An Open Letter To Believersby Dan Horowitz
Life is like wrestling. Not the garbage wrestling on Sunday afternoon T.V., but the high school or Olympic-style wrestling. This is a team sport, but like none other. During practice, teammates push each other to the limits of physical endurance. A support structure of parents, peers and coaches gives you a shoulder to lean on. On the mat, however, it's just you. No one stops the clock, pinch-hits or blocks. After the match, someone is there to shake your hand in victory or comfort you in defeat, but ultimately your fate is in your hands. Many theists miss that point. If you believe in God, then you have someone on the sidelines, someone, in addition to friends and family, to share your victories or help you in your defeats. Atheists have only the corporeal. They have their own support structure, their own wells from which to draw strength. In the end, like everyone else on the planet, regardless of the cheers from the sidelines, they will have to rely on what's inside of them. Belief in God does not grant automatic knowledge and identity. Taking even a cursory glance at history proves this. For every atheistic Stalin there was a Hitler who proclaimed himself the Messiah. A person with knowledge and identity doesn't throw Jews into a gas chamber or blow up highly populated buildings or order soldiers to shoot on demonstrators. Faith can and does provide a source to draw strength from, but it doesn't immunize against inflicting horrors. No one, believer or non-believer, has a monopoly on stupidity. There's plenty to go around. To believe in nothing, to not have faith in God, humanity or anything in between, is to be cut adrift. One who sees no hope in any action and recoils from the world, valueless, is indeed lost. However, it's not a condition of atheism to disregard values. To be without values is to be a sociopath, not a freethinker. I believe that a condition of atheism is to understand that you don't have all the answers. Life is doubt; we all have our theories, but no one knows for sure. As Albert Camus, a French writer and also one of the most honest observers of the 20th century, said, "If absolute truth belongs to anyone in this world, it certainly does not belong to the man or party that claims to possess it." Everyone feels very small sometimes. During these times of doubt it's normal to want (need) a meaning to everything. Some suggest that the only answer is God. I suggest going out on the mat and facing your opponent. In the struggle that comes, draw on every fiber in your body, mind and spirit. Draw on faith, if you can, or on friends and family, if you have them, if it will help you. Regardless, know that winning or losing depends, not on who is on the sidelines, but on you alone.
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