There's probably not a god, so stop worrying and enjoy your life

Although I identify myself as an atheist, and have very strong feelings on the issue of religion, I resent certain assumptions that are made about me in this context. No, I do not expect everyone to convert to my way of thinking: I just like the idea of people utilising their freedom of thought in this day and age to come to their own conclusions, rather than just accepting the dogma of a religious body. In this article, I do not intend to discuss philosophical arguments for or against the existence of a deity, but to discuss the social impact of religion today.

Personally, no, I do not believe that there is a god, or for that matter any kind of deity. As a scientist, I cannot bring myself just to accept the truth as stated by someone else: maybe I don’t understand evolution to a very high level, but I believe it provides a far more sensible and reasonable explanation than the idea the world was created six days. Similarly, the Big Bang theory seems much more logical to me than the existence of a deity: at this point I will mention but not delve into the well known argument of infinite regression – the question of where God came from, if He is the only thing that predates the universe.

More to the point, I find the concept of organised religion abhorrent. The idea of a group of people living according to a set of arbitrary rules thought up in centuries past, when society was very different and we were far less enlightened than we are today, seems to me ridiculous. The privilege afforded to members of religious orders is outdated and divisive, and the indoctrination of children by embedding a fear of hell-fire into them is quite simply immoral.

The question of morals brings me nicely to another point: the idea that we need religion in order to provide us with a moral code and regulate society. I personally live my life according to moral principles, rather than specific rules, which I believe is the more effective way. Rather than adhering to rules, I try to consider the feelings of those affected by my behaviour, the repercussions of my actions, and the consequences of my decisions, and cause as little harm as possible. Of course I fail in this frequently, but I hope no more so than the average religious believer.

In days gone by, I appreciate that instilling a fear of a higher being may have been an effective deterrent from bad behaviour, but we no longer live in medieval times, and I think a moral code for the sake of being good to one another is what we now need. These days, we have the means to discover culprits of crimes and punish them. In effect we can now ‘play God’ via CCTV, DNA testing and other technological advances, so the threat of the afterlife has been replaced by the probability of being caught, and as such is redundant.

I mentioned the indoctrination of children in an earlier point: in any other context, the majority of enlightened people, when asked whether children should be encouraged to question what they are taught, or simply accept and believe it, would no doubt want the children to think for themselves. So why the contradiction when it comes to the sticky subject of religion? Why is religion afforded such a special place in today’s society?

It is now used as a very powerful political tool: an excuse for bloodshed, as well as a means of manipulating people’s thoughts and opinions. It is divisive, and frequently encourages homophobia, bigotry and racism, without which the world would be a much better place.

Overall, I feel that religion is now redundant. Where there may have been a need for it in the past, scientific and technological advances have replaced it. Rather than one book, we have countless scores of books full of research into the questions religion used to provide answers to, and these are being added to constantly. I would far rather accept that we have yet to discover the whole truth, than be arrogant enough to presume that such a tiny, insignificant race as ours has found the answer.