I'm an atheist. Sometimes, I say that I'm a "born again" atheist, but that's not really true. I'm more of an "out of the closet" atheist. I have been, for a while. It's kind of weird, though. I don't know if being an atheist requires me to talk about it or not. . . Like, when I pretended to be a Christian, I was supposed to share my faith with everyone. I can't figure out if I'm supposed to do that, anymore. . . So, I figured I'd just put some of my thoughts out there, because I don't every really talk about it.
I will say this. Being an atheist is wayyyy easier than being a Christian. You can sum it up with three major talking points. 1) Everything is here by chance. 2) What we know as morality is simply hardwired behavior that has evolved with us over billions of years in order to ensure the continuation of our species. 3) When we die, we just go back into the ground to become part of the matter of the universe, again. It's pretty liberating, really. I don't have to carry around all that junk about getting into heaven, anymore.
I've always been an atheist. One of my earliest memories is of me reading a story about Moses using his staff to make water come out of a rock. . . or something like that. At five years old, I yelled out, "That's fake as hell!" My mom cracked up, then told me not to use that language, again. It was kinda' funny.
I spent some time being a born again Christian, but I just never really bought into it. Too many contradictions internally, and of course too difficult to reconcile with all of the other spiritual beliefs that people are practicing. I gave that up. But, I kept lying about it, anyway. I used that line, "I believe in a god, but I'm don't believe in organized religion." That turned out to be crap, though. This is not an original thought of mine, but I will repeat it: Organized religion helps the poor, provides solace to people in times of need, and organizes people to take up social causes (whether or not everyone agrees with them). The Catholic church, under Pope John Paul II, was one of the driving forces behind the end of Soviet communism in Europe. It turns out that it's actually the belief in a supernatural being and to whom he will grant eternal life after death that causes all of the problems. No one can seem to agree on it. Everyone's god is the best one, and it's evidently worth fighting over.
I read a lecture by Carl Sagan in his newest book, The Varieties of Scientific Experience, where he simply asks the rhetorical question: Is it any more ridiculous to think that the universe was just always there, than to think that God was just always there? Well, it's not, if you ask me. It's strange to me that people think otherwise. Now, if someone would just tell me if I'm a hypocrite for still saying "bless you" when someone sneezes, I'd be really happy. . .
