(Via James Dean)
There’s nothing like a little religiousity to get the blood flowing, as many former religionists know. I came from the Xian tradition coupled with an ample seasoning of humanism. (My bet is that my mom is as close as one can come to being a free thinker as possible but still be vaguely literalist in the cross bit.) BUT DON’T BE CONFUSED: I am a proud agnostic-atheist because agnosticism is only logical and atheism is the general default that follows most readily from that.
I once thought Jesus would have nothing to do with me, based on my popularity. I once thought he was really interested in my letting go of a little pent up tension -one way or the next, to people’s help and not their hurt. I once thought God should alternately be spelled in lower case and upper case letters and Jesse should be substituted for Jesus every here and there -so we could see the meanings of the passages beyond language. I once thought I might one day see a limb regrown. And now … enough is enough.
If people want to be foolish, they should do it while living their own lives -not a prescribed version -but this, only if they’re intelligent enough. And yes, that’s inflammatory. And yes, that’s okay. And no, you can’t count on a government to do it for you. And yes, we should all stop them from trying.
The facts are these, in short: Grew up all my life in a Christian home with over zealous father; comes from some real psychological absurdity he couldn’t have helped -and maybe, no one else could: chemical &/ trauma-induced imbalance in grandmother. My mother grew up with a father that turned alcoholic, abusively, and womanizingly so, too, and she was left to raise her three brothers in this same home most of her younger years -she somehow sustained some wonderful humanism through it all. My grandfather, on my dad’s side, certainly had his problems, but he was always a skeptic, and educator, even if a believer underneath it all -my dad went more fundamentalist on his own or with some help from the older women in his life -his mom and his grandmother who lived with them. (They, his mom & his grandmom, were also into spiritualism.)
I swooned under the influence of paranormal research, meditative apathy, prayers to a transcendent I-never-could tell-quite-what and three counts of full blown depression (the last two for which I took meds): after several Psychology courses, two Dale Carnegie books, Penn & Teller -especially, Season 3 (which I got from my grandparents -dad’s side- three christmases ago), Michael Shermer in his debate on God/Atheism (militant agnosticism!), and Guy P. Harrison’s (Prometheus publishes it) 50 reasons people give for believing in a god, and Bernard M. Patten’s book Truth, Knowledge, Or Just Plain Bull: How To Tell The Difference -these sources really helped, as did a little reflection and appreciation of the glibly persuasive account of god given by Douglas Adams on evolution/god -it’s maybe 5 minutes long, yet better than several books on the subject.
Somehow, I clawed my way to skepticism, secular humanism, and philosophical pursuits. It didn’t hurt that a personality test placed me in a group of real heady thinkers when I was 20. The Tao Te Ching, read largely in a philosophical context several times over a dozen years, really helped me break free of much of the indoctrination before I learned logic, took a couple introductory literature courses, and began to read the Skeptical Inquirer (their FB stuff is quite good, too).
I guess, I made my own extended therapy through literature, philosophy, logic, life’s disappointments and wonderments, and yes, even the Four Horsemen -though I want to see what is better put and more vigorous and erudite than anything they have to say about atheism.
Screw communism and screw capitalism -and no, I’m not so sure about any -ism, -ian, -ish, or substitute for thinking -or feeling, for that matter. But let them play their part if they accept that they don’t want to stand between those who embrace life and those who won’t get in it’s way, either.
Power to the people.
I’m 31 and still have some libido religion couldn’t snatch away from me. Praise whatever you call-it! -I’m celebrating it/me.
(Via Pete Rosenberg)
Well, over the last couple of weeks I’ve been making a serious effort to ‘come out’ as an atheist. Granted, my status on myspace and whatnot has said ‘atheist’ for ‘religion’ for years now (prior to that I was agnostic, so there was absolutely no response to that change.) But back to the present (or at least recent past) when I told my mother (A Universalist Unitarian) she was unsurprised and mentioned that many of the people at her congregation (I hesitate to call it a ‘church’, because of the negative connotation that bears) were also atheist. Again, no drama, no negativity. When I mentioned it to my father, (a retired Navy Captain) I did so by saying “I think my own atheism stems from my childhood appreciation of nature, all the outings, and the David Attenborough documentaries that I loved so much.” His response was “I like the documentaries too. I wouldn’t say I loved them, but I definitely enjoyed them.” I should perhaps, mention that my father, although a successful navy officer of 30 years, was known to be somewhat of a loose cannon, even going so far as to tell the captain of his ship (when he was XO) that the ship was ‘godless’, and when I asked him whether he was indeed Atheist, (because of his intense dislike of Christianity) he said no, he’s more of an Agnostic. Either way, he has the same dim view of organized religion as do I, and he seemed quite cheerful for the rest of that conversation (which I take to mean that he approves.) The only negative responses I’ve gotten (aside from some random fundamentalist on Tagged who got pissed when I responded to her ‘Jesus saves’ tags with a quote by Thomas Jefferson on how Christianity was the most perverted system.) were from my GF and her daughter. My GF (a Wiccan) was just annoyed because I’ve been very noisy about the whole affair, and she does, after all believe in a supreme being, the afterlife and magic, and I embrace the concept of ultimate mortality and reject the supernatural, and was kinda going on about that. The daughter was just annoyed because I’ve been noisy and I’m dating her mom. Which brings me to the ultimate reason that I’ve gotten very little in the way of response: I don’t have christian friends. (except maybe my sister) Most of my friends are Wiccan, and really don’t care that I don’t share their faith, as long as I don’t try to preach lack of faith to them. Of the rest of my friends and family, well, my best friend is Buddhist, and again, doesn’t really care, my youngest sister is agnostic, and the older of my sisters, (still younger than me) while nominally still christian, (she became so while dating a fundamentalist christian in high school) hasn’t been to church in years, and with the lack of a support structure (and in the light of her own substantial intelligence, and the sceptical view of the rest of us), her faith has withered. She never, however, was dogmatic (My father would’ve responded pretty harshly to that) and was in a much better position to understand what an atheist or agnostic REALLY is.
Anyways, that’s my story. I guess I kinda drifted away from it. Anyways, now I’m gonna go order some shirts and hats and wear them around town (including to the local walmart) and see what happens. It’ll be an adventure, ’cause I live in Pahrump, NV (a particularly odious little hick-town).
(Via Stephen F. Uhl, Ph.D.)
On Mothers Day, 1967, my eight siblings and I circled the huge table at Mom’s place. No one there knew my hypocrisy when I, the family priest, blessed that heavy table as requested. No one yet knew my secret.
Mom had given me a very early priestly vocation. My oldest brother would run the family farm, and I would be the family priest. Period.
Twelve years of seminary and almost nine years of priesthood went swimmingly–until one fateful morning in meditation I saw how St. Thomas Aquinas’ “causality proof” failed. He concluded: ‘Since an infinite regression of secondary causes is impossible, there must be an uncaused First Cause, God.’
Seeing how gratuitous his assumption was, my faith began to waver.
My agnosticism then grew during two challenging years. Debating if I should leave the priesthood, I feared I might be kidding myself when admitting I was agnostic; childhood imprintings die very hard! However, my totally desperate but conditional prayer when facing an unavoidable high-speed head-on collision convinced me I didn’t really believe. While recuperating from that October accident, I headed for a responsible June exit.
I had fully intended to break the news at our Mothers Day gathering, but I just could not bring myself to shatter that day’s joy. Next day, in the privacy of Mom’s kitchen, I forced myself to tell her. What a shock! But she painfully accepted what she could not change. Later that week when I was leaving, she was carrying bed clothes from her storage to my car; laughing through her tears, she said “I thought I was finished setting my kids up in housekeeping.”
That same week I told my siblings. Their reactions ranged from completely sympathetic understanding to shocked disbelief. My youngest brother asked, “How can you be a good, moral man if you don’t believe in God or the Church?” My answer was, and is, simple: ‘I follow my highest power, my reason, my conscience; this leads to the Golden Rule and keeps me true to my self and those around me.’
During two years teaching public school mathematics, I married a fellow teacher. Now I could afford to get the doctorate in psychology.
My psychology practice thrived; I enjoyed helping clients shuck guilt based on outdated beliefs and childhood superstitions. I enjoyed teaching the practical morality of a modified Golden Rule that the way to be happy is to help make others so without destroying oneself. Living this Golden Rule made me a better psychologist, contributed to a great marriage of almost 40 years, and produced outstanding neighbor relationships.
Discovery of cancer scared me; I promptly started an intimate family letter. Learning my cancer was not aggressive, I expanded that letter into the book, Out of God’s Closet: This Priest Psychologist Chooses Friendly Atheism. The book shares my exciting journey and shows readers how this natural life becomes a reasoned, responsible thrill outside of God’s musty closet.
(Via Jason)
I don’t remember the exact moment I became an atheist (I think it was more of a slow draining away, but I remember why.
I was raised Catholic, spend a couple of years as an agnostic, and then became a born-again christian my second or third year of high school. I was desperately wanting to belong to something, and they found me first. *laughs*
Mostly as a result of attending this particular christian missionary alliance church, the idea of a christian god just stopped making sense to me. My mind could no longer accept the idea of an all-powerful god who allowed the type of suffering I saw in the world; around this time, I think I saw a story of a five-year-old boy who was raped and murdered, as that is the specific example I quoted the most relating to my new found non-acceptance.
I spent a short while believing in the idea of a “watchmaker god”, then – finally – logic took over and I just decided not to spend time thinking about something that was a non-topic, as it could never be proved or disproved. I had recently started working at a Children’s Science Center, and fell in love with the idea of science and the natural world. I realized real science was so much more amazing than anything any human could dream up.
On a side note, for some reason I held on to other supernatural beliefs for a wee bit after becoming an atheist; after working at the science center for a while, all of the fell away as well. I am now a full-fledged, proud skeptic.
(Via Tom)
I don’t know exactly how to start this story off. I guess i should start off by saying I was home schooled as a child. I only went to a (Christian) private preschool and kindergarten (if that even counts) so of course I was taught nothing but creationism and a biblical world view from an early age.
I remember once wondering why people believed in evolution so i asked my Mom if we could perhaps study it. She gave me a dirty look and told me i would have to learn about it on my own.
My only social life consisted of church/youth group up until about the age of about 14ish. It was around that time that i started to get in touch with some friends That used to attend a Home School group with me at a young age. (I will call them Bill and Ted) Me Bill and Ted started to get heavily involved with hardcore and punk music. As i grew up with these friends, they always held their faith strongly as did I. We still went to church and youth group but i started to get more of a social life outside of that by going to shows and making friends there and such. I can’t say exactly when it was that I started questioning what I so blindly believed. I must of been about 16 when I started listening to a punk band by the name of Bad Religion and saw a movie by the name of Zeitgeist. Both those things motivated me to do more research on atheism. After reading many books that tried to prove Christianity and many books about atheism i came to the conclusion that i was an agnostic. No doubt.
I never straight up told Bill or Ted but had brought the subject up quite a bit and dropped many hints until after awhile they finally caught on to the fact that I didn’t believe in God 100%. For awhile it was not that big of a deal, We had debates but we still coexisted very well. Slowly but surely that all changed. We started hanging out with alot of people and in a country where about 90% believe in God or a higher power they just so happened to as well. As did most everyone i knew. I remember one time when i was at a church with about 5 of my friends we were all outside eating some food and one of my friends (Who shall remain nameless) Said to me…”Hey man can i be straight with you for a second?” Me: “Sure.” Him: “Alright…can you get your head out of your ass and just believe already? We all know HES real” I was just quite hoping he would shut up but then Ted decided to add on to that comment by saying “Yeah I’m sick of this atheist/agnostic bull shit” (yes they cuss.) I still just stayed quite and they all laughed and put in their own harsh comments. Due to the fact that i wasn’t saying anything Bill decided to mimic what he thought i would say in a very sarcastic voice. “Whhy are you guys making fun of me?? I can believe what i want.” I know that all might sound kinda over exaggerated but i promise you it was all word for word.
As time went on i finally realized i was an Atheist for sure. I remember the night i told Ted i was an atheist he just said “well that’s depressing” I agreed to an extent due to the fact that all my close friends and family believe in God. I sometimes feel like the only one of my kind. I’m no more than a casual acquaintance with very few non-believers. Bill and Ted both slowly started taking me less seriously as a person. When ever my opinion would come up on any subject they would just make fun of it or belittle it. They always call me politically correct as an insult because i take a strong stance against Sexism, Homophobia, And racism. I don’t use the terms “Nigger”, “Fag” or “hot babe” and they make fun of me for that all the time. Another close friend of ours always goes out of his way to use those words just to try to get a reaction out of me. But i just don’t care anymore. I am now 17 (18 in 2 months) and its at the point where i can’t even bring up any issue that i find to be important because they just won’t listen.
You may be thinking to yourself…”Why doesn’t this kid just get new friends?”
Well its just not that simple. I have known these people for years and have built up a tight friendship with them. Even though i have told you about the bad we have had some pretty damn good times together. Forming a bond like that with other people takes time and is not as easy as it sounds. Although if i met the right people I would honestly leave them in a heart beat.
My family is a somewhat different story. I have 4 siblings and my youngest and oldest brothers are the only ones that know I’m a non-believer. When i told my older brother he didn’t care and said he has been an Agnostic for awhile now. I wasn’t that shocked but then he said (jokingly) if i told anyone he would kill me. He pretty much pretends to be a Christan. I guess its just not a big of a deal to most people as it is to me. I think my parents kind of know but probably deny it to themselves. They have seen The God Delusion laying around my room, I don’t go to church, they probably hear the negative comments i make about religion, but honestly i could give two craps if my rents found out or not. I hate them. They are awful people who don’t even deserve the right to be called “parents”. I’m not gonna go into to detail why they are such failures because that’s not what this story is about.
Even after reading this no one will fully understand my situation because I have left many things out and no one else has my outlook on life nor can they see things from my perspective. I have many other crazy stories that I just don’t wish to share. Typing this all out and reading other stories has been very therapeutic for me though.
I have been to The Creation Museum, I have read The Bible more than once, I have given my life to Christ multiple times, I don’t believe in the god of the bible! Nor any gods for that matter.
THE END.
(Via Andy Barnes)
I’m certain I was the only child in my rural, Midwestern community who was raised by an agnostic mother and a vitriolic Atheist father. To further complicate my story, and my life in Bargersville, IN (which, 25 years ago wasn’t the bustling metropolis it is today!), I decided in the first grade that I was ethically opposed to eating meat. My Atheism coming out story is really a result of my Vegetarianism coming out story.
An all-day class field trip in the second grade was scheduled to have lunch at McDonald’s. Most of the class was very excited about this prospect, but as I no longer ate at McDonald’s, I asked the teacher if other arrangements could be made for my meal. The teacher informed me that I was too young to have formed such an opinion, and told me I could eat with the rest of the class. Later, another student scolded me for not eating meat, because “God put cows on the Earth for us to eat.” Naively, I responded that I didn’t believe in any gods. Her eyes grew to the size of silver dollars, and she didn’t talk to me much after that, but other students often asked me why I was a Satanist. I didn’t really know what that meant, but I knew, even at age 7 or 8, that I was being ostracized for my (lack of) beliefs.
To this day, I very seldom speak of either my Vegetarianism or my Atheism (I still live in Indiana, afterall). I don’t really feel the need to ‘come out’ Atheist – it’s hardly a secret, and I don’t think of it as being any great rebellion – but I like to share my story with like-minded people.