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This piece is penned without malice and without intent to court controversy. It is about an old man trying to get a word in.

Atheism is a dirty word in Malaysia and a few other countries. The mention of it conjures up pictures of unbelievers bound for the fires and brimstone of Hell. I beg to differ I'm am an old man of 70 seeking spiritual peace for the last 30 years or so. In this lengthy search I encounter disillusionment after disillusionment. I hence decide to be a ‘born again atheist’.

The teachings of atheism are generally of a scientific or logical nature. Unlike some beliefs, atheists aren't generally only looking out for themselves. They tend to focus on progress, both personal and throughout humanity.

Therefore, they are generally anti-racist, anti-violence and always strive for a better way. They have theories that support their core beliefs, but welcome any new theories, which must be backed up through experimentation.

This is the way of progression and they tend to shun any notion that gets in the way of progress. For example, they generally understand the importance of working together, which has been proven to support progress.

In order to work together better, we need to remove bias directed to a particular belief system and respect all religions or non-religious people equally. While some believe this promotes atheism, the point is ultimately equality.

So what it boils down to is that atheists do not believe in anything without evidence. The rest they believe in until proven otherwise. How can perfect gods exist with so much evil in the world?

One of the most popular and perhaps most effective arguments against both the existence of gods and believing in gods is known as the ‘Argument from evil.’ It's a popular argument because it's not one which requires a great deal of sophistication or philosophical education to understand.

It's effective because even the weakest forms of the argument make a strong case that gods, or at least any beings that look very much like the gods people tend to believe in, probably don't exist. Many people who end up as atheists are inspired to take a much harder look at their religion and their theism after being forced to face the problem of evil and suffering in the world.

Thus, even if the argument doesn't disprove gods, it starts people down the road of questioning and skepticism. The earliest formulation of the ‘Argument from evil’ comes from the Greek philosopher Epicurus, writing in the early third century BC. Either God wants to abolish evil and cannot, or he can but does not want to or he cannot and does not want to or lastly he can and wants to.

If he wants to remove evil, and cannot,

he is not omnipotent;

If he can, but does not want to,

he is not benevolent;

If he neither can nor wants to,

he is neither omnipotent nor benevolent;

But if God can abolish evil and wants to,

how does evil exist?

This is a logical or deductive ‘Argument from evil’ because it attempts to show that the existence of God is logically incompatible with evil.

No one can argue with the fact that throughout history, countless wars have been fought in the name of religion. To me fighting and killing in the name of peace is akin to copulating in the name of chastity. What a waste of lives and resources.

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