Atheism Is The Only Solution, A Responsible One – Essay
By Prof. Dr. Sabahudin Hadzialic
So, what is the solution, as I recently asked within the first essay?
Albert Einstein once said: ”The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honorable, but still primitive, legends which are nevertheless pretty childish.” Karl Marx has been, on other side, misunderstood by the people for his words:” Religion is opium for the masses.”
Why those two quotes above are so similar because on the first glance they look so different? Let me present in other way, please, mixing both: “Primitive legends, through religion, have been made as pretty childish, although presented as the opium for the masses.”
Why did I say that Karl Marx was misunderstood by the people for his statement mentioned above? Simply, because in the middle ages people were suffering so much under the Masters of Feudal system that they were hiding within the religion (which, worked closely with the Feudal masters), trying to find an escape from hard lives in the reality. And religion became an opium, as then as it is now.
Let’s return now to today’s reality and recent happenings in World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, 2023 where the ones who are the most guilty ones for all the problems the World is facing (poverty, wars – partially, Russia was missing this time, and drastically appearance of Climate change issues) are the very persons discussing how to stop all these problems. It is like you want to discuss about the ending of World War II with the Nazi’s instead of defeating and arresting them. And one more thing, most of the people present in Davos were religious people. They believe in one, All Mighty God.
Ignorance is not any more just a power, it is way of living
So, believing in any God, it means following the instruction given in the Holy Book. Isn’t it? Why then do we have so many deviations from written text. If a person reads a Holy Book you suppose that person will do good things, love all people and be honest. Yes, if doing all of that means: love good things for ME, love all people who support ME and be honest as my workers said so.
Carl Sagan, in Pale Blue Dot (1994), wrote: “How is it that hardly any major religion has looked at science and concluded, ‘This is better than we thought! The Universe is much bigger than our prophets said, grander, more subtle, more elegant’? Instead they say, ‘No, no, no! My god is a little god, and I want him to stay that way.’ A religion, old or new, that stressed the magnificence of the Universe as revealed by modern science might be able to draw forth reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped by the conventional faiths.“
When you see today’s politicians in the region of the South-East Europe about which I wrote a lot in my book “South-East Europe at the edge of civilisation“ (2016) you can see that regardless if they are so called “left and/or right,” they are believers in God/Allah. At the same time the prosperity achieved since the dissolution of SFRJ (former socialist, not communist, country – because, nobody has reached Communism anywhere, anytime in the World) is still worse than in the former Yugoslavia, until 1990. Okay, my mistake, sorry, for the leaders of the parties in power and their followers (around 5-10 %) of them in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Slovenia, Kosovo we can say that they are living in Communism: Take as much money, and all other stuff, as they need, work as much as they need (for themselves, of course). In the same time, they are the great believers and great donors for the Catholic Church, Orthodox Church and Islamic community.
Wait, what did we say above the connection of Churches in Feudal system and Masters of life and death in Middle Ages?
The Ministers of the Government are former prosecuted fellows for different criminal acts; Ministers of the Government are those who do not now know how to speak his/her own language and not to talk about some foreign one… Rock’n’roll of stupidity will never die thanks to media illiterate people who select them and through huge theft of the votes at the Elections as well, supported by their Main electoral bodies and foreign countries (USA, EU countries, Russia) who supports sometimes even the same politicians, although they are in conflict (like Russia and USA in regard Ukraine).
Do you want and example?
Recently, the US Embassy of Bosnia and Herzegovina through Ambassador Michael J. Murphy, supported the forming of the BiH Government (still to be formed after the elections held in October 2022) in which a coalition will be entered by Milorad Dodik’s party, leader of SNSD (Bosnian Serb nationalistic party from the entity of RS within Bosnia and Herzegovina) while at the same time the US Embassy condemned giving the medal of honor during the event of 9.1.2023 – the celebration of the illegal day (Decision by Constitutional Court of BiH) of RS entity Milorad Dodik, current president of the entity of RS awarded Vladimir Putin (nobody else in the free world did that) with a medal of honor and soon will go to Russia to hand it over directly to Putin. Contradictio in adiecto by US Embassy in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Ignorance is really the way of living presented by believers, because I am sure that all persons mentioned above are believers in God. Will their God forgive their actions after visiting a Church and admitting their sins in front of the Priest (Catholic and Orthodox priests) and/or Imam (Islamic priest). Yes, the God, will do that — the One presented to them through their religious leaders, ignorant ones.
Atheism exists as solution?
Atheism exists as the solution, as a responsible one. Why not? So, let’s defend the thesis.
In a country where the rule of law is in power, where rights equal responsibility, responsibility equal empathy and empathy equal equality, and vice versa, as real democracy should be (USA and democracy is right now in process of divorce as we see from the news about more murders on year basis than in the war and FBI entering houses and offices of the former and current President) nobody would care if you are religious or not, because being an atheist or religious person should be private thing. Unfortunately, also within the area of South-East Europe, where democracy seems to be a buffet (Swedish table for breakfast) from which people in power take what suits them and do not consider democracy as a procedure, but instead take all that is connected with democracy, as mentioned above, there are almost 95% of believers, but maybe only 5 % of them who follows the Holy Book(s) instructions.
Who is wrong, the Holy Book(s) or the people? I can say – nobody as totality, but everybody as individuality. What is the purpose of the Holy Book(s) if I have to suffer in this World and I will have all what I need in Heaven (food, money, 60 virgins, etc…) while at the same time guys such as Harvey Weinstein (great believer and the guy who loved God so much) can create so much suffering for the women around the World: https://www.globalfundforwomen.org/movements/me-too/.
As I said ten years ago, the Feudal system was a past tense, but with a current status, in the World. Or, even funnier, everything that your leaders promised you that you will have, you provided to them.
Again, atheism is a responsibility. Not so called “communist kind responsibility“, because I was a fighter against rigid communism, although I was atheist. Atheism respects those who attend Churches and Mosques, but with one question: “How bad can you be to lie to your God that you are honest, while in the same time you are corrupted criminal as much as you can be?“ Almost 97% of the people in jails within South-East Europe are believers. How can that be if they believe in God? The answer by the side of believers is: “They will be judged on Judgment day.“ Excellent answer, but in the countries where is the law of rule and not the rule of law who will judge them? Believers, may be the same ones who said that the Judgment day is the solution? Atheism fights for the rule of law. Not the law of the rule. If there is a rule of law, there are only the honest and thieves — and you do not need any Holy book(s) to tell you that, by creating opium for the illiterate masses on the West or manipulated masses on the East (China, North Korea, where atheism is a religion and not a responsibility).
As I said aa long time ago, before the war(s), in former Yugoslavia we had a religion of ideology and nowadays we have an ideology of religion. Also, science has nothing to do with religion, because religion is not a science. It is a fairy tale.
In continuance of defending my thesis and finding a middle road towards society where essence will be responsibility within the rights, in the next essay titled: “Atheism is not religion – it is a state of responsible living“, I will further elaborate my stand.