101882810?source_user=DC448501018544DC0001018544DC
Posted 97 Days ago -
"Take the Pain Away""So
Sad... she said this is the closest you'll will ever get to me. I can't be more hurt. She said that tonight when we were far apart. I recorded it on my phone so that I wouldn't forget."
"Please if you want to have mercy on me, kill me. I don't need to live anymore. Take the pain away.
All I wanted was to take the pain away. Let it out. Let me cry. Its okay, all I wanted was a little bit to take the pain away."
Your mind will answer most questions if you learn to relax and wait for the answer. - William S. Burroughs
The article states that Jesse called relatives approx one hour prior to the act. The call was an indication that Jesse was in distress.
Now think about this: an hour? Perhaps this was a 'spur (sp?) of the moment' suicide.
Your thought experiments are staw men, Cappy.
"Anyone can repress a woman, but you need 'dictated' scriptures to feel you're really right in repressing her. In the same way, homophobes thrive everywhere. But you must feel you've got scripture on your side to come up with the tedious 'Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve' style arguments instead of just recognising that some people are different." - Douglas Murray
"Anyone can repress a woman, but you need 'dictated' scriptures to feel you're really right in repressing her. In the same way, homophobes thrive everywhere. But you must feel you've got scripture on your side to come up with the tedious 'Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve' style arguments instead of just recognising that some people are different." - Douglas Murray
The point I was trying to make with my previous post is that when examining past events we have to consider all possibilities equally at first and look at them all in depth in order to make a profound judgement. It seems many people here are quick and eager to put Christianity at fault for nothing being done to prevent the boy's suicide. It's easy to blame Christianity for this mess when you have very little facts to work with and have a clear bias and an easily presentable case. I'm simply asking you to look further, deeper, more rationally if you will, into the case.
This article does a good job of explaining what I'm talking about (note, it is a lengthy read and also is about a 200 year old case but I feel the gist of it still applies here): http://buddha-rat.squarespace.com/silas-deane/
We hardly have enough information on this guy, his life, his family, or his personality to make a sound judgement at this point. If one really wanted to understand they would have to interview the family and contacts about his phone call, activities, and behavior before, during, and after the reading of Dawkins before concluding it was his shaking faith that caused his suicide or a stubborn parent refusing to accept signs of self harm.
But no one here has the time or means to do that so I guess most of us are content with making hasty generalizations...
"Who authored the blueprints and made us captains?
Someone proclaimed creation, people listened
While children by the millions are thrown into this zoo
The so-called gift of clarity!
Oh what was God up to?"
Rather than the specific: The father's faith in Christianity as a panacea played a role.
"Anyone can repress a woman, but you need 'dictated' scriptures to feel you're really right in repressing her. In the same way, homophobes thrive everywhere. But you must feel you've got scripture on your side to come up with the tedious 'Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve' style arguments instead of just recognising that some people are different." - Douglas Murray
Yeah but the article says Jesse said he 'lost all hope' which does make it likely. Could it have been a long lasting feeling? Sure, but the article does not elaborate on that. How about we just let the police investigate this?
Lots of suicides occur (approx 30,000 in 2002 according to CDC..) where I'm sure the relatives/friends of the victims missed signs (So I guess it's not as easy as Kevin seems to think..)
So I guess this board is depriving the FBI of outstanding forensic profilers that can determine things simply by an article (imagine how much money the tax payer would save if the police didn't have to waste time and money on actually trying to determine the causes of suicide? All they have to do is read an internet article!)
.........you must be new here
Whatever floats your wee little boat, Cappy.
Not only is it to blame that it's LARGELY to blame.
Whatever flips your pancakes Jillybean
"Anyone can repress a woman, but you need 'dictated' scriptures to feel you're really right in repressing her. In the same way, homophobes thrive everywhere. But you must feel you've got scripture on your side to come up with the tedious 'Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve' style arguments instead of just recognising that some people are different." - Douglas Murray
k, care to show how I took that out of context (i.e you're not saying that Christianity is to blame)?
Would it help your feelings if I said outright here that I know very well this is speculation, but speculation based on my experience in this feild?
"Anyone can repress a woman, but you need 'dictated' scriptures to feel you're really right in repressing her. In the same way, homophobes thrive everywhere. But you must feel you've got scripture on your side to come up with the tedious 'Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve' style arguments instead of just recognising that some people are different." - Douglas Murray
People, please. Stop the arguments. This story is proof positive that The God Delusion is succeeding in its purpose: getting fundies to kill themselves, rather than us and each other.
"The whole conception of God is a conception derived from ancient Oriental despotisms. It is a conception quite unworthy of free men."
--Bertrand Russell
Ergo blaming it (largely no less) as failing to prevent the suicide. Which I think is what Smarmalaide was saying.
I too thought that you were blaming the whole thing on Christianity
(Kevin on the other hand I am 100% sure is blaming it totally on Christianity)
You know how many times I get ragged on for speculating?
EDIT:
And speaking of Kevin, if he thinks religion is a main source of avoiding warning signs, I wonder how he'll explain the relatively (compared to U.S) high suicide rates of mainly non-religious Denmark, Sweden and Finland and why, despite their lack of belief, they falled to notice the signs and prevent them.
edited the edit for clarity.
"Anyone can repress a woman, but you need 'dictated' scriptures to feel you're really right in repressing her. In the same way, homophobes thrive everywhere. But you must feel you've got scripture on your side to come up with the tedious 'Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve' style arguments instead of just recognising that some people are different." - Douglas Murray
As in being primarly to blame for failing to prevent the suicide, not the suicide itself.
If I am not allowed to speculate I will make it my life goal to ensure that there is not a spec of speculation on this entire damn board. Or better yet THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE!!
Point is even if the father wasn't Christian, this may still have happened and Kevy seemed to be quick at the whip to put Christianity in the cross-hairs.
"Anyone can repress a woman, but you need 'dictated' scriptures to feel you're really right in repressing her. In the same way, homophobes thrive everywhere. But you must feel you've got scripture on your side to come up with the tedious 'Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve' style arguments instead of just recognising that some people are different." - Douglas Murray
The kid was an atheist and was depressed. Makes sense, since it's pretty tough to go against the religious grain. Not that atheism was the cause or anything, but there is a correlation between intelligence and likelihood of depression.
His dad's just terribly upset and looking to blame something or someone.
*Our world is far more complex than the rigid structure we want to assign to it, and we will probably never fully understand it.*
"Those believers who are sophisticated enough to understand the paradox have found exciting ways to bend logic into pretzel shapes in order to defend the indefensible." - Hamby
Assuming that what the father, Keith Kilgore, says is true, I think the solution is obvious. We need to begin raising money so that we can mail a copy of The God Delusion to every theistic household worldwide.
Now on a serious note, If you read the full article, it seems that Mr. Kilgore is offering the press a lot of " He told me ", but nobody else, including the people that allegedly told him these things, are coming forward. The man has plenty of preconceived and erroneous views regarding atheism.
"He was pretty much an atheist, with no belief in the existence of God (in any form) or an afterlife or even in the concept of right or wrong,"
and
"I remember him telling me that he thought that murder wasn't wrong per se, but he would never do it because of the social consequences - that was all there was - just social consequences. "
Are two of the things he claims an unnamed relative wrote him in an e-mail.
Mr. Kilgore also gives hint to an underlying agenda with comments such as,
"What I do have a problem with is if there's going to be academic freedom, there has to be academic balance. "They were undermining every moral and spiritual value for my [son]," he said. "They ought to be held accountable."
and
" I want to hold schools accountable for what they're teaching our kids. This was malpractice,"
Mr. Kilgore expresses feelings of persecution, saying that,
"But because he's a Christian, I don't even get a return telephone call,"
He compares his son to abduction victim Adam Walsh, and goes so far as to say
"I put a toddler in the front of my car."
referring to allowing his adult, military veteran son to attend a ' secular school '.
Mr Kilgore expresses the typical fundamentalist opposition to higher education, expressing contempt for biology in specific, and is using his son's tragic death as a platform to encourage other fundamentalists to withdraw their children from public schools. While I find the suicide of Jesse Kilgore a tragedy, the disgust I feel toward his father by using his son's death to push his own religio-political Luddite vision overshadows my pity for an obviously disturbed young man.
Equally disgusting is the way that World Net Daily used the article to plug the book The Marketing of Evil:, How Radicals, Elitists, and Pseudo-Experts Sell Us Corruption Disguised as Freedom, a slavering rant against homosexuality, abortion, atheism, and other ' social ills ' that supposedly trouble the world today. This plug being added to an article in which the obviously fundamentalist, most likely homosexual hating Christian Kilgore tries to liken his son being asked to read a book debunking religion to an imaginary book protesting homosexuality in an attempt to plead discrimination reeks of hypocritical irony. The last time I checked, intolerant pricks like you were spewing hatred about homosexuality, Mr. Kilgore, not atheists.
It takes a village to raise an idiot.
Save a tree, eat a vegetarian.
Sometimes " The Majority " only means that all the fools are on the same side.
About 53 days beforehand (while apparently drunk) he talked about having no reason to live and wanting to die:
Imagine wanting to no longer exist, but you have this crazy religion telling you if you end your life, not only will you continue to exist, but it will all be punishment eternally. Death could simple be a release for the guy. The book might have helped to rid him of the fear of hell.
I don't see why it's a bad thing for people who no longer want to exists to end their existence. I think its a bad thing that people don't want to exist, but if that is already the case why should we punish them with life?
Sounds made up...
Agnostic Atheist
No, I am not angry at your imaginary friends or enemies.
I have managed to find the kid's myspace page, and have been going over his blog. He seemed to have been a bright young man that was struggling to reconcile his faith with his intelligence and learning. His conflicts remind me of those expressed by Kenneth Miller when he was having to re-evaluate his beliefs when confronted with evolution.
Looking at the overall picture, I see a man that had several factors going on in his life that may have contributed to his suicide. First we have the vague ramblings concerning a girl he is attracted to, but feels he can have no relationship with. Second we have an intelligent guy that seems to have been raised in a deeply religious household that is now having to confront issues that fly in the face of his religious views. No doubt this would cause conflict with his father as he felt more intellectually isolated from him.
His last myspace blog entry, dated September 11, 2008 shows nothing of any conversion to atheism, nor do any of his blogs mention any conversion attempts, harassment, or persecution by professors or students. His father makes it sound as though Jesse read The God Delusion and became an amoral atheist over night. The truth of the matter is that he had discussed the book in a blog entry dated August 20, 2007, over a year before his suicide. The is more I look at this, the more pissed I get at his father, who seems to be making shit up to condemn atheism as he goes along.
Monday, August 20, 2007
Evangelical Atheist
Category: Religion and Philosophy
Time + Matter + Chance = Everything. An atheist must accept this absolute. It is a cold and calculated reality to those who believe there is no God. To accept that science has made God obsolete. There is no reincarnation nor afterlife of any kind. You are an accident. You were born out of mere statistical chance and your death is an absolute certainty.
It is hard to believe there is a group of people who think it better for man kind to come to those conclusions. Today there is a movement which is growing at a rapid rate. It is no longer enough, to be publicly doubting the existence of God, but now this group wants the rest of humanity to accept it as well.
1An Evangelical Atheist is one who not only believes there is no god or other supreme being, but is obsessed with convincing everyone around them to become an atheist too.1
I postulate to you two theories...
1: Mankind is worse off if it ever concludes to themselves there is no God
2: It is psychologically impossible to remove God from Men's heart.
I am fully aware of the atrocities that mankind has committed in the name of the deity. They are well documented and presented throughout history. I do not deny any of it. Even so, I still fully believe from the bottom of my heart... that man kind overall is better off with religion.
It is overtly evident to any observer when atrocities committed in the name of the deity occur. The World Trade Center attack on 9/11, or Manifest Destiny, the expansion of colonial North America, all in the name of God. Clearly these are examples of atrocities conducted by men and justified in their minds by God. It is rationally understandable to perceive that these events would not occur if these men were atheists.
So why do I still believe men kind is better off with religion. Because of the evidence that is less overtly observable. Out of all the billions of men and women who claim a belief in the deity. How many of them, out of numerous reasons, have bettered themselves because of it. The qualitative amount of charity and love expressed through them, who did so out of faith. We can never accurately measure the positive amount of good that has come out of faith. That is why I still believe man kind is better.
It is too harsh of a reality for men to accept on their psyches, the belief there is no God. No more prayers will be answered or herd. Loved ones who die will never be seen again. You are all alone. You are an accident. You are chance. There is no purpose. Some men may be able to live with this realization, but many will refuse it. Out of desperateness, they will reach out for religion or create their own. If these tender hearted men can not fill their hearts with faith for the existence of a deity, they will not survive. They will either go insane or commit suicide. Causing men to believe in nothing, will cause them to believe in anything.
Atheism will backlash. Until they are able to empirically prove there is no God, man kind will seek him. Even if it were possible to prove God's inexistence, I believe it better to not do so. Rather let men dream and settle their hearts in what is not there then to destroy their only hope. Religion will have its negative consequences, but overall I believe we are better off. Atheism is a hard sell.
Richard Dawkins an author and proclaimed Evangelical Atheist.
Notes
1Source
Written and Edited By Jesse Kilgore
It takes a village to raise an idiot.
Save a tree, eat a vegetarian.
Sometimes " The Majority " only means that all the fools are on the same side.
I can tell you, I was especially depressed when after my mom had her health problems and I felt helpless and guilty like I was doing the wrong thing or not doing enough. "Damned if I do and damned if I don't". And I had suicidal thoughts because I felt like a failure for not being able to do everything for my mom. THAT was not sudden and it took months to get over.
So I do understand that these thoughts don't happen overnight.
BUT, my point is. I watched horror movies like Friday The 13th, and that didn't make me a serial killer. I listened to "Fade To Black" a song about suicide, and I didn't kill myself because of that song.
My depression was due to juding myself and feeling like I was being judged by others combined with the stress of life. I feel lucky that I got over it.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog