This argument is simply that without an imaginary friend I can’t know right from wrong, good from bad or terrific from terrible (maybe even if I had a dictionary at hand). That without an imaginary friend I should murder, rape and be generally unpleasant, always.
There two major variations on this and as this article is only a short statement I will try to use only two. Just so we know the score, I will argue the case of the christian imaginary friend because of its prominence in my society, but note, a similar line of arguement can be used for all beliefs.
The first angle on this argument assumes your imaginary friend is 1) real, and 2) that your special friend has good rules that anyone can follow and be good by. Part 1), your god is not real. Thank you for your patience with that part of this argument. I hope it wasn’t too wordy for you to come to terms with its meaning. Lets move on. Part 2), what is it the christian gods representative book says about being good? With over 300 dictates from this god listed in the book its hard to go through them all in a short statement and lets face it christians don’t know them or obey them anyway. I will focus on the top 10 “commandments” as thy are called because christians at least claim to follow those dictates. In the top 10 there is a lot of praising, almost half of them, I don’t see how that instructs us on our lives and is surely a little egotistical for a supreme being. I also see plenty of christians praising the god of capitalism (wealth) and communism (state). We have don’t covert, murder or consider another god (I thought there was only meant to be one) directed specifically at our behaviour not a bad start if we ditch the praising but in being so rigid it some of these very few rules becomes dangerous in themselves. The big question however is, what happened to some of the basics. Don’t rape because its a fucking shitty thing to do, all people are equal because god doesn’t have favorite’s, be good to the environment its the only one your getting and didn’t you read the opening chapter where it says I “liked it” or even something as simple as don’t be an arsehole. No I’m sorry your imaginary god has not given you a good moral code to live by, even in the top 10, and if you tried to live by the other 300 “commandments” you would be locked away and maybe classified as insane.
The second argument is more personal and in fact quite rude. It assumes that I should be doing quite terrible things, always. This is a concern to many atheists and if you about to give up believing in any god to go and do something horrible I implore you to continue believing. Statistical evidence of prison populations could be given here showing atheists represent a smaller percentage of the population than their equivalent number in the general population, but, I don’t know if that is accurate. Given the unwarranted respect religion is given in showing a person have reformed it may be, though it seems not, that there are many converts-of-convenience in prisons. Because I will not rely on statistics I will put myself and my atheist family on the table for discussion. I have never raped, murdered or been in prison (I may be generally unpleasant but who needs to make everyone happy). Maybe I’m letting down the side but should that even be possible. Over my entire 45+ years of life I have never prayed to nor believed there was a god. I am also charitable but not to big money organisations. I have and will again invite total strangers in need into my home and treat them as family until they get their problems sorted. My life partners equally, maybe even more so, are good law abiding sorts and life long atheists who have never done time in prison. My eldest son is 18 and I haven’t had one visit from the police due to his behaviour in that time, I almost wish he would get out and do something adventurous. That makes the current count 4 of 4, 6 of 6 if you include my parents, 9 of 9 if you include all of our living atheist parents, that qualify as good people by our societies standards. The other thing you assume is that we can’t understand or obey laws, the laws that are an extension of our developing social moral standards and far more involved than your bible is in directing good behaviour (and mostly without praising) and punishing bad behaviour (more humanely than your bible).
Your nonexistent god seems unable to cover the basics very well and we atheists are simply not doing our part in supporting your stupid claims of low behavioural standards. If it simply comes down to your measure of morality being an imaginary friend, I have to tell you your standards are too low and childish for me.
My your gods remain fictional,
The Antitheocrat.
The Antitheocrat 