Atheism

I’ve been an atheist since I graduated High School. Over the years, I’ve been trying to figure out what it means to me. Now that I’ve held this ideology for a while, I’m going to discuss what I believe as an atheist and I will discuss the discrimination against people who aren’t religious and how it’s affected our lives. Not all of us believe in the same thing and we don’t always define it the same way. I think that we don’t really claim anything which I will explain down below.

My definition of atheism is a lack in belief of a god or gods. That is the same thing as saying I doubt there is a god or gods. By doing this I do not need a claim. I am not saying that I know for 100% certainty that one doesn’t exist, but I do know I haven’t found enough evidence to prove there is one either. Why would I push people to believe in something if I’m not even sure it exists? Theists however, do make a claim. Now theism brings a wide range of people. As a theist without roots to specific religion they only have to find evidence for a god. Now being a christian is different since not only are they trying to prove god, but also need to prove how creationism is possible, if Jesus ever existed and how re-carnation is possible at the very least. Faith and personal testimonies cannot be used here. Researchers don’t use faith and personal testimonies to improve the lives of their patience so why use cognitive dissonance when it comes to ideologies? And why think that people who don’t believe in religion don’t have any morals? 

I have values without the limitations of religion. I am able to create my own moral code without clinging to one belief system. I am as bold as to argue that mine is better then a bunch of sexiest pigs from thousands of years ago that probably wouldn’t have even let me have my own opinion. I don’t eat animals because I know I don’t have to. I try to take good care of our world so the next generation can enjoy it. I try to exercise and eat whole foods to keep myself healthy and that is more than what a lot of other people are willing to do. 

I’m done with people trying to scare me into getting what they want. I’m done with watching people play high horse and catering to them. Atheism has shown me that I am no ones puppet to be played with. I will not listen to preachers who don’t know what fallacies are. And never again will I be guilt tripped into giving money to a church who is likely to spend it on remodeling. I know that not all churches do this, but I do think that many megachurches do. And yes, I know churches give to charities, but they don’t fix the core problem. They give people sandwiches instead of teaching people how to make one. Which I will discuss this in a different post. Religion sets many limitations on people, sometimes to the point of asking them to repress their own nature. 

Atheism gave us freedom. The freedom to revise our lives in ways that most of us never thought possible. I think that many people find this freedom as a reason to show that atheists don’t have values. And that honestly makes me laugh. I’m not the one kicking my son and daughters out of my home because they are gay. I’m not the one suppressing women and refusing to give kids blood transfusions. I’m not saying that all atheists are good. And I’m not saying all Christians are bad either. All I want to to be looked at as human. The US wasn’t truly free when it was first created, and it hasn’t until the last couple of decades in America that we finally have a voice. 

I’ve found that this is the best way to expand my knowledge. I’m not forcing myself to be confined to a certain belief system. I’m exploring possibilities and not claiming that I know everything for sure because we as people haven’t explored everything yet. It also allows me to be okay with people exploring different paths other than my own. We all have slightly different value systems. And although I will respect the value systems others to a degree I think that atheism still tolerates different paths more than religious ones since the definition is so broad. And I’m not saying I won’t tolerate christianity. We can’t help each other by forcing people to be a certain way. I still think there are some aspects of christianity that some of us need to reconsider —but not all of it. 

We need to explore this world a lot more than people might think. Our society keeps holding onto spefic paths and tries to convince us that going on another one would be too risky. How are we supposed to learn if we keep doing the same thing over and over again? 

Religion is like saying, “I know this because I interrupted this book this way.” Atheism is like saying, “I don’t know many things for sure since we’re still human and we are likely to make many errors, but I doubt the existence of a god.”