December 17, 2012

• Some say I have no morals.

  I’ve read some blogs and posts and tweets that blame the lack of God on today’s ills.  As if being an atheist means you have absolutely no morals or values.

  For some atheists, atheism is a religion. They are evangelicals.

  I’ve never liked evangelicals because they ‘preach’ that their way is the one and only way, whether through “the word of God’ or “logic” or whatever.

  I am a different kind of atheist (and probably the most common kind – the ones you never hear about).

  • I DO believe in the golden rule.
  • I DO believe in freedom of religion – the freedom for everyone to have their own religion or none at all.
  • I am NOT offended by a Menorah or a Nativity Scene. In fact, I like the things they both stand for. (And I don’t know enough about many of the other religions to feel offended by them.)
  • I am not offended by Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays or “Happy Winter Solstice”!
  • My own atheism is not a religion in and of itself. It is the total and complete lack of religious beliefs.
  • But it is NOT a total lack of morals and values. I agree with some of the tenets of religion. For example, many of the ten commandments. 

  
  Not believing in something doesn’t necessarily mean acting on that disbelief.

  I don’t believe in ghosts, but I don’t preach about it or ask others to suspend their belief just because I don’t believe in them. I am just apathetic about the whole thing. I am mostly apathetic about religion. I am okay with you or anyone having a religion. It’s just not for me.

  I’m okay with someone liking pea soup. I don’t like it so I don’t eat it, but I won’t stop you from eating it (although I may leave the room if you do! LOL)
  
  It’s like not having kids. I am childless by choice (I felt I would make a bad mother because I will admit I am too self-centered to give the kind of attention to raising a child that is required, although this may have changed if I found myself in that situation.) People tell me that I don’t know what I have missed by not having children. They are exactly right. I don’t. I also don’t know what I have missed by not having a pet iguana, or having owned a Mercedes. I don’t know, and I don’t even think about it.
  
  Not all atheists are evil people who are just pushing their agenda.

  I’ve known Christians who get totally offended by “Happy Holidays” or would protest if a Menorah were put on public display. I’ve known other atheists who feel as I do – they have morals and values and live by the golden rule. I was taught to be this way by an agnostic mother and atheist father.

  I did attend church as a child.  I went to Sunday school in Baptist, Pentecostal and Presbyterian churches.  As a young adult, I took classes in Catholicism and attended a Catholic church for a couple of years and even sang in the church choir.  My disbelief didn’t come lightly – it was really always there. I was really never a believer even though I became a “born again Christian” on March 12, 1968 just a few weeks shy of my 12th birthday, and became a Confirmed Catholic in April of 1983, just a few weeks shy of my 27th birthday.  I WANTED to be a believer, but I just couldn’t.  I graduated from a Christian college and studied world religions and most especially the New Testament of the Bible.   Even going through the rites /rituals, reading all I read, seeing the history of the Judeao-Christian church (as well as a few others) I am still not convinced (nor am I looking to be, so this is not an invitation to proselytize!)  But one thing I do know.

  Atheism ≠ a lack of morals and values. 

  • 2:22 pm
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