Extraordinary Proof

(this is a part of a continuing post.  If you haven't, I suggest that you starting reading from a post entitled "onion")

Atheism, or non-theism, is a belief that there is insignificant evidence to warrant a belief in a God or gods.  Traditionally, atheism was associated with a positive denial of deity, but it is becoming more and more synonymous with agnosticism, with the former being the preferred term.

Some people reject atheism because atheists cannot prove the non-existence of God.  Well, technically, there is no need for a burden of proof for an atheist (would a non-astrologist have the burden of disproving astrology?) but let's just contemplate about this anyway.  Suppose that I ask you to prove the non-existence of unicorns.  How would you go about doing this?  The chances are that you don't have a chance of proving it.

Even if you are able to trace the original author who admits to making up the tale, this is not a proof.  After all, Europeans talked about black swans as a fictitious bird for centuries and centuries, and we even know the author and the date of fabrication - Juvenal in 82 CE.  This, of course, was until the European discovery of Australia and - surprise - black swans that dwelled in it.

So for all we know, there may be unicorns in a parallel universe somewhere, sipping on coffee and discussing about the hypothetical existence of human beings.  You cannot possibly expect people to disprove God when we can't even do it with unicorns.

But despite our lack of ability to disprove unicorns, how would our society view a man who adamantly insists on its existence?  Even if he cites some ancient texts and claims that it's metaphoric and whatnot, the chances are that no one would take him seriously.  Let's take this even further, and suppose that this man claims that the unicorn is extremely powerful, and he will torture you for eternity because of your great, great, great, great, great grandparent's sins unless you grovel at his feet and become his subservient slave in which you will be truly happy and free.  Oh, and he's your father by the way, and he needs roughly 10% of your income.

Wouldn't such an extraordinary claim require an extraordinary evidence?  There is no reason to believe this without reason.  There is no need to depend on faith, which is by definition belief without proof, when we have our own ratiocination.

You may find my unicorn story to be repulsive and silly, but that is roughly how the story sounds like to someone who's not indoctrinated to Christianity.  The most notable difference between the two stories is that Christianity is by far more outlandish. 

Take thousands of now extinct religions and gods around the world - Zeus for instance, or the Korean tale of a rabbit living on the moon.  They're quite silly obviously.  But if it's your religion, it suddenly becomes perfectly sensible to believe in people walking on water or riding a chariot to the heavens.  I can't disprove either Zeus or the flying chariot, but I really have no reason to believe in them either.

You don't even have to take a dead religion.  Suicide bombers believing in 72 virgins?  Japanese believing that their emperor is god?  Isn't it terrifying how religion is able to make perfectly decent people believe in some outrageous claims with zero proof?  And how they dictate nearly every aspect of your behavior, from what you eat to what you do naked in bed.  Perhaps, you are one of the suckers.