αποχαιρετισμός στο μέλος μας Χρήστο Τζανετάκο

[AoratiMelani]

Πρόσφατα έφυγε από τη ζωή ο Χρήστος Τζανετάκος, μέλος της Ένωσης Αθέων και ακτιβιστής άθεος με έντονη δράση στις ΗΠΑ.

Το 1987 έγινε μέλος της American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Το 1992 συμμετείχε στην ίδρυση της οργάνωσης Atheists of Florida.
Από το 1993 ως το 1997 ήταν παραγωγός 60 ημίωρων τηλεοπτικών προγραμμάτων με θέματα από τον διαχωρισμό εκκλησίας-κράτους έως σύγχρονα επιστημονικά και φιλοσοφικά ζητήματα.
Το 1993 εκλέχθηκε αντιπρόεδρος της Atheist Alliance για δύο συνεχείς θητείες.
Το 1995 συμμετείχε στο Διεθνές Συνέδριο Ανθρώπινης Συμπεριφοράς και Σύγχρονου Ανθρωπισμού στους Δελφούς και υπέγραψε τη Διακήρυξη των Δελφών (Delphi Declaration) ως εκπρόσωπος των Atheists of Florida και της Atheist Alliance.
Το 1995 ίδρυσε το Mark Twain Scholarship Fund που βοηθά άθεους νέους να κάνουν ανώτερες σπουδές.
Το 2011 δημοσίευσε το βιβλίο "The Life and Work of an Atheist Pioneer".
Το 2015 στη διάρκεια επίσκεψής του στην Ελλάδα συναντήθηκε με εκπροσώπους της Ένωσης Αθέων και έγινε μέλος μας.
Ήταν ένας άνθρωπος θετικός και δραστήριος που πρόσφερε πολλά στη διάδοση του ορθολογισμού. Είναι τιμή και χαρά μας που τον γνωρίσαμε. Όταν έμαθε ότι πρόκειται να πεθάνει, μας έστειλε το παρακάτω κείμενο, που μοιραζόμαστε μαζί σας:

THE ROAD TO ATHEISM

I was born in Greece, a country which was and still is saturated with religion.

I came into this world on December 23, 1938. Since it was just before Christmas, I was named Christos which is the name of Jesus in Greek. (Of course I was not consulted).
It is ironic because later I became the founder of Atheists of Florida, (1992) and was the first Co-president of Atheist Alliance (1992-1995) which today is an international organization with member societies from all over the world.

Just like all the Greek children I was indoctrinated (brainwashed) not only by my parents, both strong believers, but by the official government through the educational system. We had mandatory daily religious glasses from elementary thru high school. Naturally, the classes were on the Greek Orthodox dogma.

Greece was indirectly controlled by the church which even today is strong and owns a large portion of the land. There were laws punishing anyone opposing the church with penalties and even jail.

Well this was the environment while growing up.

How I escaped the tyranny of religion and in particular the Greek Orthodox Christian religion requires more than 10 minutes to narrate, but it followed an evolutionary course.
The church during its first years or decades was encouraging its members to search the Holy Scriptures.
Then when people started to ask questions, the church changed its tune to “Believe and don’t ask.” Have faith.
Apparently, I did not follow the latest directive and instead scrutinized the so called Holy Scriptures.
I found them to be the most ludicrous source of laughable myths and superstition.

Perhaps I should quote here what Mark Twain stated:
"I had read the Bible completely by the age of fifteen and its impurity had soiled my mind."

Or what philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche said:
"A thorough reading and understanding the Bible is the surest path to atheism."

By the age of 16, I rejected the Greek religion as well as all other religions and considered myself a free thinker, not yet a stanched atheist that I am today.
In 1946-1949 My native country of Greece was embroiled into a vicious civil war with atrocities on both sides, the national army (where my father was an officer), and the communist army.
Both armies had Greek Orthodox priests who were blessing the arms of both parties to kill each other and invoking the assistance of the same god for victory. This was an additional reason for my escape from the insanity of religion.

After my graduation from the Merchant Marine Academy in 1959, my travels brought me around the globe and personally experienced the destructive effects of missionaries on native cultures.

Ever since, Jomo Kenyatta’s statement has been branded in my brain.
"When the missionaries arrived, the Africans had the land and the Missionaries had the Bible. They taught how to pray with our eyes closed. When we opened them, they had the land and we had the Bible."

Finally, I became a staunch atheist through science. Einstein’s equation E=mc2 told me that the essence of our universe is the dual form of energy and matter. In the singularity before the Big Bang, the universal essence was energy. Since energy cannot be created or destroyed, there is no need for a creator-god. A God or any other imaginary entity that created the universe out of nothing.
Nevertheless, if we accept the existence of such an entity, the question always remains: “Who created the creator?" etc. etc. ad infinitum.

The search to the questions of “Whence, and why, and wither” will remain, as far as I am concerned, an unanswerable riddle.

Pertaining to the idea of God, I agree with Albert Einstein:
I cannot imagine a god who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own- a god, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty. Neither can I believe that the individual survives the death of his body, although feeble souls harbor such thoughts through fear or ridiculous egotism.

The only good thing that I can say about “God” is what George Bernard Shaw humorously said:
“I am an atheist and I thank God for it.”

Thank you,
Christos

[AoratiMelani]

Την Κυριακή 14 Ιουλίου 17.30-20.00 στο πατάρι του Blue Bear καφέ, Θεμιστοκλέους 80, Εξάρχεια, θα μαζευτούμε για να αποτίσουμε φόρο τιμής στον Χρήστο Τζανετάκο, που έφυγε πρόσφατα από τη ζωή. Ήταν μέλος της Ένωσης Αθέων και ακτιβιστής άθεος με πολύ έντονη και σημαντική δράση στις ΗΠΑ. Κάποιοι από εμάς που είχαν την τύχη να τον γνωρίσουν προσωπικά, θα πουν λίγα λόγια για την προσωπικότητα, το έργο και το όραμά του.

Το Blue Bear βρίσκεται πάνω στην πλατεία Εξαρχείων, στο ισόγειο της γνωστής Μπλε Πολυκατοικίας. Η προσέλευση ξεκινά από τις 17.30 και η έναρξη της εκδήλωσης αυστηρά στις 18.00.

Για όσους δεν θα παρευρίσκονται, θα υπάρχει ζωντανή μετάδοση της εκδήλωσης στην ομάδα Έλληνες Άθεοι και Αγνωστικιστές.