Knowledge is no Weight to Carry

If you view learning as a journey, it can be one that never seems to end. Our world is filled so many different disciplines of knowledge that it almost seems life is for too short to understand even just a few of them. The inquisitive mind is one that never rests but seeks a deeper understanding of the why and that what and the how. It is with this in mind that I look to those that have a deep knowledge of their subject matter with envy. Although this is more often those individuals that are employed at our institutions of knowledge, such as universities, that have the ability to seek the vast knowledge that may be found of a particular subject. Add to this the huge leaps in technology that now allow us to revisit previous learning and decipher or investigate in different ways and that now add to a furthering of understanding and open new and unthought of topics.

Just skimming across many different subjects can be rewarding but also lead to a frustration as the inevitable rat-holes that open tempt you to follow paths that you had never considered. To be a true polymath would be the pinnacle of intellect in my view. A deep understanding of multiple disciplines and the ability to see he world through the most critical of eyes. Unfortunately, I am well short of this and relegated to the ranks of the rest of the mere mortals.

Recently, I have dived down one of these rat-holes. I have always been an atheist and seen the need to believe in a higher being as absurd and implausible. Although I have managed to develop my own arguments as to why there is no creator through some knowledge of existentialism and rationale thinking, I was blissfully unaware of the vast amount of extremely bright and eloquent atheists that exist today. Some term this new movement as new atheism. Yes, I concede there has been an increase in those willing to voice their views, but I’m not convinced that it is new atheism.

The issue facing most atheists is the number of different fronts one needs to be aware of in the attempt to convince others that they are right. It would appear that the biggest religions are those that want to debate atheism as they either try to maintain their believers or simply want to confront western ideology. Catholicism and Islam are the two that fall in to these categories. Catholicism has a lot to lose. It remains a dominant force in many nations as through it vast land holdings and scale of followers. The recent allegations and criminal convictions of Catholic Priests has severely tainted the religion and caused many to question how it happened and why was it covered up. Islam, on the other hand, has ideological differences with many Western societies and wants them to accommodate Islamic believers in to what are relatively secular states. It differs from Catholicism in its treatment of women, those that want to leave the faith and anyone who dares to criticize it.

These two religions also have a huge pool of scholars that will do nothing else but look at how to make sure their relative faith endures and increases in size through new converts. It is against this backdrop that atheists must hold a position that is reasonable, lucid and deals with multiple arguments. To simply say that there is no higher being is simply not good enough anymore. One must be skilled in pulling apart the religious argument and at the same time have a working knowledge of these two, and other, religions. This is time consuming and difficult if in many instances.

Perhaps the easiest religious targets to develop one’s skills in debating religion are with Creationists. This group take the gospel as literal. Even though the Bible and New Testament are full of inconsistencies, Creationists will not bend in any way from the written word. Ken Ham and Kent Hovind are two of the better-known ones and to give credit where it is due, the have well thought out arguments to substantiate their beliefs are not shy in defending their position. However, their position on all arguments always come back to the same point. It is written in ‘the’ book.

This is the problem with religion when it comes to developing an argument for it being true. All one must do is simply revert to a book; be it the Quran, Bible, Torah…the list goes on. Atheists need to be aware of biology, evolution, philosophy, physics, astronomy…again, this list goes on.

As I opened with, how much time can you devote to this as a topic. True, you may be passionate enough about it to become an expert or you may simply have enough faith in the scientific method and demand proof from religious believers to substantiate their claims. This is just one topic of learning and knowledge, even though it encompasses some understating of other disciplines. The thirst for knowledge though should never be quenched on a personal level. We should talk openly about topics that we not only have in common with others but those that differ. And, if you are unsure about something, try and investigate beyond a simple Wikipedia search. My mantra is, ‘knowledge is no weigh to carry.’