Cock-a-Doodle-Do, Cock-a-Doodle-Do, Any God Will Do

A Letter to Yitzhak Rabin

I have a number of atheist bumper stickers on my car. I originally applied them directly to my bumper, but the company president asked me to take them off. He confided in me that, while he agreed with what they said, he felt they would be offensive to the vast majority of our office, who are Christians. My solution was to replace them with magnetic bumper stickers, so I can remove them while I’m at work. The two that I sport most often read “Proud Atheist” and “Teach Children that God is a Myth.”

The response I get in Raleigh, North Carolina, where I live, is mixed. Raleigh is in the Bible Belt and boasts a pretty strong Christian religious heritage. It is not far from Charlotte, the largest city in North Carolina, famous for Jesse Helms and Billy Graham. Indeed, one of the major throughways in Charlotte is called “Billy Graham Parkway.” Most people ignore my stickers, but I have seen a number of drivers behind me photograph them with their cell phones, while some people have been obviously shocked and offended by them and some have even defaced or stolen them. One set usually lasts about six months. I carry spares in the trunk of my car and replace them each time this happens. I often wistfully think of the satisfied thief becoming disappointed as he observes me from a distance, as I walk to my car, open the trunk and immediately replace his ill gotten booty. Realistically, I doubt I will ever receive such satisfaction.

By way of more direct responses, I have been “flipped off” once or twice and even had the air let out of my tires once (although I cannot say for certain that this was because of the stickers). Often, if I am parked at a coffee shop, I will hear people remark how sad it is and what a hollow life the driver must lead. On the other hand, a few times I have got the “thumbs up” from other drivers and I have been approached and encouraged by other atheists.

For their part, I often see Christian bumper stickers in Raleigh with messages such as, “Jesus Loves You,” or “God is my Copilot,” and the magnetic Christian fish is very common. Two particular Christian bumper stickers stand out in my mind. The first read, “The Bible says it, I believe it and that settles it.” The apparent pride with which the driver publically proclaimed his closed mind is not uncommon among staunch believers. In their view, stoic adherence to a particular religious faith, and an unwillingness to consider any evidence to the contrary, is an admirable trait, highlighting the depth of their belief. Sagan (as usual) said it very well, “You can't convince a believer of anything; for their belief is not based on evidence, it's based on a deep-seated need to believe.” A more cynical response might be that one cannot help being ignorant, but there is no reason to be proud of the fact.

As an aside, a fascinating scientific study would be to compare the thought patterns of a statistically significant number of people who are known to have a committed belief to a particular issue, despite cogent evidence to the contrary. For example, a study could compare 9-11 conspiracy theorists, who are convinced the US government was behind the 9-11 attacks, the so called “birthers,” who are convinced Obama was born outside the United States, JFK conspiracy theorists and fundamentalist Christians and Muslims (although any faith would do). Ask them a few dozen questions on how they formed their beliefs generally and what sort of evidence it would take to dissuade them from their core beliefs. They could then be asked questions about the core beliefs of other, with which they do not agree. The results would, I expect, be very telling. I also expect that a brain scan performed on them while they were thinking about their pet project would reveal very similar patterns of brain activity.

The second bumper sticker was a little more alarming. It pictured a penguin on a melting ice cap with a daisy in its beak under a bright sun. The caption read “Don’t worry, God will look after us.” The message, it seems, is directed to those who fear global warming. The message, or at least the one I took away, is that we should not worry (or, by extrapolation, do anything about) global warming because the Christian god will protect us from its adverse consequences. Well, now I’m even more worried. This is a great example of the Great Pretend doing the same job for the believer that sand does for the ostrich. The problem is, we are all on the same rock and we atheists are forced to march in involuntary lockstep with such willfully myopic believers into whatever perilous environmental “hood” that path may lead.

The first sticker, the obdurate “…and that settles it” one, does invoke thought as to the nature of religious faith. When someone is said to have faith in something, this generally means they have confidence that it is true. This to me is very different to the above idea of faith – accepting something as true out of pure emotion and with blind indifference to, or even a tacit acknowledgement of the absence of evidence to support it. That is not faith, it is a poor surrogate for faith. In fact, it is often an absence of real confidence in the belief that causes the initial leap of faith or closing of the mind in the first place.

Indeed, if one says they made a leap of faith to their belief, can they really be said to believe in their chosen god(s) at all? The mere fact that they had to leap to believe in the means they, at some level acknowledge the absence of evidence. Their “belief” is really more in the nature of a hope or wish, than a true belief. They more “hope” for a god or “wish” for a god than they do truly believe in a god.

Bridging the gap between where the evidence stops and their chosen end belief (God, Allah, Krishna, reincarnation etc.) by wistfully leaping over the credibility gap that lay in between may be satisfying to the believer. However, if you think it through, once you accept that making a leap of faith is a valid foundation for arriving any particular belief, you are effectively declaring yourself an agnostic. This is because you have to accept that any other religious view arrived at by a similar leap from the precipice of where the evidence stops is as valid as yours. One cannot seriously argue, to the effect, “well, I was justified in unhinging myself from the evidence and going off in this theological direction, but your going over there toward that deity is flawed.” In a dark room without features, any groping guess by a blind man at the direction of the door is as valid as the next. Spin the wheel and see what god it stops on. Cock-a-doodle do, cock-a-doodle-do, any god will do!

Actually, taken a step further, if you accept the proposition that any religious view arrived at by the leap of faith is valid, this would presumably include those (many) faiths that reject your own chosen god. You have effectively committed theological suicide and leapt to your own atheism! More seriously, this simple reflection highlights the fundamental inanity of accepting the leap of faith as a valid basis for any belief, be it religious, financial, scientific or otherwise. In no other endeavor would such nonsense be entertained. In the Great Pretend, it is not only accepted, it is proudly proclaimed as an admirable step to take.