Q: Why do things need to be black and white?
I’m talking about logic & religion.

The religious and faithful have been called delusional, and the non-religious have been called logical. Why can’t a person be smart, logical, and also have a belief in God? I do.

One point made by atheists is that education should direct people towards reason, and they will then lose faith on their own. But I’m a college graduate and I still have no reason to be rejecting the theory or possibility of a God existing.

A: Logic necessarily has to be black and white because that’s how it works. There is no middle ground when it comes to the objective truth. If our rules about logic weren’t strictly defined, then nothing would ever make sense. Religion has capitalized on the black and white nature of things because it’s an easy way to (superficially) distinguish things it considers bad from the things it considers good. There is nothing but middle ground when it comes to the subjective. If our religions tell us that one thing is good and another thing is bad, then it’s a lot easier to swallow than all that fuzzy gray area.

A person can be smart, logical, and also believe in God but only if they have an incomplete understanding of logic. I don’t mean that as an insult. Logically speaking, very little about what religion has to offer makes sense. Invisible sky creatures? Telepathic connections to the undead? The Earth is only a few thousand years old? God speaks only to a handful of chosen people? Religion is the only path to morality? Be honest with yourself: none of those questions have logical explanations from a religious perspective.

Education does not necessarily lead to enlightenment. It is a path that must be tread in order to reach enlightenment. I believe that theists reach their beliefs from a rational process. And I believe that everyone that is presented with the proper evidence will be unable to conclude anything other than the truth. If we use logic to make conclusions, then we will all come up with the same answers. But if some of the variables are wrong, our conclusions will be wrong.

“The divinity of Jesus is made a convenient cover for absurdity.”
~John Adams, 2nd president of the U.S.

“Christianity is the most perverted system that ever shone on man.”
~Thomas Jefferson, 3rd president of the U.S.

“The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe with blood for centuries.”
~James Madison, 4th president of the U.S.

“The civil government…functions with complete success…by the total separation of the Church from the State.”
~James Monroe, 5th president of the U.S.

“My earlier views of the unsoundness of the Christian scheme of salvation and the human origin of the scriptures have become clearer and stronger with advancing age and I see no reason for thinking I shall ever change them.”
~Abraham Lincoln, 16th president of the U.S.

“Take away from Genesis the belief that Moses was the author, on which only the strange belief that it is the word of God has stood, and there remains nothing of Genesis but an anonymous book of stories, fables, and traditionary or invented absurdities, or of downright lies.”
~Thomas Paine

“In the affairs of the world, men are saved, not by faith, but by the lack of it.”
~Benjamin Franklin

“The founders of our nation were nearly all Infidels, and that of the presidents who had thus far been elected [Washington; Adams; Jefferson; Madison; Monroe; Adams; Jackson] not a one had professed a belief in Christianity.”
~The Reverend Doctor Bird Wilson

Q: Was religion an evolutionary advantage?
I haven’t read anything on this topic… so sorry if this is nonsensical. During the beginnings of civilization and cultural development, did the introduction of religion offer any advantages to those who adopted the belief? I don’t know much about ancient religions, but I suppose it would be an advantage as it would keep you from getting sacrificed as a nonbeliever and would allow you to fit in with the community, but what was the advantage of the inception of religion in the first place? Was it just a byproduct of our ability to mentally cope with most of the world, but not understand where it came from? Obviously the religious memes have been through a sorts of evolution on their own (became geographically isolated, and adapted over time), but I’m wondering what the advantage was to begin with?

A: Absolutely. Before society developed and codified it, religion existed (in a metaphorical sense) for millions of years. The mammals that learned to live in strict hierarchies were the ones most likely to survive. Even in the primitive world, multiple minds worked better than one. And from an evolutionary perspective, the only thing that really matters is survival.

If you lived on your own you had more of a chance of dying and less of a chance of reproducing. If you lived in a group but didn’t cooperate, then the group would be more likely to neglect you. If you lived in a group and understood your place in it, you had a support structure that could help provide for you. And with a large pool of genes to dive into, you were much more likely to pass your DNA onto the next generation. There have been plenty of studies of animals in the wild that happily submitted to hierarchies, and those species almost always do well.

We are the latest in an unbroken thread that stretches back millions of years. Everything that was beneficial to our ancestors (hearts, brains, love, fear, language, religion) is still around in all of us because it’s far more difficult to un-evolve an old trait than it is to evolve a new trait. So, our brains have the vestiges of our ancient heritage: fear of the dark, love for our family, an urge to protect our territory, and a need to fall into hierarchies. For evidence of this, just think about the common themes in almost all cultures: scary stories about things hiding in the dark, tendencies to put family above all else, a universal need to defend the homeland, and (of course) religions in every society all over the world. Virtually every social group, family, government, and religious institution has a defined hierarchy, and virtually everyone is comfortable with this idea.

For example, the United States prides itself on being a democracy. Why is it, then, that we feel the need to elect representatives instead of representing ourselves? Why do we elect a supreme leader in a democracy (a government run by people)? Why are the leaders we elect almost always male? The answer (while insufficient) is: that is how it has worked in the past. These tendencies are the shadows of our forgotten ancestors. They are present in everyone, and we can’t simply remove them because they’ve outlived their usefulness. We can only learn to live with them and with each other.

There is, of course, that old argument that the difference is over belief and knowledge. Well, if you believe there are no gods, that makes you an atheist. If you believe the answer can’t be discerned, that makes you an agnostic. Though one claim refers to belief, the other claim refers to a belief about knowledge. And if you truly believe that there is even a possibility that deities might exist, then you are not an atheist. One cannot claim “I know X” and “I can’t know X” at the same time without being logically inconsistent.

Having personally gone through theism and agnosticism, I fully understand why people would want to call themselves agnostic atheists. It has a (slightly) better connotation to it than atheism, it sounds more open-minded, and it appears to be more scientific. But the truth is that claiming agnosticism gives credence to the idea of theism, and that is the polar opposite of what a true atheist believes.

Q: What book motivates or influences you most in life?

A: “Cosmos” by Carl Sagan was more influential to me than any book I’ve ever read. It reawakened the spirituality inside me, opened my eyes to the wonders of science, gave me a sense of self, helped me appreciate all life on Earth, and laid the foundation for the human being I have become. It is one of the greatest books ever written and should be read (or viewed) by everyone on the planet.