An Atheist in the Choir Loft

By Robert Simpson

This book is for anyone who has ever given serious
thought to questioning the extraordinary claims of
the Christian faith.
For those who have harboured suspicions about the
idea of a loving protector god; or the idea that an
eternal paradise awaits us after death; or that there
is a divine purpose to our lives this book will be a
thought provoking read.
The author was once a devout believer in the tenets of
the Christian faith. He is now a contented atheist.
An Atheist in the Choir Loft puts forward an honest
account of what one firm believer discovered when
he allowed himself to step back, separate his religious
convictions from his identity, and objectively scrutinize
the beliefs he had held for most of his life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris AU
• Release date: Jun 16, 2011
• ISBN: 9781456893286

Book preview

Contents

PART 1 Taking A Step Back

PART 2 Being Realistic About It

PART 3 Morality And Meaning

PART 4 Made in Man’s Image

PART 5 A Little More Thinking

My thanks go to Bernadette and Carolyn. Their valuable feedback was of great assistance during the writing of this book.

‘Heaven and Hell are between your ears.’

- something my dad once said to me.

FOREWORD

by Bob Bruce

President of the Queensland Skeptics Association Inc

A LAMENTABLE THING WE do as humans is tell lies to children. It is bad enough that we do it ourselves, but then, as trusting parents, we hand our children over to religious schools in the hope that they will teach them established, reliable facts, civilised values and even the rule of law and prepare them for life in the real world. Sadly, this is not always the case.

Robert Simpson’s battle with religion is important because it shows that there is a logical pathway through religiosity. We do not have to accept religion, not even as children. We have that right.

Religious education has another agenda, however. It is there primarily to inculcate the idea of God into young minds. Religion gainsays the criticisms against it by asking meaningless questions like ‘Who are you?’ or ‘What is God’s plan for you?’ and makes the demeaning response ‘Evolution is just a theory’ which demonstrates either ignorance or intellectual dishonesty. It takes quite some strength of character for a young student to confront the establishment and repudiate the concept of gods.

Religion is entrenched, to a greater or lesser extent, in most societies and has become a part of the fabric of daily life. On the surface, it might be said that, in following some particular religious tradition or other, one might enjoy a socially responsible lifestyle; if not, a predictable, fairly benign and, dare I say, ‘happy’ one. Ultimately, however, religion is simply not true.

There is a big difference between a belief and an assertion. Many people who tolerate and even promote religion are prepared to assert religion for what they regard as the common good. Some people think that religion, like ghosts, Santa Claus and the tooth fairy serves some sort of purpose, providing rites of passage and an ordering of our day to day lives. But as far as being demonstrably, verifiably or clinically true, it is the white lie we like to trivialise.

A belief is based on sterner stuff. Belief is based on something solid; be that a weight of reliable scientific evidence or the confidence you have when you press the brake pedal or, perhaps, even the reliable opinions of those you can trust. A belief is something known that we actually believe because it is intrinsic; the sun will rise in the morning, flowers are pretty, concrete is hard; we don’t need to assert anything; it is true and is accepted beyond dispute. Some religious people don’t actually believe religion; they only assert it because they think it is good for us.

Religion subverts trust. As Mark Twain put it: ‘Faith is believing something you know ain’t true.’

One of the best ways to understand religion is to actually read the books, but few Christians read the Bible cover to cover. When we read the whole thing, we see the unsavoury side of God as well, things not often proclaimed from the pulpit. Leviticus 20, in particular, is a terrible litany of punishments, cruelty and blood lust. I certainly haven’t read the Quran and, even if I did, I wouldn’t be sure which translation would be worthy; apparently, they vary widely in interpretation and adherence to the original. One even talks about using artillery on the infidels and I’m not sure that ‘artillery’ is that ancient a concept. Modern Islam is also beset with many of the strange ideas of fundamentalist Christianity, such as Creationism, which is demonstrably wrong and subversive in its intent.

Preachers cherry pick the benign and avoid the hideous; imams emphasise Allah’s power and greatness and the need for submission, which harks back to Christianity’s days of fire and brimstone—remember them? How the message has changed! A quick flick through the Old Testament, however, shows it to be xenophobic, homophobic, sexist, genocidal and misogynist, to name but a few of its more blatant characteristics. God did forget to write a commandment about sexual abuse, but is happy for you to kill your neighbours if they happen to be gay—and it’s fine by him to own a slave or two. The conquest of Canaan is a terrible record of genocide and the slaughter of innocents, yet it is used as a justification for the present occupation of Palestine. God gave them this land. Gosh!

The attempted sacrifice of Abraham’s son to God is one of unimaginable horror, not to mention the trauma to the young boy. Yet this story is venerated, particularly in Islam, as demonstrating Abraham’s depth of devotion. But how is this something noble to be emulated? Sacrificing one’s children to a god is not ‘noble’ it is sick and jaundiced. How many times have we been told ‘It doesn’t matter what people believe’ or ‘Beliefs have to be respected’? How silly must a belief be before it qualifies for unbelief? How horrific must one be before we repudiate it? Abraham would be gaoled today, if not, sent to an asylum.

Sex abuse scandals in the Catholic Church have damaged the church’s standing and credibility, but are unrelated to the ridiculous metaphysical claims of life after death, resurrections, virgin births, miracles and angels floating about the sky. Is it that people don’t care about the doctrine so long as it offers peace and a consoling promise of the ‘good life’? Many adherents consider this belief system to be metaphorical rather than metaphysical, but once again, this is religion gainsaying utter nonsense. Surely, in the twenty-first century, we are knowledgeable enough to face reality without fear of moral decline or hellfire or having to patronise some mythical being that, let’s face it, nobody is really sure is out there.

Religion cynically locks in false ideas in naïve minds, but maybe not forever. Once exposed to skepticism, children make excellent skeptics (the Emperor’s clothes and all that) and children must be allowed to choose reasonably, not between religions, but between religion and atheism. Today, I hear yet another torrid story of a young man, cloistered in a seminary by the age of twelve; then becoming a priest, spending his young life ultimately researching some ‘sacrament of penance’ only to be disillusioned by petty dishonesty. Taking his VW down the road and out into an uncertain future, he is completely naïve and socially isolated in trying to cope with the ‘shunning’ so common in cultish religion. Left to his own devices, however, he marries and builds a new life for himself—a happy ending. The young seminarian’s disillusionment seems to have little to do with the farfetched doctrines of heavens and hells and all places in between, some of which, like Limbo, have fallen from favour and been abandoned. Who is it that decides that whole swaths of the afterlife are now defunct? Must be quite a job!

There are innumerable financial scandals associated with Pentecostal preachers and television evangelists and not a few dalliances that seem immune from public or legal scrutiny, but one supposes they can happen anywhere. They rate a few guffaws from the press, but are rarely taken seriously; apparently, it is okay to con the naïve. The all powerful words from ‘God’ don’t seem to matter. A scandal can do damage to congregation numbers, but any nonsensical tenet of faith will do. From ancient aliens and UFOs to laws etched on tablets of stone, we will believe anything!

Robert Simpson’s book applies sound logic to many religious quandaries and demonstrates an insightful understanding of what it is Christianity actually teaches and why we really should have outgrown it. Jesus, it seems, was as primitive as his age.

The young must be allowed to contemplate a life without gods. Why should we spend our lives accommodating nonsense?

Bob Bruce

July 2012

PART 1

Taking A Step Back

Chapter 1

Surrounded By Good People

I WAS FORTUNATE TO have grown up in a household where both parents were tirelessly generous. They were generous in terms of the time, kindness and opportunities they gave to each of their children. As such, I and each of my siblings were raised with qualities that have stood us in good stead to face modern life.

The lessons I learned from my parents and from the examples of my siblings were these: do what you say you’re going to do; praise others in public and reprimand them in private; see what needs to be done before it is pointed out; maintain your integrity above compromising yourself for popular approval; making sacrifices for others may bring unexpected returns and do not condemn anyone until you’ve walked in their shoes. These are words to live by, and I try to do that every day.

Whilst it would be true to say our household was not fervently devout in terms of religious piety, there was an expectation that religious observances should be given due respect. For most of my upbringing, Sunday mass at the parish church was obligatory—not out of any sense of duty but out of a genuine desire, fostered by my parents, to give thanks to the creator.

As I matured, I saw great reason in this. I had a safe home, love and good food. I wanted to give time to the god who had given them to me.

There was much within my religious upbringing that I cherished and still think upon with fondness. The college that was run by the Christian Brothers gave me a sheltered, rich and rewarding environment in which to learn and grow. In a certain sense of the word, there is an intangible ‘spiritual’ atmosphere to colleges run by the Christian Brothers, and a feeling of belonging that those who’ve attended them know well.

There was the special reverence given to the men who wore the gold crucifix on their lapel. There was Saturday rugby, singing about Yahweh and Jesus in choir eisteddfods and weekend working bees with the parents and friends of the college community. These experiences will remain entrenched in me as an integral part of who I was growing up.

However, the essence of this book’s message is that supportive, loving parents, great teachers and role models of integrity who are there to lead you in your formative years do not come about because of the influence of religion.

If the gospels and their message for all humanity had never been written, I maintain that goodness like the kind I encountered growing up would manifest itself anyway.

The Ten Commandments were once regarded as the moral foundation of western culture. Today, I would confidently guess that those who were born in the late 1960s or later are far less familiar with these commandments than people of earlier generations. However, I maintain that this general unfamiliarity with the story of Moses is not necessarily as detrimental to society as the older generation may think.

Even if I could bring myself to accept that some stone tablets were delivered to a man on a mountain top by a god, I’m not convinced the Ten Commandments offered anything new in terms of moral imperatives.

Anthropological studies conclude that in times predating Moses and his wandering desert tribe, human societies such as indigenous people from the Americas, Australia, Africa and Asia, lived with social arrangements that were generally harmonious. It appears to be a universal constant that communities across all cultural boundaries throughout history were built upon expectations promoting respect, social fairness, loyalty, sharing and obligation.

To think that humanity needed a divine message at a relatively recent moment in history to point out that stealing, lying and murdering are not okay, is to hold an extremely naive view of how humans interact with each other.

If at some time in the future it was shown conclusively by an archaeological discovery that the story of Jesus was a fable after all, what difference would it really make to the way we conduct ourselves? Whilst it may disappoint many who are devoted to church groups and the surrounding belief culture in a supernatural saviour, it wouldn’t mean the end of our ethical decision making, our personal moral compass or our empathy for those around us who are in need.

The country of Japan embraces a culture of politeness, humility and responsibility—having been greatly influenced in its early history by Chinese Confucianism, with its emphasis on moral standards and personal duty, Buddhism, which rejects the need for a creator, and Shinto, a polytheistic nature religion that does not concern itself with rewards in an afterlife. Confucius encouraged people to treat others the way they would have others treat them, even though he himself was not a religious man.

Interestingly, Confucius lived five hundred years before the time of Jesus of Nazareth in a part of the world that was not exposed to the ancient Hebrew god concept. This being the case, it’s clear that throughout history, people who were unfamiliar with the Judeo Christian teachings were quite capable of promoting ethical standards. The reciprocal benefits of doing the right thing by others is something people have always understood—whether or not there was ever a god who issued commandments.

Our customary western discourse contains within it phrases such as ‘the good book’ and ‘God is love’. Most of us are fully aware however, that when any idea is repeated enough, people come to accept it through the sheer weight of popular endorsement—as unthinking as much of that endorsement is. I say unthinking because it’s been my observation that few are aware of just how bad ‘the good book’ and its god can be shown to be. Those who take the time to do a little fact checking can justifiably take issue with the belief that gods and holy books have an exclusive hold on goodness.

We can read for example in the Bible’s book of Exodus, chapter twenty-one, verses twenty and twenty-one, that God fully supports the ownership of slaves and furthermore, tells Moses it is lawful to beat a slave as long as the slave doesn’t die within the first day or two of the beating. We should be thankful that nobody of respectable social standing today would be comfortable with such ‘godly inspired’ holy writ. Even the New Testament fails to denounce or condemn slavery as a morally disordered concept. But as contemptible as these biblical teachings are, what is undoubtedly more horrifying is that there are those who think there really is a god who wishes for these ideas about lawful ownership of other people to be proclaimed as ‘his’ word on things. I’m quite confident however that there isn’t such a being.

My confidence stems from the observable collective social standard humanity has continued to refine ever since we began to walk on two feet. We humans are clearly the arbiters of what passes for acceptable moral conduct—for if we weren’t, we’d still be lawfully claiming other humans to be our rightful property. Do we humans get our goodness from religious teachings? No. Religious teachings get all their ideas—even the bad ones—from us.

Chapter 2

What’s It All About?

SOME WOULD SAY I have no business writing a book about religious faith and doctrine or the philosophical questions that surround them. ‘Where is your doctorate of theology?’ they would say. I don’t think the field of theology has an exclusive claim on the most important question any person can consider, that being, ‘What’s it all about?’

I have lived genuinely on both sides of this question, and believe