About Reasonism.Org
About Reasonism.Org
My name is Marquez Comelab. Whether you are a Christian, Muslim, Jew, Agnostic or Atheist, I welcome you to the Reasonism website!
This website came after I wrote the book, The Tyranny Of God, a book which details my mental and intellectual journey of deconverting myself from a collection of conflicting belief systems. Losing belief in gods and the afterlife was very tough but at the end of the process, the experience of enlightenment and the strength that comes from gaining a belief system that is coherent with most of my observations and experiences was worth the struggle.
This website, I dedicate to others out there, who are also seeking truth.
What Is Reasonism?
When I was writing The Tyranny Of God in 2008, I was looking for a word that can define my philosophy. Defining myself as an atheist did not seem the right fit for many reasons. I looked for the right word. There were rationalism, positivism, existentialism but they all have an existing history given to them by previous thinkers and authors. Then I realised that what the religious mind prioritised was faith over reason. Ultimately, the religous mind rejects and accepts any reasonable proposition based on their religious faith. Therefore, there was such a thing as Faithism. What I was advocating was more a philosophy of reason over faith. I was a Reasonist. On matters beyond our understanding, it is more reasonable to believe in things for which we have good evidence rather than believing things simply by a asserting their truths as a matter of faith. It is therefore a way of reasoning without resorting to faith and superstition.
Reasonism is therefore a philosophy based on the following statement:
For us to believe in something, we must have good reasons to believe it. A reason is a good reason if it is based on intelligent ideas. Ideas are intelligent if they have the power to predict. We can only predict when we acquire the knowledge we need that are close to the truth, allowing us to arrive at models and theories that help us make predictions. To do this, we need to use good information. Good information is something that is based on good evidence. Good evidence must be understandable, relevant, reliable, independently verifiable, comparable and consistent.
- Marquez Comelab, The Tyranny Of God, p258.
What Is The Main Aim Of This Website?
We are all seeking the truth. We are all asking questions about who we are, why we are here and how we should live our lives.
The problem is, much of the information available everywhere is filtered, modified or adjusted to suit the bias of particular religions. How can we ever hope to arrive at the truth when we choose to see, or are being shown, only their side of any argument?
The main aim of this website is to encourage and promote discourse amongst us as we try to answer ask life's deep questions instead of just believing what they have been told or led to believe by their parents and religious preachers.
Why do we need to question or challenge beliefs and ideas?
I am NOT saying that all religious ideas are bad. All I am saying is that there are plenty of religious preachings that contradict each other, as well as our instinctual sense of right and wrong, including many of the things we know to be factually correct based from evidence gathered from our individual observations and through scientific methods.
All I am advocating for is the need to discuss the impact of religious ideas on the way we as individuals and as societies, live our lives. If we do not, we will all suffer the consequences of operating our societies based on false premises and beliefs.
Most of us assume that religions are benign. Going to church, for example, is just a social gathering, for many of us who are moderately religious. We often fail to see or question how organised religions, including religious beliefs and ideas exacerbate, and sometimes cause, the problems of the many issues we face today:
1. Terrorism
2. Freedom Of Speech and Expression
3. Honour killings
4. Genetal mutilation
5. Denial of Gay Rights
6. Denial of Women's Rights
7. AIDS and condoms
8. Teenage Pregnancy
9. Stem Cell Research
10. Euthanasia
And many more...
Our religions are involved in our politics. They will to shape the laws in which we all live by. So long as this is the case, then it is everybody's responsibility and obligation to investigate, criticise and scrutinise them as we do any political party.
Our religions are involved in commerce. They are selling us their own version of the truth. Religions and sects are selling books, DVDs, CDs and other gizmos while recruiting many members from whom they can extract donations and other forms of financial contribution. As consumers and potential customers of such organisations, we are all entitled to question and ask: Is this really what is right for me, for my children and for other people I know?
What Is The Scientific Method?
Instead of accepting religious and superstitious explanations to the things we do not yet understand, Reasonists rely more on enquiry and the scientific method.
Non-scientists loosely use the word 'theory' in place of words like a 'hunch' or 'guess'. When people hear about 'The Theory Of Evolution', they say things like, "Well, it is just a theory".
In science, however, the word 'theory' is not an individual's hunch or guess that remains unproved or untested. Before something is recognised as a theory, it goes through a rigorous process. We need to understand the process by which scientists come to understand what they purport to know. This is referred to as 'The Scientific Method'.
William K. Tong of the Oakton Community College, in Illinois, provides us with a good definition of The Scientific Method:
"The scientific method attempts to explain the natural occurrences (phenomena) of the universe by using a logical, consistent, systematic method of investigation, information (data) collection, data analysis (hypothesis), testing (experiment), and refinement to arrive at a well-tested, well-documented, explanation that is well-supported by evidence, called a theory".
What we need to recognise is that scientific theories have been observed, tested and verified in many experiments, by many different, independent sources. To explain this process, let us use an example of how a theory is developed using the scientific method:
1) I make an observation: Every time the sun rises, it is always from the east.
2) I hypothesise: The sun must rise from the east.
3) I test this idea: I will go everywhere I can possibly go and verify that the sun is always rising from the east.
4) I publish it: "My research has indicated the sun always rises from the east, wherever it is observed."
5) Other people verify it: This research will then be corroborated by others, from all over the world to confirm that the sun indeed rises from the east.
6) We agree now that our theory has enough evidence. Out of say, 10,000, independent case studies, we are 100% sure the sun rises from the east. We now have a theory.
7) Maybe one day, the sun will begin rising from the west. We cannot know for sure. When it does, we will modify our theory.
As we can see, theories are far from the unproved speculations of a single scientist who just had one too many cups of coffee, late one night. Scientific method is not simply about asserting what you think is true. It may make assumptions but it does not require faith because it simply works with the evidence it has. It is a method that seeks for truth through testing ideas and conducting experiments to verify whether these ideas are true. Ideas are cross-referenced and open for widespread criticism, enquiry and debate. The scientific method requires evidence that is, understandable, relevant, reliable, observable and verifiable.
The most important aspect of a scientific theory is that it must be FALSIFIABLE. It must be clear how and when that theory is no longer valid. In our example above, the theory will remain to be true until someone makes an observation that the sun is rising from another direction. If something is not falsifiable, it is not a true scientific theory. It is a philosophy.
[This is an excerpt from the Tyranny Of God on the Scientific Method, p258]
The Tyranny Of God
Paperback Edition
Is there a God? Where do the animals, plants and human beings come from? Are scriptures the words of gods? Does religion teach us to live moral lives? Why do so many people kill and are killed over it? How should we live our lives if God exists? How should we live it if God does NOT exist?
This book explores the truth behind our beliefs in God and the propensity of human beings to be religious. In an honest attempt to seek the answers to life's deepest questions, I probe into how life began. I then progress to investigate the true nature of religions and their impact on our lives and the rest of humanity.
The main purpose of this book is not to argue against religion. Rather, it tells our story and how we have come to oppress ourselves with the tyranny of our own beliefs. I wrote this book to include everything I discovered to be relevant in my search for the truth, not just the truth behind God and morality, but also behind us and our existence. Instead of reading this book with the expectation that it is trying to prove the tyranny of God, I would like to recommend you read it as a story book: as a book that tells the story of humanity from the Big Bang.
REVIEW
"While Comelab's writing is always moderate in tone, its message clearly undermines current distractions with accommodationist arguments towards presumed religious "moderates". It is written with the fresh confidence of a young man who has had early success in his adopted country and only recently come to realise the truth of atheism. For those like me whose only worry about Atheism has long been its faultering progress, Comelab reminds us that much of the energy must continue to come from those who have more recently learned the truth. He seems more than bright enough to soon progress to seeing atheism not as an end but as a starting point to the kind of understanding that should enable us to work towards a future incomparably better than any heaven the faithful can imagine."
- TONY SMITH (AUSTRALIA)