Expert: Clint - 5/13/2010

Question
Hi Expert
i am very interested to know about your experience...
no offence but southern baptists are the type of persons who shove their religion down your throat they are closed minded <no offence>  
what made you become atheist? is it that you got repelled from the extreme pole you were a part of? And is atheism providing you with the same inner feeling of security and psychological relief that religion provides people with?
Thank you in advance

Answer
Sorry to take so long to answer, death in the family. To answer your question.. I and everyone else on this planet was born without theism by default. So I didn't "become" atheist, I just reverted back. Without other pre-indoctrinated adults around to wash the minds of children we wouldn't receive the "word of god" in nature or naturally. Although some unbalanced unreasonable people would undoubtedly make up stories of ghosts and gods from noises in the night and other things we don't understand but feel the need to pretend we do. We are intrigued by mystery and even entertained by it, making up stories of fantasy and haunts. Even babies giggle at peek-a-boo. Religion has just done the injustice of crossing a line between pretending and lying. Fantasy is great but lets not start telling kids it is the truth and push it with worshiping, it is lying with deception. Even if there were a god we don't know and shouldn't pretend we do, it's still lying and dishonest at the least. But I regress..

Let's get something straight, I was southern baptist through my parents cultural tradition only, I did not have a choice in the matter nor was I presented any options or alternatives. What made me decide one day to renounce my belief in any and all gods/religions was actually a decision to become ultra religious. That is, I decided one bad day that I needed to get closer to god and become the best Christian the church could want, to maybe even go into priesthood. Seriously I sat down and started to reread the bible closely line-by-line and study it intensely. I wanted to make sure I understood it, could interpret it, and that I would live by it. It took me about 2 pages of Genesis to realize that I'd been fooled all these years into defending and believing in something absolutely absurd and childish. I continued to read in utter disbelief, how could I not have seen this before, how can educated grown men believe in such crap. Harry Potter is better written and more believable than this ancient garbage. So I did more research to find the origin of the bible, the authors, interpretations, and Christian history. All I found was deceit and violence. No one knows the authors, the book has been incorrectly reinterpreted by biased religious groups with some stories even left out, Christians have done untold atrocities against humanity, and it's all contradictive, illogical, unreasonable, and impossible.

Being non-theist (atheist) I find inner peace in knowing that I am a part of something much bigger, the Universe. If there be a god I call it the Sun that gives energy to life and Earth is our heaven. Even though I don't know the origin of everything I refuse to credit it to something else I don't know, like a god. As for life after death I believe we live on through the memories of our survivors, not spiritually or physically. My body and the company of others is what I cherish most that I try to get the most of. The experiences one can find and have in this existence is the magic worth living everyday. I feel sorry for those who think they need a father in the sky to feel whole when the whole is right here. Take off your clothes and run naked through a warm rain, that's a feeling you can't get from religion, it's real and it's freeing. When I need inspiration I can find it in others and through reflection of the majesty and enormity of existence itself. Throwing out the mush of religion I have found freedom and the world opened up to a much bigger and grander place. Religion, even in it's good parts, is tiny and limited compared to reality.