Thank God I'm an athiest

I always enjoy saying that.
Anyway, yes, I'm an athiest. Not an agnostic, not unsure, not waiting for god to show him/herself by letting me win the lottery. I don't believe in the supernatural, in all that statement's literal interpretations. The idea of life after death is as silly as the belief you can contact and speak to the dead. Some of the saints were really nice people, as, I'm sure, was Jesus...but what's wrong with thinking of them as just great examples of what any human could be if they wanted? The Bible, Koran and other tomes of religious belief? Just that, a codified book written by believers to extend their traditions and beliefs. I've been a deeply religious person for many years, so I know what I'm talking about. I've read the books, followed the commandments, paid my dues. So I guess you can call me a born-again athiest. Reality is more convincing than abstract belief.

Usually I don't make an issue of my position. As opposed to many of the religious people who insist I believe as they do or be considered a terrible person, I don't usually care what others believe. They are free to be as illogical and superstitious as they wish. In the end, we all die and none of that will matter. But something came up this week that made me want to discuss this topic for once.

On my block there was a wake for a young person who died. I didn't know the person who died, so I wasn't involved in the situation, but it did get me thinking. The religious, and in this country particularly christians, often put those of us who don't share their beliefs into awkward social situations. If I'd been a friend of the person who died, I would of course be expected to attend the funeral if not the wake as well. But I don't see any point in funerals. They are performed to comfort the living left behind, though why they need comfort is beyond me. If they truly accept their beliefs, funerals and wakes should all be joyous occasions. Most wakes are, and rightly so. But I have yet to attend an upbeat funeral. And those I have attended require me, in order not to disturb the beliefs of those around me, to pretend to go along with all the ritual. How is this freedom of belief? I have no wish to be rude or unsociable, but to avoid being so requires me to play along with what I consider a farce. The concept of religious freedom in America has been perverted into becoming religious oppression, and in many cases, religious persecution. I can't help but believe if christians actually followed their beliefs more honestly, they be much nicer people to be around. And I won't even go into what havoc and crime religious beliefs around the world have caused throughout history, and are causing right now. A religious war is like children fighting over who has the strongest imaginary friend.

Freedom *OF* religion includes freedom *FROM* religion.

Morality is doing what is right no matter what you are told. Religion is doing what you are told no matter what is right. Religion cannot be without morality, but morality may arrive without religion. It's frustrating to me that so many people think you can only be moral if you're religious. Nonsense. How many mass muderers and cruel dictators have held religious beliefs? Remember the Middle Ages?
Moral behavior need not depend on superstitious belief. I don't have to hold a belief that I'm going to go to hell just to behave morally. If you do, then you have a character flaw that even religion may not be able to correct. Being a decent human being should be its own reward.

Comments

[Tricia]

Hi,
My sixteen year old just informed me he is an atheist. I told him the sun shines on us all. I believe in God, but I also believe that what matters most in life is if you are a moral decent person. I try to teach him kindness and responsibility to fellow humans and animals on this earth.

[Jeber]

I think it's great that you've reacted with support and patience, Tricia. I was sixteen myself, once. I know both I and my friends all went through many changes of belief and opinion during those years. While I accept atheism as the only rational way to look at life, that's a realization that took many years, and more than a few experiences, to achieve. Perhaps your son will persist in his adoption of atheism, perhaps he won't. I hope he's appreciative of your support and understanding. It's not every parent who will let their child discover his or her own beliefs. Not every parent has the patience to hold back with their own opinion and let their child form their own. My own mother is like you. May your relationship with your son grow into one as strong and enjoyable as the one my mother and I have.

[marisa]

HEY HEY HEY HEY HEY HEY HEY

[marisa]

HEY HEY HEY HEY HEY HEY HEY

[Steve]

Hi all

I must say I that is does make me feel sorry for atheists that have been duped without ever considering the facts.

I mean the funny analogies such as we don't believe in santa clause and the easter bunny and we don't believe in God.

Well it's sad but Christians never believed in santa, or the easter bunny and have nothing to do with God what so ever. It was the secular or atheistic believe in the easter bunny,santa and even evolution.

Christians never even embraced that the earth was flat as the secular world believed, however they believed it was a sphere as the Bible communicates.

However to believe in evolution is sad and very similar to the belief in the easter bunny or the tooth ferry. No evidence exists which proof evolution at all in fact it's still just a theory with no facts to support it what so ever.

The fossil record shows species co-existed always in history and not one after the other as many evolutionary theories are still being taught.

Example if species A,B,C,D were carbon dated and existed one after the other lets say for example 50,000 years apart and much supposed information supports this, however later in years after other studies and other finding And now DNA testing etc they find another fossil of lets say species B which predates species A Now What ?
You can't just take species B out and place it before species A because you once had other supposed data that supported species B evolved from species A. In addition what about C,D you cant just take them and move them to follow species B just because your data shows that they evolved from B, so now you have B before A but C,D is suppose to follow B but the question is where? and this is the problem and the hoax is that they keep finding species that predate their original assumptions and you can't just move stuff around. That is a scam and has no basis in science.

That's just one small example, however this also occurs with the image of the Pre monkey man and Java man and Lucy man etc. These were once believed to have part monkey and man, however some of these are manufacture on nothing at all, and others are manufactured on nothing more then a single tooth. The DNA now concludes that this tooth is nothing more then from an exctint bore.
But at the time and even still today they teach that they know so much about this Lucy man and Java man that they can tell you how old it was when it died, and what was the cause of death and all the crap.
I went to the museum and saw this thing and the were talking all about what they knew, however it's nothing but playdough with no scientific facts at all.

So as I've said I challenge anyone to discuss these topics and prove evolution if you can, but the problem is it's just a theory. There are many other holes in this in fact Darwin himself denounced his own theory and became a Christian hiself. He admitted that even thought he still believed in the evolutionary links, however it could not have happened by random chance process and must have be created by a designer.

So again I say sadly that atheist will most likely not even consider this subject since they are too busy rebelling and have a rebellions spirit to even conceive that they are men of great faith believing in things that have no proof at all-evolution.

I hope some can receive this in earnest and I challenge anyone to debate this topic if you really desire to know the truth about God once and for all this can be demonstrated in many ways. First you must get past the lies about evolution which can be proven to you.During your investigations,you will no doubt stumble across various evidence that the world cannot be here by any random process of nature. Science has prove that it would be an impossibility for this to have occurred anywhere in the universe.

Further case and point:
Other studies of the oldest rock formation show that oxygen was always present during the earths formation and always present on the earth.Additionally the study of the gelatinous cesspool which supposedly carried the first RNA which was supposedly the first building blocks of life as we know it insist that in order for this to have occurred no oxygen could have been present during the earths formation which is direct conflict to the other scientific studies.

So you see in all of this there is truth in all the confusion which can be sorted out if you go to the proper source of information, however where is this information ?
The information is within you, You can destory ignorance and lies within yourself, however you must be willing to do what it takes to find it.
And currently those who do not believe will not know the source thus creating more confusion.
Then in addition the Bible can then also be demonstrated both scientifically and historically to be Super Natural in origin and not man made. Hundreds of Prophesies that have come to pass with a 100% prophecy rate can demonstrate that at the very******super natural in origin and not man made. Scientifically and Historically provable, however this in it self does not proof the existence of God, however it's in the right direction and it would be a leap of faith to say that after you see the scientific evidence and the historical evidence and see the Prophecies that have been predicted in some cases 2000 years before the events have unfolded.Not like Nostradameous where someone made thousands of predictions that only a few may have come to pass or possibly just viewed as coming to pass. They were a little vague, however they get more credit then the hundreds of predictions in the Bible.

Unlike what atheist teach I challenge you to the truth and rebut these topics regarding evolution at the minimum and the prophecies in the Bible which have been proven to come to pass both scientifically and historically.

It can be complicated but the truth is available quoting from scripture "Knock And The Door Shall Be Opened, Seek Ye In Earnest And Ye Shall Find Him"

Well that all I know I hope this helps and good luck on your journey

[gus3]

Rick asked above (many months ago):

"How many Athiests have killed in the name of God?"

Well, as the question is phrased, 'in the name of God,' none. However, in the name of hate-for-God, plenty. Over half of history's Christian martyrs were murdered in the 20th century alone. Of those, the vast majority were killed by either Communists (Atheists) or Muslims.

Just sayin'.

[cendrella]

By reaiding your subject,i felt it's my own words. i live in morocco which means a muslim country, i'm safocated not to show what am i really, especialy for arabic woman' it's very hard' i need a freind who understands me, and who is doing right becouse it's right not becouse h'is fearing to be punished. E-mail me if you are interested to my freindship.

[jimmy]

I am a humanist, that for me is a better word than atheist because I am not anti-god, as a matter of fact, there is no god or ant-god when I ask myself of my belief, I just believe from my experience, my history and through my senses. I think to be anti-theist is very narrow and asking for support. I do not have to lean on belief-in-god to persue my philosophy.

I belive we are here because of chance.
We live according to our predisposition to our culture and biology
We will die into nothingness just like this universe will end into nothingness.

[RAMMSTEIN]

I was just reading this blog and noticed Andy trapping off at someone for misspelling a couple of words. I pissed myself laughing when in the salutation he misspelled Jeber!!!! Well done you typically hypocritical god botherer! I wonder though, why did Andy not address the real issue here, that is the disgraceful plundering of wallets by religions while (again extremely hypocritically) claiming to be doing so much for the poor and needy?!
Did he stop to think that maybe this person just wrote it late at night and made a simple mistake. I am a very literate person and I have made these type is errors before e.g. there/their or who's/whose. Thank you for showing us the true christian spirit Andy!!!!

[RAMMSTEIN]

And then I read Steve's little gem and laughed some more ;p

Steve, a little advice, stop talking about the historical and scientific evidence supporting religion and the bible and just show us!!! Steve, let me help you out here, there is a reason no one has ever shown this evidence and that is because there is none! If there were, how could atheists still discredit the bible and religion using science and history? Let your noodle bake on that one for a while!!!

And please please please take a class in evolutionary theory and learn about it for yourself instead of regurgitating someone else's rhetoric!
If you put species B before A.... give me a break. If they have found a new species that pre-dates species A then it wouldn't be species B, it would be a completely new species!!!

Once upon a time I could just laugh at this type of post and think what a poor misinformed person but now they just make me angry. It shows the typical narrow-mindedness of religious people and I'm sorry to say it, many of them display a distinct lack of intelligence!