Saturday, May 26, 2007

Coming out of the proverbial "closet"

I just recently came out of the closet and told my parents I was an atheist. For a couple years now I have been a "closet atheist" and I was surging and surging trying to get it out but I could not. I finally did while they were reading my final college essay this past semester. It was talking about my religious beliefs and all that and I was mentioning my problems with the dilemma, and my mom looked at me kind of stunned but I knew she did not really care all that much. I stopped believing in God a long time ago, once I stopped and looked at the world and noticed all the hatred happening. It was really sad to think about and so I just thought to myself that it all does not matter. God is not around and no one is around to help out. We all are responsible for our own actions and if something bad happens it's all on us, not if God wants it like that because he does not exist. I wish people all over the world understood this. My dad told me that atheists mostly believe in only taking care of themselves and not really about the world as a whole and I totally disagreed. You can still care about people and animals and all different creatures and care about their well being but at the same time be atheist, it can still happen. I think atheism is not a bad thing at all and I think it should be exercised more often than not. I hope this has touched people and that they will recognize that we make our own decisions and are in charge of our own destiny, not the other way around.

2 comments:

daniel w. said...

It's funny when people think that atheist are amoral. They believe that morals come from the bible, which is ridiculous. "Moral" passages are carefully cherry-picked from the bible (which is otherwise filled with hatred, sexism, homophobia, et cetera). And how could one cherry-pick passages from the bible that they like if morality stems from the bible? The couldn't. Morality is based largely on the Golden Rule (or the Ethic of reciprocity): treat others as you would like to be treated.

I submit though, that it is more moral to be a good person just for the sake of being good rather than the fear of punishment or the desire for reward. I actually don't consider good actions to be moral at all if they are only taken for their reward. It is bordering on immoral.

daniel w. said...

You should check out Richard Dawkins videos on YouTube, especially the Q&A videos. I think you'd enjoy them.