Ardentli.Net

It has been said that being an atheist in the United States today is akin to being homosexual fifty years ago in terms of prejudice and hatred toward our life-choice. Now, I’m not entirely sure I believe that wholeheartedly as I don’t know A) what it was like to be a homosexual back then, let alone today and B) I’ve never personally felt as though I’ve been under any sort of serious scrutiny because of my beliefs.

For those of you who don’t know, I am a de facto atheist which means I do not believe there is a god, but I do not declare to know without a shadow of a doubt that there is no god. Perhaps there is, perhaps there isn’t, but I strongly lean toward the later and quite honestly I don’t really care either way!

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I was born into a family that was “quasi-religious” as I like to say. Step-Mom had her following over the years in Protestantism and then later Jehovah’s Witness (though now she is more or less non-practicing beside meeting some of her friends at church from time to time) and Dad is non-practicing, if a believer at all. I was forced to go to church as a young child, but I don’t remember it ever having any sort of strong impression on me one way or another. If anything, the biggest thing I remember was hating to wear a dress on Sundays and itchy tights. I remember reading a kid version of the Christian bible complete with pictures and explanations of heaven and hell and thinking it was quite an imaginative, fantastical world like a fairy tale, but certainly not anything I would believe was actual truth.

Now I’m not sure if I would have grown up to be a god-fearing person if my parents had forced religious teachings into me or if they had been more devout followers would I have absorbed the lifestyle of religion and a love of god. Thankfully they pretty much allowed me to be exposed to their beliefs and be able to make up my own mind later on in life. As it turned out, I grew up believing in the possibility of god (with wavering feelings on the matter), but around the time of middle school I had pretty much convinced myself otherwise and, in my view, there is very little, if any, chance of their being a god. I grew up in a community of mostly believers in Christianity as most kids in the United States do. I never outright voiced my opinion of, “Oh yes, I am an atheist!”, but I would never hesitate to give the true answer is directly asked. I’ve had shocked reactions from time to time from mostly people in the older generation, but rarely any sort of hostility or disgust (well, at least to my face).

But is being an atheist really that big of a deal?

According to surveys there is a greater population of atheists today than ever before, particularly in the USA, yet I have rarely met someone who I had known to be an atheist through conversation save my close friends. No one really talks about it and it falls into the realm of hush-hush things like someone’s drinking problem, or financial woes, or someone’s weight if they’ve gained some. The USA is one of the most Christian countries in the developed world, but we’re also one of the most advanced and forward-thinking which confuses me.

I just wanted to make this post not as a slander post toward anyone with religious beliefs as I really don’t care what you believe or what the next person believes, but I just wanted to make a point to tell other people who are atheists such as myself, or aren’t sure if they are atheist, that it is okay to come out and say it/accept it. No one should feel intimidated or oppressed by this, just as no one should feel oppressed being a minority, a woman, homosexual, trans-gender, etc. There’s nothing wrong with having a healthy dose of skepticism as long as you aren’t shoving it into anyone’s face or down other people’s throats because the way I see it, atheist or devout, no matter what you say to a person with different beliefs at the end of the day you have done nothing to convert them to your side or your way of thinking. This is 2009 (almost 2010! ), let’s be comfortable with who we are and accept other people for their differences no matter how big or small.

So, that being said, don’t shy away from being an atheist or thinking being one is wrong. There are tons of open-minded, happy, super-duper nice, well-adjusted atheists out there just like me who get along just fine with the rest of the world, beliefs or not.

And happy Christmas everyone (yes, I still celebrate Christmas as a family/friends/delicious turkey holiday no matter how pagan it is!) who celebrates it! Best wishes for 2010!

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 24th, 2009 at 8:12 pm and is filed under About Me, Rants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.