My Disbelief (standard:non fiction, 1712 words)
Author: TJC	Added: Apr 11 2014	Views/Reads: 3366/2052	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
Ths is not an attack on belief, but my personal defense for non belief.

Click here to read the first 75 lines of the story

don't believe in the devil any more than we believe in God.  We 
certainly don't worship him. 

ATHEISM IS JUST ANOTHER FORM OF RELIGION		This is another laughable one.
  Atheism is NOT a Religion - it's a personal relationship with 
reality.   It's as if believers cannot accept that anyone can live 
their life without a religion or some sort of religious dogma.  Well we 
can.  We have no book to live by or any set of rules/commandments of 
Atheism that guide us- we simply don't believe in God.   We deny he 
exists.  There is no proof of his existence and therefore we generally 
go with empirical evidence and science.  We also see no reason to prove 
he doesn't exist- as since we are being asked to believe in something 
on “faith” we feel the burden of proof lies with the believers.  We 
don't buy into “faith.” 

ATHEISTS WANT TO DESTROY RELIGION		No we don't.  Nor are we at war with
religion or persecuting believers.  We don't want religious dogma in 
our governmental policy or public schools, but we don't seek to destroy 
believers' religions or personal beliefs.  We just feel that religion 
and faith are a personal choice and should remain in the home and 
family.  Freedom of religion also means freedom from religion.   Live 
and let live. 

ATHEISTS ARE INTOLERANT 			I disagree and feel on average (there are
exceptions to every rule of course) that religious people are more 
likely to be intolerant than we are.  The vast majority of atheists 
don't preach their disbelief.  They believe in live and let live.  You 
will rarely see nonbelievers attacking a woman's right to choose or gay 
marriage for example, that's far more likely to come from the believer 
side of the equation.  In regards to intolerance of 
believers/disbelievers, I can point to my own social media posts- as 
I've said I never commented on religious posts, never write anything 
mocking their belief nor try to dissuade them....but my posts often get 
believers feeling the need to either attack me or gently try and 
dissuade me.  So who's intolerant? 

ATHEISM IS UNAMERICAN			Obviously this is geared for atheists in the
United States, where I happen to reside.   This one is really simple to 
answer if one has a grasp of history. The Constitution of the United 
States is a thoroughly secular document. There is nothing, absolutely 
nothing in the Constitution that justifies any claims about American 
policy or law being based on religion. In fact, the chief opposition to 
the Constitution during its period of ratification came from religious 
groups who opposed it as "Godless."    The fact is that Nonbelievers 
participate fully in all the positive aspects of American life, 
including military service and jury duty. They pay taxes, struggle to 
raise decent, law-abiding kids, and contribute money to charity and 
time to volunteer work. There is simply no evidence  that atheists are 
any less honest, hardworking, or patriotic than anybody else. 

ATHEISTS BELIEVE IN NOTHING GREATER THAN THEMSELVES	If that means we
don't believe in God, then that's true.  But we generally believe in 
the betterment of the human condition and feel humanity as a whole is 
greater than the individual.  We believe the vast universe is greater 
than us and though we cherish our place in it there are many questions 
we hope science and exploration will answer for us.  We believe that 
the universe is interesting and has wondrous possibilities- we don't 
feel the need to make up stories and myths about it. 

A Couple Personal Ones I get: 

HOW CAN YOU LOVE CHRISTMAS SO MUCH AND NOT BELIEVE IN GOD OR JESUS?  I'm
a big Christmas guy.  I love the spirit of the season that I see 
reflected in people who seem happier and friendlier for a few weeks.  I 
simply ignore the religious part of it.  I don't put up a nativity 
scene, I don't go to mass (I was raised Catholic), but I DO love 
Christmas and the holidays.  How can I do that and be an Athiest?  
Here's my answer: I love Halloween and yet I don't believe in goblins 
and demons either. 

YOURE ANGRY AT GOD FOR YOUR DAD'S DEATH		My dad died when I was 16 and
yes it did fill me with anger and several issues that I still deal with 
to this day some 36 years later.  There are some in my family that 
think my Nonbelief sprang from his death and that I hate God.  What 
they seem to forget is that in the last year or so of his life he and I 
- despite the fact we had a great relationship- had a couple heated 
arguments about my thinking religious teachings were nonsense.  He 
didn't like that. He didn't like it the night I got into a discussion 
with my CCD teacher about how modern scripture is just our versions of 
stories and no different than the myths of ancient peoples.  	I was 
already well on my way to nonbelief when he died.  I wasn't angry at 
God for taking him- he died because he smoked too much.  The imaginary 
friend in the sky had nothing to do with it.   Yes in the years after 
his death I got married in the Catholic Church and baptized my children 
in it- but that was more to keep the peace.  I was young.  I wouldn't 
do that again.  My second marriage ceremony had no religious content 
whatsoever. 

So in closing, let me say again- I have no problem with Believers.  It's
their right.  In fact I would presume to say that the vast majority of 
believers are quite similar to Nonbelievers.  How so?  They normally 
deny the existence of all Gods but their own.  Christians generally 
don't buy into Zeus.  Muslims don't believe in Poseidon.  See where I'm 
going?  They all think their religion is THE TRUTH.  The ancient Greeks 
and Egyptians had their stories but they're now called “myths” while 
the stories of today's religious people are considered “doctrine or 
scripture.” 

Believers deny the existence of the other Gods. 

We Nonbelievers just go ONE GOD FURTHER. 

It's really that simple. 

TJC 


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