PackBat's Convert-Me Challenge.
I found convert_me via lovecrafty's post about liberal Christianity, and thinking about it, I realized that I would like to issue a convert_me challenge. The truth is extremely important to me, and I realized that it would be wise of me to put myself before intelligent people who disagree with me, in hopes that I will be corrected in my errors.

Hi. I'm packbat, an American, a humanist, and a strong atheist.

I grew up in a house where religion wasn't a big issue. To this day, I don't know the religious beliefs of my parents – I know my dad describes himself as an agnostic to telephone surveyors, and we usually 'hold hands' before meals, but at no point were we members of a church.

When the time came for me to think about it – probably in association with my membership in Scouts – I knew that I didn't believe in God. It was never an issue in my troop (my stock phrase is "I'm not religious"), and when the Eagle board of review wanted recommendation letters, I got one from a Unitarian Universalist minister (a very nice lady, who apparently was satisfied with my deep respect for Nature and respectful attitude towards the beliefs of others). When, in a university honors seminar on the separation of church and state, everyone was stating their religions, I said "agnostic", meaning ätheist, i.e. weak atheist.

However, probably about a year ago, I joined the Internet Infidels Discussion Board.

I initially joined to comment on the Formal Debates held on that board. But I got sucked into the discussions in the Existence of God(s) forum, and the General Religious Discussions forum, and the Philosophy forum, and ended up discovering a lot – not the least of which is, I apparently am better at figuring out what folk are saying than most people there. It was chiefly what I learned about epistemology, though, that convinced me to believe that there's no gods out there.

Today, I don't go on that board any more. But I still think about religion, and my conclusions from there still, mostly, stand.

Getting down to brass tacks, though, here is what I believe.

I believe the universe makes sense. I believe that everything, from quarks to Murray Gell-Mann to the far reaches of space itself, operate according to principles, and that even if those principles are nondeterministic (as quantum mechanics implies), they are not rules that can be broken. I believe that Descartes was right when he claimed that no being able to solipsistically fool you into thinking the universe existed, would. I believe that absolute certitude is not required, and it makes sense to believe statements that could be false.

I believe that if something is true, then there is probably evidence for it. I believe that if something as big as the existence of an active god was true, there'd be bucketloads of evidence for it. I believe that if there was even just a Prime Mover, there'd be plenty of evidence for it. I believe that the absence of expected evidence is evidence against. I believe that the expected evidence for gods is absent. I believe no gods exist.

I believe that minds are natural phenomena, that they represent the workings of the brain, just as text represents words. I believe that no nonmaterial substrate is needed to 'power' a mind. I believe minds are as ruled by the laws of nature as everything else. I believe it still makes sense to claim I have free will, in spite of that.

I believe ethics arise from human nature. I believe that empathy is the basis of moral good, and that the growth of morality comes from the recognition that our genetic kin aren't the only ones who deserve empathy.

I believe the responsibility of government is to protect the rights of its citizens. I believe life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are such rights. I believe social programs like welfare, subsidized housing, and public health care support those rights.

Convert me.

x-posted to my journal.