The Godless

There are lots of things you should never say, our right to free speech notwithstanding. Everyone knows you can't yell "fire" in a crowded theater or joke with the good folks at the TSA while waiting in a security line at the airport. And there are a variety of words that shouldn't be used in public if you want to keep all your teeth. But those aren't the sorts of comments or words that concern me.  Those relate to safety and common courtesy. There are other dangerous words one dare not utter in mixed company.

Liberal, atheist, democrat, socialist, universal health care.  Bet you thought I was going to list anatomical words. No, these other words are far more dangerous depending on the company you're enjoying.  We're living in a time where merely speaking your mind can lose you friends, invite ridicule and contempt, and cause loud arguments. The worst one is "atheist".

 We live in a society dominated by religion.  It wasn't always this way.  I remember when one's religion wasn't a litmus test for character or morals.  Going to church was a private affair relegated to Sundays and not discussed in school or during elections (the Kennedy election being an exception). Now our political leaders must profess and demonstrate their religious beliefs. Although we plainly see how polarizing and destructive religion is in the rest of the world we are unable to see that the same thing is happening here.  The right to freedom of religion has come to mean the right to foist your beliefs on other people whether in the form of a creche on public property or teaching the christian creation myth in schools.  What happened to freedom from religion, the right to hold your own beliefs without having  those of others thrust upon you?

I'm an atheist, not an agnostic, an atheist.  I don't believe in a god, a higher power, or whatever you want to call it. I've tried a few times.  I went to church with both of my grandmothers, on my own as a teenager and I took my children to a church when they were old enough.  No matter what, I couldn't make the leap, the leap of faith in something I could neither see, hear, nor feel. I do believe in many other things I can't see like viruses and radio waves because I can experience their effect.  But god, no.

Professing to be an atheist is like being a leper, it drives people away.  I don't usually tell people that I don't believe in god when the subject arises. It provokes anger and contempt which  never fails to surprise me.  Why does anyone care what I believe? And why are they so angry about it?  I'm not furious because some people are Catholic or Jewish or Muslim. I don't try to change their minds or insult them. But somehow atheism is the ultimate evil. Atheists must lack morals and integrity, we must be ignorant and sinful since we don't believe in god. Of course we are all going to hell as well, despite the fact that we don't believe in it.  For the religious it seems the only reason to behave morally is the threat of punishment. Alternatively, you can ask for forgiveness and all will be well in the hereafter.

In fact I am a generous, moral person with a good sense of right and wrong.  I don't need the threat of hell and damnation to be fair and kind to others. I believe in secular humanism, that humanity is capable of morality and self-fulfillment without a belief in god. In fact if we look at religion in both a contemporary and an historical context I would argue that religion actually prevents humanity from fulfilling its moral potential. The brutality humankind has inflicted on itself in the name of religion has plagued the western world for more than 2,000 years and continues to do so.

I'm outing myself, I don't believe in god and never have. I've never been ashamed of it but it always seemed like too much trouble to deal with the fallout of admitting it.  I  ask  that the religious afford me the same right they exercise, to believe as I choose and to respect that right.  I'd also really like some freedom from religion wherein the various religious beliefs of others do not bleed into public domains where they cause division and separation.

RESPECT is a wonderful gift to give.