Day One: All About Atheism

I'm starting my journey with atheism because it's most similar to my beliefs. It's not much of a stretch to call me an atheist. But it's not enough to just say that I don't believe without giving any reasons, so today's mission is researching the reasons that people give for not believing in God.

I started off by reading The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. Or more accurately, attempting to read the book. I got about halfway through before I got fed up with his fundamentalist atheism and his attacks on religion. I don't believe that the only way to justify atheism is to tear down every other religion and brand their followers as lunatics. I turned to the internet in hopes that I could find something a little less radical.

Thank goodness for the BBC!

I came to an interesting conclusion after partially reading the book and browsing through the website above. It's incorrect for me to define my religious beliefs as "I don't believe in God;" a more appropriate statement would be "I don't believe in religion." I've never felt the need to try and disprove the existence of God. It's impossible. The reasons that atheists give for not believing in God are rooted in philosophy, just like the reasons that people give for believing in God. Philosophy is not a legitimate way to prove or disprove something. While the logic behind the reasons does make some sense to me, it's certainly not enough for me to base my entire belief system on them.

I need to find some other way to connect with atheism. For this, I'm going to turn to the common criticisms of religion. My biggest reason for not believing in religion is the exclusionistic nature of most faiths. Religion is supposed to be about love and acceptance of all, however, in reality, it's about love and acceptance of people that believe exactly what you do. Don't believe me? Ask a devout Christian about homosexuals. Or about atheists for that matter. Ask George H.W. Bush, who was quoted in 1987 as saying:

"No, I don't know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God."

I have a hard time understanding how someone could be offended simply by someone having different beliefs. Looks like I've found my connection to atheism!