FBUP Episode 009: Why I Am An Atheist
Sometimes I get stopped on the street by worried fans who say they will pray for me to get saved. I also get TONS of phone calls, e-mails, text messages, Facebook messages, etc… from people who all ask me…
“Fatboy, why don’t you believe in God?”
In this episode of Fatboy Unplugged, I answer that question.
Download: Fatboy Unplugged – Episode 009 – Why I Am An Atheist (19.5MB)
[Episode Duration: 82:53]
Fatboy Unplugged 
James FATBOY Onen! Wow! Apart from the moments when you were needlessly offensive, I thought that this thesis on the reason for your atheism was provocative and compelling. Are there many atheist Ugandans that are as articulate and brave as you have been? It cannot be an easy thing to “out” yourself as you have done in a country of over 90% religious people. I have listened to it from start to finish. If there was a way I could get fundamentalist Christians to listen to it without losing their minds when you swear and slander the Holy Spirit, I would do it. In particular, I found your argument about morality to be similar to one that I first encountered in the writings of Hitchens and Dawkins – both writers and speakers that I love (even though I am not atheist).
As a christian, I honestly, HONESTLY question the correlation between increasingly morally, socially and financially bankrupt countries and the percentage of population that would refer to themselves as religious… especially Christian because that is my specific interest. This is something I have spoken out about quite extensively in the past and continue to. I am also alarmed by the blatant disregard by many religious groups (Christianity included) for the basic human rights of people of different sexual or religious persuasions than themselves and can see, based on this alone, why Hitchens wrote the book “God is not great”. I personally think that when religion gets in bed with politics, and policy making it makes for a toxic mix and the two should generally be kept apart.
I was smiling as you were strongly asking Christians to refrain from praying for you because I could see how people would turn it on you and say that the real reason you REALLY do not want people to pray for you is that you still have the lingering suspicion that prayer MIGHT work. I know that you would say this is laughable, but I also know how I have argued in the past and this, therefore, is the reason for my wry smile. I thought it was needless for you to cuss out the Holy Spirit in an attempt to ensure that we would not pray for you. If you truly felt that this deity did not exist, and that prayer is futile, insulting a non-existent figment of the imagination does not help to prove your point. Being an atheist obviously means you do not believe in prayer… the extra mile you took it was, in the words of classified, not classy. Plus, you SURELY must have heard about the theology of purgatory!!
The reason I have chosen to comment is because yourself, and other outspoken atheists, have challenged me to really read scripture, read writings of other religions and extensively read and listen to strong atheist proponents. Your intent was to inform us about the reason for your irreligious belief, and I am sure in the process you have caused at least one religious person to question the convictions that they so strongly cling to. My experience is that more Christians need to be questioned, challenged and probed about what they believe because, as you mentioned, the vast majority of us cannot make a compelling case for what we believe. I, like you, believe that with greater intelligence, access to information and global experience, it only makes sense to question the cultural and religious indoctrination that you grew up with. It is only by questioning that we can perhaps arrive at a better version of what we know or throw everything out for an emerging, more convincing truth.
If we (Christians, Muslims, Scientologists, Mormons, etc…) have believed a lie, we need to throw it out. If we have not, we need to come up with stronger literary, empirical and experiential evidence, or else, we deserve the growing ridicule of what we believe.
Did not mean to blog on your blog. Just wanted to comment and let you know that 98% of this blog is much appreciated, informative, challenging and food for thought.
March 28, 2011 at 5:13 pm
Romans 1:18-22
New International Version (NIV)
18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools
June 6, 2011 at 11:17 am
Wow, Fatboy
Now thats a heck of a monologue. Very well thought out and presented. As a believer, I am at points amused while at others I feel sad. But I offer you not pity because you don’t need it or want it. Neither am I going to try and convert you or convince you.
I think you’ve done your homework pretty well and I applaud you for that. As a believer of science myself I have often struggled to reconcile my beliefs with the presented scientific evidence. I don’t believe the two are mutually exclusive.
For example, the retelling of the story of creation by Moses was that of a man who didn’t have a vocabulary or understanding of physics, biology, black holes, nuclear fission and evolution. He described the visions he got in the language and manner that he had.
Secondly, I believe that true belief in God can never be approached from a point of human logic. Because even if you reduced God to mere intelligent design, any being that can create us and the universe and all the laws that govern it simply can’t be understood by our human intellect. Like an amoeba trying to understand you podcast. Belief in God can only be approached by faith and its for that reason I can’t logically debate with you on these issues. You cannot for example see gravity but you believe it exists because you experience it’s effect all around you. You have faith that gravity exists. I then too have faith in God.
Thirdly I find you are incomplete in your knowledge of the bible specifically your understanding or comprehension of the bible. This is the same for my understanding of science. I get that science tells us the age of the earth is millions of years old yet there have been several schools that doubt the legitimacy of carbon dating as a tool of measuring age. Big bang? Great but where did the energy or mass come from? Others have disputed the logic behind evolution claiming that it’s impossible for one species to completely evolve to another. A fish can’t evolve into a monkey. Evolution has not been proved but is merely, as you say we religious do alot, a convenient explanation for that which science can’t prove concretely.
Fourthly, the burden of proof is two way. The prosecutor and the defendant have to both prove their cases. Now you on the other hand make it sound like it’s up to us to prove to you that there is a God. However, you also have to prove to us that there isn’t and your conjecture and philosophy while compelling and thought provoking doesn’t prove anything.
Finally, I and others will continue to pray for you because even tho you think you know the bible, you don’t fully understand it. Our God commands we bless those who curse us or mock us. You should also know that the unforgivable sin Christ was talking about was merely that of “Wanton/ Stubborn Unbelief” in Him and attributing His works to the devil and not the Holy Spirit. So you calling the Gods Holy Spirit names is forgiveable. So I hate to break it to you but there is still hope because beliefs can and do change 🙂
Cheers
November 8, 2011 at 10:39 am
Haha, it’s almost 3 years, I hope you and your friends are still ‘praying’ for him.
We all know no one is listening to those prayers but hey, keep on….Never relent!!
June 9, 2014 at 1:26 pm
Well, you almost have a valid point not believing in God. The only problem (that even all evolutionists agree is a puzzle) is the mystery of the human mind – Consciousness.
Here is an excerpt:
THE “MYSTERY” OF HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS
Consciousness is undeniably real. And it does have consequences—something that practically every rational human freely acknowledges. But admitting all of that turns out to be the easy part. The difficulty arises in explaining why—why consciousness exists; why it is real; why it works the way it does; why it “has consequences.” When it comes to explaining the origin of consciousness, evolutionists concede (to use their exact words): “Clearly, we are in deep trouble” (Eccles and Robinson, 1984, p. 17). Just how “deep” that “trouble” really is, appears to be one of the most widely known—yet best-kept—secrets in science. In a chapter (“The Human Brain and the Human Person”) he authored for the book, Mind and Brain: The Many-faceted Problems, Eccles wrote:
The emergence and development of self-consciousness…is an utterly mysterious process…. The coming-to-be of self-consciousness is a mystery that concerns each person with its conscious and unique selfhood (1982, pp. 85,97).
Or, as British physicist John Polkinghorne put it: “The human psyche has revealed its shadowy and elusive depths” (1986, p. 5).
Consider the following admissions from those within the evolutionary community, and as you do, notice the descriptive terms (“problem,” “mystery,” “puzzle,” “riddle,” “challenge,” etc.) that generally are employed in any discussion of consciousness.
Consciousness is the highest manifestation of life, but as to its origin, destiny, and the nature of its connection with the physical body and brain—these are as yet unsolved metaphysical questions, the answer to which can only be found by continued research in the direction of higher physical and psychical science (Carrington, 1923, p. 54, emp. added).
Nobody has the slightest idea how anything material could be conscious. Nobody even knows what it would be like to have the slightest idea about how anything material could be conscious (Fodor, 1992, p. 5, emp. added).
We need to close the gap between the physical and subjective realms of this topic before we can hope to reach an understanding of consciousness. Until then it remains, according to Scientific American, “biology’s most profound riddle” (Johanson and Edgar, 1996, p. 107, emp. added).
The problem of consciousness tends to embarrass biologists. Taking it to be an aspect of living things, they feel they should know about it and be able to tell physicists about it, whereas they have nothing relevant to say (Wald, 1994, p. 129, emp. added).
We believe that the emergence of consciousness is a skeleton in the closet of orthodox evolutionism…. It remains just as enigmatic as it is to an orthodox evolutionist as long as it is regarded as an exclusively natural process in an exclusively materialist world (Eccles and Robinson, 1984, pp. 17,18, emp. added).
What the connection, or the relationship, is between what goes on mentally in the mind and what goes on physically in the brain, nobody knows. Perhaps we shall never know. The so-called mind/brain problem has proved so elusive, many have come to regard it as a mystery of ultimate significance…. Unlike less-complicated physical structures, the brain is accompanied by consciousness. As we said earlier, we do not know why this should be. For the time being at least, we must simply accept it as a brute fact (Stannard, 2000, pp. 41-42,44, emp. added).
The emergence of full consciousness…is indeed one of the greatest of miracles (Popper and Eccles, 1977, p. 129, emp. added).
CONSCIOUSNESS DEFINED
The past three decades have witnessed a serious and noticeable increase in interest in the subject of consciousness, accompanied by a surge of publications, new scientific and/or philosophical journals, and scientific meetings (for examples within the last few years see: Greenfield, 2002; Tolson, 2002; Lemonick, 2003a, 2003b; Pinker, 2003).
One would think that since so much has been written on the topic of consciousness, surely the definition of this oft’-discussed issue would be a straightforward, simple matter. Think again! [One dictionary on psychology had the following entry under “consciousness”: “Consciousness is a fascinating but elusive phenomenon; it is impossible to specify what it is, what it does or why it evolved. Nothing worth reading has been written about it” (Sutherland, 1989).] Scientists and philosophers cannot even agree on the definition of the term, much less on the origin of that which they are attempting to define.
December 9, 2011 at 2:40 pm
failed to download. will keep on trying though. just couldn’t stand reading through all the comments. caused a headache
February 15, 2012 at 5:35 pm
Can’t wait to hear you explain why, after being so sure that your existence is not by God’s grace but science,you have to die someday.My point is-the fact that u are helpless when it comes to life and death means someone else is in charge.Over to u.
May 28, 2012 at 8:26 am
Fat Boy — You are absolutely fabulous — to say the least ! You’ll always be my hero ! I am a Black American Writer who enjoys listening to your ( make sense ) podcasts — It’s a shame Black people waste their whole lives believing in god – when , in fact , there’s no one up there listening – instead of uniting like other races — Blacks put their whole lives in the white man’s fictitious bible bullshit — which guarantees they’ll never have a pot to piss in — very sad , huh ? Please send me some information on how I can immigrate to Uganda — I’m fed up with America’s bullshit – and would like to find a nice Ugandan Female so I can get married and really enjoy life with a Beautiful Black Baby from the Motherland — please respond – ( eddiesmith1133@gmail.com ) — of course I’m an Atheist — and very proud of it — the worst thing in the world is to be an intelligent FOOL
June 2, 2012 at 8:11 pm
Hey Fat Boy — it’s me just one more time — I’m sure I don’t have to give you any examples as to why god doesn’t exist — but please allow me to mention , in case anyone else reads these factual points — to know why a supreme being doesn’t hold water . Hardcore facts don’t lie . At this moment there’s approximately 40 to 50 million people worldwide who are starving — with no rescue in sight – The African Slave Trade lasted over 400 years — which unequivocally denounces any loving god *** What the hell is HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE ALL ABOUT FROM GOD !? Elderly individuals would like to enjoy their few last days on earth — and not have to worry about ridiculous blood pressure ! Anyone with any sense knows prayer doesn’t work — even if you ask in jesus’s name . Religious people keep quiet when talking about HURRICANES, TORNADOES , EARTHQUAKES , and any other natural disaster – which god is suppose to have power over . What about the almighty DOLLAR ? I thought god was the almighty — not the dollar — yet , with a Million Dollars — and good continued health , you’ll live the best you ever have — without any prayer necessary — but without a dollar in your pocket – god is as weak as a lamb — God seems to be very incompotent when it comes to helping most people out with a Dollar — especially when you realize he can’t even come up with any money to help out all his CHURCHES out there — what a laugh , huh ? Poor people are asked to give TEN percent of their hard earnings ! What about all those ASTEROIDS out there — barely missing us at times ? You won’t hear anyone Religious bring up this realistic subject . What about the subject of HELL ? Who falls for this white man’s threat of Hell Fire !? The Government and Bible are one and the same ! He threatens you with HELL just like he trhreatens you with JAIL . I Know you know all of this FAT BOY — but everybody else are just SHEEP . I’m sure you remember what happened @ Georgetown , Guyana with JIM JONES . Hell Fire — Forever and ever !? Boy , what a story ! What are mosquitoes , flies , gnats , flees, and mice all about ? Anybody can do without these UNGODLY things — yet they exist all around us as though we need BUGS to survive . These are just a few of the facts I have detailed in my book to be published early next year — ( DOES ANYBODY REALLY WANT TO KNOW THE TRUTH ? ) ( 2013 ) — I don’t see how Blacks or Jewish people can have any such belief in any such god after the brutal history of SLAVERY or the horrendous episodes of the HOLOCAUST . Some people don’t pay attention or don’t make good Observers . Whenever anyone mumbles — ” God is Good ” — he may as well be saying ” I am the son of a Millionaire ” because one lie deserves another . I’d love to be able to teach , if I could , in Uganda — that would be a dream come true . I’m like you — FAT BOY — because I know the truth — and it doesn’t come from the bible .
June 3, 2012 at 9:05 pm
HEY FATBOY — ARE YOU STILL ON THE RADIO — I HAVEN’T HEARD FROM YOU LATELY — PLEASE , LET US KNOW SOMETHING ! THANKS !
August 6, 2012 at 5:36 am