INTRODUCTION

I have no religious affiliations but certainly have had my religious era, or error, in my life when quite a lot younger and a lot less critical in my thinking. Now, I am free from superstitious beliefs of all sorts. I don't need to fear any of the host of gods that have been created in the imaginations of people be they from very ancient times through to present day. I also don't quake in fear if I break a mirror, see a black cat, or have to walk under a ladder. There are no bogey men hiding in the dark or monsters under the bed to cause us to stay awake at night.

I also don't believe in ghosts, spirits, paranormal powers, UFOs or alien abduction by inter-galactic proctologists, lucky charms, fortune telling, séances, ESP or premonitions, prophetic dreams or divine revelation, fate or preordination, reincarnation or resurrection, faith healing (except for its known placebo effect), pyramid or crystal powers, divining for water, or any of any other such activity no matter how fervently it is believed by those enthusiasts who perpetuate them. In the above groups, I have covered all religion, and all forms of pseudo science that continue to gain popularity and notoriety among gullible people with nothing better to do. Organized religion shows that popularity of a set of beliefs does not make them true, it just makes them popular and likely to spread.

An Automatic Atheist?

So, it seems that I am regarded as being automatically a member of the atheist community. As you can clearly see, the term atheist is very wrong for me, and I don’t accept it for a minute. First, it doesn’t go nearly far enough. Second, I do not seek admission or membership in any “community” or group, or club, or congregation, or any other such construct simply based on what others think I do or do not believe in. As soon as you look at this proposition you can see how absurd it is.

I don't need to wear a label as an a-paranormalist; I don’t need to be labeled as an a-golfer, and I don’t need to wear any label describing the fact that I don’t believe in the gods of ancient Greece. No, the term atheist is being applied to those who reject current day mono theisms in particular. It seems to be taken for granted these days that you would not believe in Zeus or his son Apollo or Apollo’s twin sister Artimus. No, those gods and the many thousands of others are now relegated to mythical status and universally accepted as having been manmade a long time ago out of ignorance and used to fit the needs of the civilizations of the day in making sense of the world they lived in. There may well be still some people around who profess a belief in Apollo or Zeus or Ra. But as soon as they profess those beliefs to any other people, they immediately pay a very large price in the perception of their peers and their credibility in all matters immediately shrinks to zero. Universally it would be considered best to avoid them due to them being some kind of weirdo with nut case beliefs.

The term atheist needs to be addressed

The term "atheism" originated in the sixteenth century based on an ancient Greek term meaning godless, denying the gods, ungodly. It is clear then that the term "atheist" was not coined up by unbelievers. Today it is arbitrarily applied by followers of religious beliefs to anyone who simply finds no reason to hold any such beliefs in the current crop of gods on offer by religious organizations. Those of us who have disposed of all such beliefs that were installed during childhood by well meaning parents, teachers and friends simply do not "belong" to any group.

For my generation, having god installed in your mind started about a week after birth with a baptism made more palatable for tiny babies by the use of the euphemism “christening” which of course, sounds much nicer and less dogmatic. These days, the churches are trying to stay in the game by passing it off as a quaint ceremony performed in church by clergy for the purpose of introducing the infant to the family and friends gathered and to give the new born the name chosen by the parents. In fact, this church instituted practice was to ensure that parents would raise the child in that particular religion thus ensuring they would not have their congregation drift away due to generational changes.

Control through what you taught people to believe without question

Very broadly speaking, people who believe can accept other people who believe in god even if not actually quite in the same way. Sure, there are lots of religious wars, but when both sides have their gods, then everyone seems to be comfortable and killing people with the wrong sort of god is not a problem. Organized religion has always been about controlling people. It didn’t matter what religion the people were, you could control them by manipulation of the taboos and prejudices that you knew they universally held.

But how do you deal with people when they don’t subscribe to any a well defined belief system that you controlled; the systems that always have allowed you to make people behave in the ways that suited you. Just by tugging on the strings of the superstition, guilt and fear that are the cornerstones of religious institutions, you got things done your way and you always had plenty of money to do it with. When people don’t have those mind constraints for you to use and who actually laugh at your ancient angry gods and talk of wrath and retribution, the powers that be clearly felt threatened and knew that they had a problem.

The effort to assign atheists to a group

The term “atheist” is being used by organized religion and religious groups to further their own agenda. It is their way of putting all people who are outside of their control into one group, to get them all labeled as the same. Then into the group you throw in Hitler, Pol Pot, Stalin, and any other evil doer you can find to pollute the entire group and then invite scorn and derision onto everyone that you have been able to get to wear the label “atheist”.

So, following that process, I am being branded "an atheist". I don’t like it, I didn’t choose it, and I don’t accept it. To take the tack that we hear so much of from followers of religion these days, I am offended by being called that name! It simply makes no sense to me and I am not available to play the game with those who wish to corral me with others so suit their needs. I recognize that the leaders of organized religion need to do this because it is the only way that they know of for dealing with dissent. In order to demonize the enemy, they must first be able to have them clearly identified and grouped up together so that they can be attacked. If you have heard of the expression “herding cats” that is exactly what those who make their living from superstition are faced with when trying to take pot shots at free thinkers.

You cannot organize hatred for those who would be your enemy until you have them in a group! But this whole idea is bringing itself down. They are trying to tell the community that when you finally wake up and realize that none of that religion stuff is true, you are obliged to “profess atheism”. That really is a terrible thing, but just by saying it you can clearly see where it came from!

Just leave us alone!

Religious people are these days starting to play the “why can’t you just leave us alone” card, and that is fine. Surely I am happy to do so. But when you look back in time, you clearly see that they plead this way only when they are losing the debate which is at an ever increasing rate in modern times. Muslims in particular are known to plead for peaceful co-existence and say they want to promote multiculturalism. Nonsense! They didn’t ask to be left alone when they had the power of government, and where they still have ultimate power over people in the world. When they hold the upper hand they are ruthless in enforcing their religious rule, and dissenters are not tolerated and suffer horribly at the hands of the pious under those circumstances. There is no deed too terrible for the devout when dealing with what they have decided is an enemy of their god. With god on their side, all deeds including savage rape and murder are virtuous acts. Normal people don’t do wicked things unless they are doing it for god.

I ask that they leave me, and leave any other person who does not believe as they do. They are welcome to their beliefs and to celebrate with those of like mind. Do so, and do so in good health and enjoy your freedom of religion and of expression. But leave me out, and don’t label me so that you can classify me and have me sorted into a group so that you can then put criminals or psychopaths into the same group and get away with tarring the whole group with the one wide brush.

And leave my children out when they are in school. To attempt to indoctrinate innocent children with lies, superstition, and absurd stories is child abuse. How dare the missionaries and religious teachers tell children that they are dead until they accept their doctrines and submit to the authority of the leaders of organized religion? In cases where they know that the parents are unbelievers, they have been known to do this in sneaky ways behind the parents back. It is outrageous behavior from people who claim to be morally righteous.

Statistics are not evidence of truth

Figures are interesting things, and church leaders are big on numbers when they are talking about memberships and conversion numbers. They are usually a not so keen on publishing attendance numbers or percentages of members who are actually practicing faithful. However, there is one numbers exercise that I think should be very revealing if the “facts” as given by the religious are even remotely plausible.

The number of non believers worldwide is growing rapidly, and it is impossible to put an accurate percentage of population in the United States. But let’s put the figure loosely at 15%. Forget the argument; this is only used as a talking point anyway. We are constantly told that if a person has no god in his life to give him guidance, his “moral compass”, to quip a trendy phrase, he will immediately slide into a disgusting world of depravity and “sinfulness”. No restrictions as given by god means that he will go out and steal, cheat, rape, and even murder willfully and indiscriminately and without any conscience.

Is it true?

So, is it true? If so, there are figures we can use to perhaps give us an indication. The prison population is rising dramatically and alarmingly and maybe the religious are right. Well, if all those new inmates are atheists, then you would hear it from the rooftops, er, rooftops of the church of course. But it is not true, and it is very easy to verify. Generalizing a lot here I know, but broadly we state a figure of 15% of the general population is without god in their lives, and yet, much less than 1% of the prison population claim to be unbelievers. Now, how can this be, I wonder.

I had my time as a believer, and the things that I saw, and knew, but put away and out of sight because it did not fit with the teachings all come back to me now. There is a closet in the mind of every believer; a place where you put all the things that bother you; where you put your cognitive dissonance in the hope that one day you will understand. This is the place that you put the questions that you were finally brave enough to ask the priest or the nun or the teacher or the bishop or whoever you held in authority only to be fobbed off with a non answer. God moves in mysterious ways; we are not to question the mind of god; who are we to ask to know god’s plan; just keep the faith and pray and god will reveal it all to you in time, my son.

With an open mind and objective searching you will find it

Finally, something will happen. Finally there will be something happen that will cause you to know, without any doubt, that you were lied to about some really important principle you have held sacred for years. It is different for everyone, but the process is the same. Suddenly the closet in the mind bursts open and out come all the withheld doubts and unanswered questions and you demand to know and have these things fully addressed so that you can know that your years of faithful belief were not based on lies. It must be true, and so you start to search. But one by one, your doubts are realized, your questions are answered but not in a way supportive of your religious faith.

Next thing you know, you are a cat and former friends and family are trying to herd you up into a pen with some very undesirable people. Funny that they don’t mention Carl Sagan, Katherine Hepburn, Isaac Asimov, Mark Twain, Richard Branson, George Carlin, Jodie Foster, Bob Geldof, to name just a few.

All it takes if for you to honestly ask and demand a real world answer… Is it true?

Believers say that without their belief in God, they have nothing to live for. Non believers counter that without any such belief they have nothing to die for. LIfe is for living, not for planning a fairy tale future in some celestial theme park run by an autocratic vengful dictator providing you can grovel and mutter perpetual praise to him.