Chapter 1: Your Friend the Atheist

Chances are good that I'm not the only Atheist you know. I for one have several Atheist friends, and my friendship with them has nothing to do with me being an Atheist myself. The religious tend to assume that Atheists all have this strong connection or bond, that we are all part of this massive team of people with a single goal in mind, and that goal is to disprove God. Though I know several Atheists who believe exactly that, for many of us, the desire to disprove God isn't our driving force.

You see, being an Atheist is extremely different from being religious in one major sense when it comes to community. The religious are joined together by whatever form of congregation their religion takes part in. Now, I realize that not every religion requires its believers to come together and pray, but for the most part, this is a fairly common rule. In order to truly participate in an organized religion, one is required to attend regular services to their God or Gods. In these services, the community comes together and shares in what they believe by expressing their faith as one giant body of believers.

If Atheists were to come together in such a manner, we wouldn't exactly have a whole lot to talk about. This is largely because the term Atheist is an overly general term used to describe any individual who doesn't believe in a supreme being, or really any form of post-mortem activity. But like many religions, it's impossible to give a single title to what we as Atheists believe.

Take for example the Christian faith. There are in the Christian faith several thousand different denominations. Granted, most of these are insignificant and consist of only a handful of believers, but even in the most predominant denominations there are drastic differences in what each believes. And yet, they still consider themselves to be Christians, regardless of their differences.

The point that I am trying to make here is this. Let's say I were to meet two people at the same time, both of them friends, and both of them religious. For the sake of discussion in the rest of this book, all the religious and atheist characters created here will, for the most part, be willing to discuss their faith with each other and myself. I know that in real life, this makes these characters confrontational, but this is a book and the characters aren't real, even if they are modelled off the experiences of my life and the people I have met. Now, returning to the problem at hand, the first of the two people, who we will call Luther, introduces himself, shakes my hand, and tells me he is Lutheran. Then, the next person introduces herself, we will call her Cathy, shakes my hand, and tells me she's Roman Catholic. If I were to then say to both of these individuals 'Ah, so you are both Christian! So then you both believe the same thing then, don't you?' Cathy and Luther would very quickly correct me and detail the differences in their faiths.

But what would happen if Cathy or Luther met two Atheist friends who we shall call Ethan and Niki? Because Atheism is such a neglected belief system, by both the religious and fellow Atheists, I can't say with any certainty how this situation would unfold. From my experiences, this is the most commonly occurring answer to the question of a religious confronting two or more Atheists. Cathy or Luther would ask 'Ah, so you are both Atheists? Then you both don't believe in God. Why?'

And then Ethan and Niki immediately accept that they are in one category of disbelief and are now on a united front to defend themselves. What unfolds from here is an interesting balancing act that can't be seen by either Cathy or Luther, but is constantly being watched by Ethan and Niki. You see, Ethan and Niki know that they won't see eye to eye on many topics in the Atheist arsenal. They may not even fully understand what they themselves believe. What they know is that they both don't believe in God, and that they are both in the act of defending their beliefs, whatever they may be. So they watch each other carefully, listen to what each other says, and pay far more attention than Cathy or Luther to the words that are coming out of each others mouths.

This is all because of one of the biggest flaws in the Atheist faith, and that's the shared belief amongst most Atheists and the religious that just because we have chosen not to believe in God, that we believe exactly the same thing. The truth of the matter is, our faith can be as different as any two denominations of the same religion. In fact, Ethan and Niki could believe such extremely different things regarding their Atheism that they could be akin to a Taoist and a Roman Catholic.

Introduction

Welcome to The Religious Atheist. I believe, before I begin explaining the purpose of this endeavour, it is important for me to express my thanks for you actually taking time out of your day to read these words. My gratitude and concern are born of two inevitable responses of hearing or reading the word 'Atheist'; The first being the response of the religious, which is always a cocked head and a disagreeable look, as if by hearing the word 'Atheist' it just became the job of the listener to immediately save me from my eternal damnation. The alternative response is that of a smile, a hand shake, and a compliment from a fellow atheist for being something 'different.'

As sad as it may be, this is how the world seems to view Atheists. We are either a problem to be fixed, or a select few elite that are only recognized as elite by others of our kind. Both of these ideas are massively flawed, and both of them portray atheists as something different, some sort of massive problem or an egotistical cult. Perhaps both.

The truth of the matter is quite different. Atheists are, like all believers, drastically varied in shape, size, form, and faith. Atheists are not all of the same mindset. We do not all agree on every idea that comes out of every other Atheists mouth. And most importantly, we are not all stuck-up, self-centred, egotistical pricks who believe that the only way to achieve a perfect world is to remove God completely from our minds.

That being said, what is it that makes this collection important to you?

The purpose of this is not to convert you from your beliefs. It is not to plant a seed of doubt in your mind to later destroy everything you have ever known. The reason for creating this collection is simple: It's to show you, whatever you may believe in, that like yourself, Atheists aren't all bad. Sure, we have our assholes. But so do you. Sure, we have our extremists whose voices are loudest. But so do you. And sure, the facts that support our beliefs only take us so far, and then we are forced to take one massive leap of faith and just say 'This is what I know!' But so do you.

So, as you read these chapters of what it's like to be what I have coined 'A Religious Atheist,' know that what you are reading is simply a way of life. It's the belief of an individual amongst many. I am going to show you a side of a community that is often portrayed in a far too negative light. I am going to show you a life that requires just as much in terms of faith as any other believer, anywhere in the world. I am going to show you that, despite what you may or may not know about the Atheist community, we do not believe we are all knowing or all powerful.

I am going to show you what it means to be a real Atheist.

Welcome, to The Religious Atheist.