I have been an atheist for 100% of my adult life. I am not sure how to count my youth and teen years. I went to church fairly regularly and bible school in the summers from ages 6-10 or so. And then, my parents got busy with life and raising four kids, and my mom quit going on Sundays. I got a rejuvenation of sorts between the ages or 13-15, only to eventually do some research and decide the bible just had too many inconsistancies, and then it was over. I made up my mind that God doesn’t exist and moved on.
For the past 25 years or so, I have just lived my life, not really caring if others want to believe in God, Buddha, Allah, or whomever. Yet I did continue to have a passive interest in ancient history, and even took elective classes in college in the subject. And while I never advertised my beliefs, if someone wanted to have a good discussion I was always up for it. Along the way I am sure I lost a couple of promising relationships because of my beliefs, and then ironically, as regular readers know, I married possibly the most religious person I ever even dated. Even after marrying a devout theist, I still continued to live and let live–what’s the harm in using a book to teach children morals? Sure any child doing a little research can find problems with the Noah story as they do with the Santa story, but we tell them Noah did exist and the world did have a massive flood even though evidence shows different.
Then along comes the internet, and now you can research and find opinions of thousands of people about religion, atheism, and the bible. As some know, when I started this blog, it was just a blog about life in general, a diary of sorts. And then I did a post about my atheistic beliefs and did tag search and found hundreds of other bloggers with similar beliefs as mine. And gradually my belief system is changing. Not my belief (or non-belief if you prefer) in god, but in how religions should be perceived.
I now pay attention to religion, where before I didn’t really care. I find myself thinking about religion more than I ever have in my life. I read articles about it. I eavesdrop when I hear people discussing church. I marvel at the new million dollar churches in my neighborhood. I wonder what our local and national government is going to do to pander to the religious right. And this is someone who has on more than one occasion punched the Republican ticket in the booth!
So, what is the next step? To be honest, I am not sure. One thing is for certain, the more blogs that are out there discussing these things, then the more likely someone googling Noah’s Ark will come across one of us. And then they get to reading. Sure, if they are a indoctrined devout theist, nothing will probably change. But we can show the doubting holiday worshippers and agnostics that there are thousands of people out there just like them. And maybe 30 years from now I can look back at this blog and say I was in at the beginning. Or my kids can use this at the insanity hearings before they put me away.
September 11, 2007 at 6:17 pm
You write, “One thing is for certain, the more blogs that are out there discussing these things, then the more likely someone googling Noah’s Ark will come across one of us.” I agree, but I honestly wonder how many theists read atheist blogs. I tend to think that most theists censure themselves from opposing religious points of view.
September 12, 2007 at 8:48 am
yeah, I don’t think devout theists are going to suddenly read my blog or others and start sporting the “A” symbol. But I get a lot of hits on my particular site with phrases like “why don’t jehovah’s witnesses take blood,” or “religiouos views or death, hell.”
I have seen on other sites where commentators start their own blogs.
I think it’s going to be a slow gradual process. But if the atheist/agnostics currently make up 5-15% of the US population, then next generation could go up to 10-20% and so on. I think a lot of people go to church just to go, but do they actually study and read what is being preached to them?
September 14, 2007 at 2:54 am
I did, but I was also searching for consistency, which eventually drove me away. So maybe if we can just make theists look at their religious texts a little deeper, we can help them begin to see how often ridiculous those texts are.
October 16, 2007 at 10:28 am
[...] I haven’t written a post in a few weeks, but my last real post, My Awakening, pretty much sums up where I am at this point. I have 3 posts halfway written that I will get out [...]
November 25, 2007 at 6:41 am
One of the best-selling books today is “The Secret”. The writer says, in the book, that all you need to do is ask for something, believe that you will receive it — and you will receive it. Does anyone know where the writer has taken this idea from ? I suspect she took it from the Bible. I refer you to Mark 11:24 where Jesus Christ has been quoted as saying: “Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours”. The Bible, of course, was talking about asking God, while in “The Secret” the giver is the “universe”. God or Universe, both the books refer to a supernatural power, don’t they ?
I will not describe myself as an athiest. Theist ? Yes, that’s closer. And Cragar is wrong to presume that theists won’t read his blog. Not all theists are bigots. Many of us have open minds and we do ask a lot of questions. For instance, I believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ, which should make me a Christian. However, there are a number of other things I can’t bring myself to believe. I don’t believe that Jesus is physically present in the Eucharist, I don’t believe in Original Sin, I don’t believe that Purgatory and Limbo exist. And, of course, I don’t believe in the infallibility of the Pope. All this does seem to disqualify me as a Roman Catholic. But I still remain a Christian. You think ? Here’s where things get a little ugly, and why bigots will want to burn me at the stake ! You see, I don’t believe in the “resurrection of the body”. What’s more — the Scriptures themselves tell me not to believe in it. From here let me take you back to the Bible. Read 1Peter 3:18 where the “First Pope” very clearly declares that Jesus was “killed in the flesh” and that He “rose in the spirit”. Isn’t it quite unambiguous ? I mean, St. Peter had no doubt that it was Christ’s spirit that rose, and not His body. Besides, Paul also went to great lengths to tell the Corrintheans that the body as we know it will not rise from the grave. Something will be resurrected, but not the corrupted human body . For Paul’s teaching on the subject, see: 1 Cor. 15:42.
So, you see, Cragar, I believe in Christ, which makes me a theist — and yet I read your blog. I ask questions which cause discomfort in bigotted Chrsitian circles. And because of my unbelief in the resurrection of the body I am not quite the Christian the the Pope will go into a huddle with. Above all, and you may not believe this, I like people of your genre who happily pull things out of the closet to look for all the moths !
November 26, 2007 at 11:41 am
Hi Carlton, I have seen you commenting on some other blogs as well.
I have not read the book “The Secret,” but I have heard of it, and being that I was either in sales, a manger of salespeople, or owned a business that employed salespeople for many years, I can tell you I have read many similar books. I have read every Zig Ziglar book, and a number of books by Tom Hopkins and Tony Robbins, just to name a few. I have also been to many sales and motivational seminars by these gentlemen and others including former president Gerald Ford, Emmitt Smith, Lou Holtz, and Edward James Olmos (sidenote: Edward James Olmos is a great speaker). It seems that nearly every motivational speaker uses a lot of the bible and God in their speeches. It’s as if most people need some unseen force to get off their butts and do something with their lives.
In my 20’s I dated a girl for awhile, and I briefly tried to understand religion again. The problem I always would run into is the bible. It has too many conflicts, too many versions and religions claiming theirs is the “true” bible. The girl I dated was in one of the New Life churches that have become popular. They try to downplay the Old Testament, yet how can you do that if they are supposedly by the same author (God)? How can you be a follower of God and pick and choose the parts of the bible that are to your liking? Yet that is what many seem to do.
If you have read my blog, I think you know that I don’t consider most theists bigots (I think you are pulling quotes from the comments on this post). I have dealt with a devout theist for 11+ years everyday. The issue is when you first meet a person, and the topic of “What church do you go to?” or something to that effect comes up, and when I try and answer vaguely, and the theist persists until I tell them I don’t believe, and suddenly a potential relationship (either business or personal) can take a bad turn because people look at lack of belief as a negative personal trait.
Your comment has a number of other subtopics I may bring up on a future post.
November 28, 2007 at 5:37 am
Cragar, it was nice of you to reply with a personal touch. And yes, I agree that a lot of Christians look down their noses at anybody who dares to describe himself as an atheist. Like I said, I am a theist because I believe in the divine power we call God. I also believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ. But I also respect your right not to believe. I have at least a dozen close friends who cock a snook at God — but that isn’t reason enough to strike them off my beer list.
My problem, as you may have gathered, is not with atheists. It is with organised religion — the dogmas, the conceit, the lies and half-truths with which religious leaders exploit mankind’s fear of the unknown (after death, what ?).
Anyway, I enjoyed reading your views.