(Va Stan Park)
I am not able to be classified as an atheist in light of such ideas, but this is irrelevant in any case. At any rate I do not limit myself to being “godless” or “atheist”, as these are very much not any better than what religions provide us. My only concern is what is here right now, this very moment, and discovering all that I am able to of such things. Any study, as long as it provides a means to Truth, Knowledge, and an increase to my Being is a valid study at this point. Fantastic or not, religions have spoken of what we call scientific truths for thousands of years. We quite simply do not see it typically these days because of all the shrouding the ancients did upon the words and stories. Be sure though, that as I conduct my investigations, I am focused upon science heavily. The only difference between the science I use and the secular society, is that I boldly study EVERYTHING under this light, rather than a common tendency I see of casting things off as “superstition”, “myth”, “occult”, “fantasy”, “illusion”. For anything that exists, of which everything which we can refer to exists in some fashion, there is something there and the science I use is all about finding out what is happening, how it is happening, and why it is happening.
Now on to my story…
I grew up in a home which half advocated Christianity and of which the other half advocated free thinking and self-discovery. For the first many years of my life I supported Christianity as I was told horrifying stories that if I did not I would be banished to Hell. Feeling oppressed and not actually gaining any insight to the questions which raised in my mind from the free thinking avocation I had been receiving, I decided to break with church all together. A decision which would prove to lead me down a long and complex road of the human mind and the universe itself.
I remained silent to my Christian mother for many years as it was to be necessary for me to have formulated my thoughts well on religious manners before speaking of such departures with the church.
My first inclination was towards Wicca. This was inspired after a meeting with now one of my most treasured friends who is Wiccan. I never actually became a practitioner as the religion seemed to me just as void as the one I was looking to leave, but it did leave certain marks upon my mind. For the first time I had researched a faith outside of my own, and I started to notice commonality between faiths. As I was only 15 and inexperienced I did not formulate much theory at that time though.
My next steps were towards researching anything and everything I could get information on for religions and spirituality both common and hidden. Druidism, Buddhism, Zen, Taoism, Masonry, general Pagan thought, and so much more were all on the list of research.
Around the age of 17 though, I had a brief encounter with Satanism (like any proper rebellious teen would go to when seeking a departure with Christianity), which left another mark upon me. This was the first time I had encountered literature on practical magic. I very quickly saw the commonality this “magic” had with all the other faiths and how it also had very distinct psychological characteristics.
During this encounter with Satanism, another important happening occurred, I began reading some of the myth of the Hindu faith. When I read the story of Arjuna and noticed how it is virtually identical in every way to that of the story of Moses, my mind began to race. My first discourse was to say that surely the Jews or the Hindi plagiarized. As the study of myth, magic, and religion continued however, I found it quite improbable that plagiarism was the solution. All of this investigation did depart me from Christianity for a time, as it was simply a vague concern to all other research.
Having had all this prior experience, I managed next to find Carl Jung and Quantum Physics. Jung’s theory of Synchronicity and the strange facets of Quantum starting giving me enough of a foundation for me to form my own belief system, which I had been searching after for literally years by this time. I was just as lost for a time after finding this foundation as I had ever been. This being due to stepping into a territory of self-responsibility I had never had before. I was suddenly responsible for the contents of my mind and how I viewed the world and I finally knew this fact!
What ended up developing (to hurry this story along a little bit), was a theory which is somehow both devout to deities of all varieties and at the same moment atheist. How this works is as follows: 1) God is but a title to the very real and verifiable objective truths of the universe. 2) The exact name of this title (e.g. God or otherwise), is irrelevant until much other work has been gone through. 3) Based on the previous two points the idea of God and the Universe itself are identical and either name can be used based upon one’s personal preference. This theory is steeped deeply in mysticism and spirituality, magic, and what is perhaps most important of all science! The only difference between the science of so much of the world and the variety I use is on a matter of empiricism. I accept Jung’s theory of empiricism, meaning that I accept the subjective experience which I have as a valid form of study. The goal is objectivity of course, but the system of science I use gives recognition to the imperfection of my perceptions, and that by also studying these imperfections I may get closer to actual objective truth which I would hope is the goal of any scientist!
(Via Johan de Haan)
The legend of Creationism, and its refined stepchild – the myth of Intelligent Design – are two of the finest unicorns of modern theist and apologist reasoning, and the ultimate port of refuge for religious believers, although knowledge of its claims and consequences is only marginally better than their understanding of evolution. Both these behemoths of bronze age brilliance, though proponents of intelligent design hate to admit it, stem from a deep religious yearning to reconcile the contents of one’s holy book with the scientific truths our species has uncovered in its steady quest for objective understanding of the universe.
Within many creationist circles (in which I include all creationists masquerading as adherents of Intelligent Design) the strange notion has taken hold that the incompatibility of religious belief with scientific understanding begins and ends with a comparison of William Paley’s watch and Evolution, as first explained by Charles Darwin, and that save for seeking a godly explanation for the genetic relationship of all lifeforms and the unchallenged evidence for genetic mutation as the grandfather of us all, their evidentiary onus would be fulfilled. Indeed, when reading the transcripts of the Kitzmiller case, and the reasoned judgment that followed, it is startling to realize that the very cream of creationism, such as the bespectacled balding Behe with his bacterial obsession, tender no attempt to justify their arguments based on any religious texts, but at the same time make no effort to consider the implications of their claims of design for both their own religious position and the rest of the universe as we know it.
Behe’s contentious prodigy, the infamous Ann Coulter, whose work it shames me to reference, cites Romans 1:25, in alleging that the modern scientific community, and in particular non-believers, have “exchanged the truth of God for a lie”, but in so doing she reveals the deep misunderstanding of the consequences of any literalism attributed to the contents of a particular holy book. For by claiming that in the finite reaches of bacterial development, in the flight of a bumblebee or the existence of human consciousness a Jewish god is lurking in the shadows, dribbling in fear of being found, they have cherry picked themselves into intellectual oblivion. In the documentary Religulous, which I recommend in case I had not done so before, Bill Maher receives perhaps the most forthright admission from the bearded Ken Ham, when he admits that his ridiculous convulsions of the truth and science, his lies to the public and the shameful fraud of the Creation Museum stem from the fact that if one cannot accept the literal truth of one part of the bible, one cannot accept the truth of any other. Now whilst I for one would prefer not to meet Mr Ham in a dark Australian alley, outside a gay bar or otherwise, one cannot help but note that for all his honesty, he is all the more an idiot. The efforts to reconcile the bible with scientific understanding do not end with saddling dinosaurs, they extend to every nook and cranny of this endless universe, to every factual claim of the bible and to every consequence of insisting that a celestial North Korea awaits us on the doorstep of our deathbed.
Characters such as these create the very real impression that in their feverish hope of reconciling some passage of scripture with their religious views of the world, they have forgotten to read the contents of their own religious texts. Behe seems to have lost interest (and apparently his glasses) after the foreword, Ham appears to have become insanely absorbed with mechanical dinosaurs after the first chapter, whilst Coulter clearly never bothers to read at all. Of course, all three will recoil at the suggestion that they are anything but god-fearing believers acting in the greater good of us less fortunate, but it is quite apparent that they neither understand the value of objectivity in science nor the contents and consequences of their own faithful proclamations. The fact that we are dealing with seemingly literate, educated individuals merely makes their position less excusable, not more understandable.
The produce of it all is not merely the inconsistency of the finite claims of creationists, but the endless, infinite and exponential incompatibility between what it means to believe in literate truth of any part of any religious text. The significance of this incompatibility struck me whilst reading chapter 12 verse 4 of what George Bernard Shaw described as “a peculiar record of the visions of a drug addict”, or the book of Revelation, and in particular the vision of a giant red dragon knocking a third of the stars in the universe down to earth with its tail (whilst trying to violate a pregnant woman and eat its newborn, as dragons are wont to do). Could any creationist even begin to contemplate the cosmological implications of billions of stars being flung through the expanse of the heavens to land on our pale blue dot? Can any creationist provide a plausible explanation for the size of the red dragon required to suspend a red tail long enough to violate 14 billion light years of visible time and space in order to achieve this feat, and might Mr Behe, or anyone like him, be drawn to venture a plausible explanation for how this mass of starts will make its way across the universe in time to see the baby in question being born?
Of course not, no sensible human being with any self respect would dare out himself in public about such nonsense and none of the aforementioned creationists, Ham included, are going to construct models of the practical consequences of such delusion fuelled insanity. Yet that is precisely the point and raises the question of how any conscious human being could allow themselves to becomes so religiously absorbed with their cherry picked nugget when Balaam’s talking donkey (Numbers 22), cud-chewing hares (Leviticus 11), the sun standing still to allow primitive tribesmen to run each through with spears and arrows (Joshua 11), global floods, giant arks, demonic possessions and warehouses of rain, hail and snow, are but some of the ridiculous claims that literalism fails to explain with anything other than the flaccid escape hatch of godly mysterious impotence.
An unfortunate trait of our species is that in our current evolutionary form there will always be a vast number of us who marvel at sparkles, shiny objects, superstition, magic and wish-thinking and for as long as this be the case, so too the remnants of some bronze age misapprehension will qualify as divine truth in even the most sensible of worlds. Nevertheless, I firmly believe that there is sufficient reason and common sense in the firmaments of us all to allow us to see through the self-serving facade of religious doctrine and the vile intellectual pollution of those creationists and apologists who seek to either oppose or reconcile their primitive beliefs with an objective, honest, rational and modern world. A world in which we have not disregarded truth but have merely found sufficient self-respect to dissect fact from fiction, and are brave enough to acknowledge that we, and not the stars, are but a twinkle.
(Via Jessica)
At thirteen I realized that I was different than many of my friends. While they braided each others hair, and put on make-up, I was listening to the Beatles, and talking about world hunger to those who were older than I. At thirteen there was one major difference that I noted and could not speak to anyone about…I was attracted to both men and women. I started going to a youth group that was held at a church close to my house. All the kids I knew gathered there, and my parents thought I would “adjust” if I participated in an activity that all the kids my age were participating in. I attended for a few meetings before the topic of sex came up …they said that sex was only for men and women, and that sex between members of the same sex was not only wrong, but would be punishable by damnation to hell. This did not sound right in my fragile mind, but I accepted that I was deviant and needed to keep my feelings to myself. Then I met Desiree. Things changed rapidly in my life, because I had never acted upon my natural urges before. I lost my virginity to her, and when a friend of ours outed us to the church, we were both told to leave and never return. It was at this moment I realized that the church was created by the unreasonable mind of man, and could oust you from society for being different. Sex is natural, and further more, homosexual urges are also natural. I fall in the “grey area” of bisexuality which is pinned by the church as “a cry for attention”…Religion is not only a tool to keep citizens under a “thumb” but also a way of keeping deviant behavior out, and keeping “good followers” on the so-called path of holiness (which of course is the path to hate, and war). I could never belong to an organization who boasts that “god hates fags”. If “god” existed…wouldn’t he just smite the un-worthy??? If “god” is a being of eternal love, why would he want his children (gay, straight, transsexual, or bisexual) to live lives filled with torment and persecution….wasn’t the whole point of christianity to live a peaceful life??? As I grew older I became more and more distanced from the church, and have been more and more happy each day since. The church will not tell me what is the correct way to live. Peace, love and happiness to you all.
(Via Amanda Tetz)
My story is a fairly boring one, and it mostly starts with my Mom’s story…
Basically, I was born to a 19-year-old mother who was a part of the Catholic church her whole life. She was devout, loved church and she had jumped through all the hoops, so to speak. (First Communion, etc.) But when she had me out of wedlock, she was immediately shunned from the church and her mother – my Grandmother – still holds unspoken judgments. My mom was confused and saddened that the church she had grown up in, the church she had treasured and loved, and even her own mother would throw her away because of something so victimless. She couldn’t find any logic in it. It was this push away from the Catholic church that paved the way for my free-thinking!
While raising me, my parents completely left out religion. I wasn’t exposed to any of my mother’s religious upbringing, nor was I exposed to my father’s stark Atheism – Although, I think it found its way through! 
I went to church with my Grandma a few times when I was little, but that was mostly for the guaranteed breakfast afterwards. Growing up in California, it was easy to avoid religion in school, with my friends, anywhere. I feel very lucky for that.
When I moved to Colorado at the beginning of high school, I started going to a non-denominational Christian youth group. This was mostly just for the friends I had that went there. And while the loitering and hanging out with my friends was always a blast, the service was always totally uncomfortable. I remember feeling so worked up by all the live music and speaking in tongues that I totally see how the religious could buy into it… But instead, it just drove me away.
The rest, as they say, is history. Coming out as an Atheist to my parents was easy in that I didn’t really have to do it… They’ve always sort of known and my Dad is a stark Atheist, as I said before. I have a few close members of my extended family who are free-thinkers and the rest of my family… Well, we don’t talk about religion much. 
(Via L. Stevenson)
Let me start this by saying that it’s always been my belief that you should always be true to yourself, to stay honest to your core values as a person, to be open to life’s experiences and lessons, and to love yourself for who you are. No one has the right to damn you for being you, or to tell you what to believe or how to live your life.
I was raised by christian parents. I remember going to church as a small child, and my best friend at the time was the preacher’s daughter. We often played in the church, but I was afraid of the baptismal tub which sat behind the pulpit. But church was more of an annoyance for me at that age because I was forced to dress up and sit still and be quiet. (I was a rambunctious child.) I was 6 when my parents stopped going to church because they felt the members were often rude to them if we happened to miss a Sunday. My parents remained christian, but denounced the idea of “organized religion”.
My parents often talked of god and jesus, but I never took what they said seriously. Growing up, I tended to equate god and jesus as the same line as the easter bunny or santa. Things that are spoken of, but never actually seen. It was just a word, an idea, something I was too young to understand if I couldn’t see or hold it. I don’t remember being all that interested in the stories, and as I grew older, I grew less patient with them.
But I still I thought I was a christian.
When I was 16, I was a really unhappy kid. I was bullied and picked on at school for being different, and had been treated that way for many years. I had few friends, and my own sister had repeatedly emotionally abused me growing up. I realize now that I went back to christianity because I thought that it would make me feel better about my life.
I thought I needed it.
But by then, I couldn’t do it without asking a lot of questions first. I asked A LOT of questions. I prayed, I talked to my friends, I even have a religious poem somewhere. I had to search and figure it all out. I don’t know why I didn’t go in just full of religious faith, but I didn’t. I HAD to ask.
After six months of this, I woke up one morning with the BRILLIANT realization that I had NEVER believed in any of it, which was why it clicked with me. It had never meant anything more to me than just stories.
God had become the distant relative that’s talked about at family get-togethers without ever actually meeting them. You know the name, you know some attributes, but you live your life not thinking about it.
I was never meant to be christian or a god believer and finally having that knowledge was very freeing.
I hid my atheism for two years.
My mom was a teacher at one point in her life, and at times she still acts like it. I knew that at age 16, I was still a minor and therefore, subject to my parents’ authority. I didn’t want to be pressured or forced into going to church and I know my mom would have assigned Bible study. I knew what my life would have been like had they known and I didn’t want to experience it. I felt I didn’t have a choice but to hide it from them.
I came out when I was 18. It’s the best thing I did for myself up to that point. They weren’t happy. But I didn’t expect them to be.
My family thought it was a phase. They expected me to outgrow the idea of atheism or to become bored with it.
Almost 13 years later, and they know now that it wasn’t a phase. I am open about what I believe with everyone in my life.
My mom has said she considers herself to be a failure as a parent because two of her three children are not christian. This saddens me greatly, because I believe the greatest gift she has given to me as a parent was comfort in asking questions, never being afraid to ask, and to be comfortable with who I am as a person. It’s because of her telling me it’s okay to be different that I am me, that I am an atheist when being christian would surely have been the easy way to fit in, to make friends instead of fighting my way through life, being reliable on myself to solve my problems instead of expecting a god to fix everything.
For her, for that freedom to think and question and be true to myself, I am glad I’m an atheist!
(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.