I Don’t Have a Dream: Atheism UK’s ‘Break FREE!’ Campaign

I don’t dream that:

• virgins can give birth
• a person can be resurrected after death
• a man can perform miracles that defy our understanding of the natural realm 
• a man can ride up to paradise on a winged donkey
• a martyr can get 72 virgins in an afterlife 
• a man was made from dirt
• a woman was made from a man’s rib
• men are superior to women
• homosexuals are ‘sinful’
• the universe was created by an immaterial deity in a few days 
• any tribe can be ‘The Chosen People’
• a non-evidential god has the power to make my team win or to enable me to find a parking space 

I could go on and I’m sure you could add to that list yourselves. 

The point is that those are all dreams. 

I have no dream for them to become true and neither should other rational people. 

Those dreams probably originated in mankind’s early history, dreamed up by individuals who saw the need of their fellow humans for solutions to mysteries, and who perceived in them the desire for narrative to be stronger than the desire for truth. They exploited that human failing by claiming to have all the answers through personal communication with an invisible, non-evidential god. They achieved success as leaders: leaders at storytelling. 

Sadly, humanity is so fascinated by ‘ripping yarns’ that a few of the best tales have persisted for centuries, allowing their tellers to use them to subdue, milk, and callously control populations of millions. If there is to be a legitimate use for the word ‘evil’ it should be in the application of it to those deceivers. Even in democracies, candidates who offer themselves for election may only have to hold up a book to win our hearts and our votes. We’ve allowed an addiction to fiction to decide who rules over us. We have become pushovers: sheep for charlatans to shepherd. 

A new boy arrived on the block during the Renaissance, the Scientific Revolution, and the Enlightenment. Science emerged as the best way to investigate and explain mysteries. Evidence came to be understood as the strongest verification for claims and its absence from religions was noticed. The scientific method has enabled many wonders. Many of us are alive today thanks to it, including me.

Seeing the threat to their supremacy, some faith leaders responded by suppressing education. In many parts of the world, they’re still doing that. Whole swathes of society, particularly women but including entire populations, are being harmed by hypocrites who proclaim peace and goodwill while pursuing war and subjugation. And, these days, ‘parts of the world’ can mean neighbourhoods in any city or pressure groups in any university. 

However compelling, however comforting, we must not allow our brains to get hooked by fables about a mythical puppet master in the sky.

We must ditch these fairy stories. 

Urgently. 

We need to Break FREE!

We have to Break FREE!

We want to Break FREE!

Atheism UK (AUK) launched the Break FREE! campaign at ‘Hitchmas’, which featured Stephen Fry, Richard Dawkins, Douglas Murray, and Lawrence Krauss celebrating the life of their late friend Christopher Hitchens in the Royal Geographical Society’s hall on 14 December last year. You can join AUK or make a donation and receive a Break FREE! button badge at our website: atheismuk.com.

In future, everywhere you see the word ‘break’, I want you to add ‘FREE!’ 

Use capital letters followed by an exclamation mark. Call it virtuous graffiti.