Open Letter to Alec Baldwin
A while ago, I posted an open letter to fundamentalist Christian evangelist and actor, Stephen Baldwin. I remember watching an episode of Saturday Night Live in which Stephen’s brother, Alec actually joked about how he isn’t as religious as his brother. But a few days ago, Alec made it clear that he was religious and that he doesn’t understand atheism. He posted this on his twitter:
Dear Alec Baldwin,
You have asked why I don’t believe in God and would like to answer you. First, I am going to assume that you are referring to the Abrahamic God as opposed to the gods, Zeus, Thor, Ra, etc. Before I answer your question, I am curious if you believe in any of those gods and if not, why not?
My guess is that you don’t believe in any of those other gods. There is a great quote from Stephen Roberts, “I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.”
This opens up the question as to why you believe in the one god you do seem to believe in. The fact is that the burden of proof in on you to prove your claim that your deity of choice exists. Personally, I don’t believe anyone has made a sufficient case for such a claim. Through science and reason, God has been forced into the gaps of existence. The more we know the less necessary God becomes.
I do think that the Judeo-Christian God is particularly ridiculous. The character of God in the Bible seems to me to be particularly poorly written. Some days he is angry and hateful and other days he is the God of peace and love and there seems to be no rhyme or reason to his mood swings. Plus, a look at the history of that particular God shows that he has evolved over time from one of the many gods in the Canaanite pantheon of gods.
But let’s assume that you have no particular god in mind, but simply believe in some kind of vague higher power type of entity. Why? The process of evolution via natural selection explains how we got here and the Big Bang and M-Theory explains how the universe got here. Morality doesn’t come from any vague higher power either. It comes from our empathy, compassion, and sense of wellbeing. Our purpose isn’t some divine mandate, but rather an existential journey.
Alec, who are you praying to and why? Instead of praying for a savior maybe we should work to be the saviors ourselves. I don’t believe in God, I believe in people. I don’t have faith in a God, I have faith in humanity. I don’t pray to a God, I ask for help and I answer the help of others. I think John Lennon put it best in his song Imagine.
In Reason,
-Staks
Filed under: atheism, conversation, Disproving God, twitter
