the Dao of Atheism :jeffers' petroglyph, pre-dakota, minnesota : the Shaman Atheist 42/81

42

The way
is one
but soon one is made into two
and two becomes three and four ...
and everything else
all of which contain the elements of yin and yang
dark and light, water and fire, hard and soft, male and female
in whose blend and harmony all existence depends.

No one likes
to come from the lower class
to be poor, hungry, needy
yet politicians and priests gain by calling themselves such.
Still, a person
gains by losing
and loses by gaining,
becomes wise from disadvantage
and ignorant from privilege.

The truths of other religions and philosophies
are the same:
an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,
turn the other cheek,
a violent person will die a violent death.

There are many ways of subdividing atheisms.
Here are three kinds of atheism:
the atheism of god,
the atheism of subversion,
and the atheism of utopia.

The atheism of god is the common concept of atheism as god-denial and anti-theism. The atheism of god is also the traditional inexperience of deity.

The atheism of subversion is the rejection of the State and other human institutions that act as god. Socrates, early Christians and early Quakers were of this type of god: they rejected the totalitarian powers assumed by government and empire to define th eir role within it. Although all three of these examples believed in a personal god, all three were punished for not obeying the State and succumbing to its wishes.

The atheism of utopia is the pursuit of perfection in this mortal world, rejecting the empty lures of a better world promised after death, along with rejecting the accumulation of material securities that create a private heaven here on earth at the expense of others.




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