Chapter 5: The Importance of God

Before I become overly critical, a state of mind I fear is inevitable when writing an entire book with this topic as a foundation, I must take a step back and let you know where the "Religious" part of Religious Atheist first came from. Remember though that this was just the birthplace. The Religious part of my faith was only began here, and has since developed into a much larger idea. But it all started here, with the fundamental belief that God, despite my lack of faith in him, is absolutely essential for humanity.

Gods have been part of human life since we became capable of intelligent thought. They started off as the source of all things the world had to offer; They would raise and lower the sun, they would appear at night as stars in the sky, they would blow in rains to water crops, they would control the supply of animals harvested for food, they cause fertility in people, and would have influence or control over every single other aspect of the events of the world. They were the centre of life for the people of Earth, offering meaning and reason behind all the actions of universe. When the rains did not come and crops faded away, the blame lay only in the hands of the people for not satisfying the needs of their Gods. By having a being that controlled the outcome of everything, it gave the people hope. The belief that if one worked hard enough, gave enough back to the Gods, then they and their civilization would prosper made life worth living. Faith gave early humanity a fighting chance in a world that was completely unforgiving.

As time progressed though, and we discovered that in reality it's the rotation of the Earth that causes the sun to rise and set, that the stars are not Gods but thousands of other suns of various sizes across the galaxy, that rain is produced by evaporating water and high density precipitation, that animals migrate on their own accord for the best chance of survival, and that fertility is based on an very delicate balance of human biology, those jobs the Gods once possessed faded away. And new Gods were born with new roles in life, and new histories of the Earth were born.

The truth of the matter is that Gods have existed in our lives for as long as we can document intelligent human life. They may not have been the same Gods, or even shared the same roles in the lives of those they presumed to influence, but they have always been there, always. And so, through their existence, they have been a foundation of human life.

As for the question I have raised in the previous chapters: With all these Gods, with all these different religious views, how do we know which one is real? In my opinion, the opinion of a Religious Atheist, real isn't the question we should be asking ourselves. The reality of every single religion in the history of the world sits in exactly the same place, because each religion is just as real as the next. But it's not the validity of the word of God that I hold true. It's the power each religion has over the lives of the people who follow it. It's this influence over human life that makes God real. And it's this very concept that stems the Religious part of the Religious Atheist.

And now I believe it's time to expand on this idea, to explain to you further why to me, someone who claims to be an atheist, believes that God is so important. It's true that I don't believe God, the being that created the universe and sits up in the sky watching over us exists. It's true that in my world, every decision I make is because I have free will and nobody or nothing is guiding me to say or do anything but myself. And probably most importantly, it's also true that many of the ideas embedded in organized religions threaten this very idea of complete and total human freedom by which I live my life. So why is it that the Religious Atheist believes that God is so important?

I want you to think about Believers for a minute. You may be one of them, or you may be any form of the Atheists I have detailed in this book. Regardless, you know many Believers, and you know many different types of Believers. So pick any religion you know of, any friend you may have who believes something different to yourself, and ask yourself how what they believe shapes their life. Think about how their day-to-day life differs from your own because of a belief system that they subscribe to. And then ask yourself what it is that makes them do all they do to live their life by such a specific code.

Regardless of what religion you picked, the answer will always be the same. They do it because it makes them happy. They have faith in something bigger than themselves. If they subscribe to Fate, for example, they are happy in knowing that everything that happens to them happens for a reason. God has a grand plan, and every single aspect of their life is working towards something amazing. If they subscribe to certain eating habits, be it no meat on Fridays, no eating cow or pork, or no consuming raw foods, they do so because they believe that it will make their lives better. Though they may do it for themselves, they do it more importantly for God, to try and make him happy. And in doing so, they make themselves happy.

Religion also offers an extremely strong sense of community. Human's have always banded together. It's how we survive. Even now in the twenty-first century we are acting exactly as we did at the dawn of human life. We are working together to prosper. We install the ideas of patriotism into our youth, supporting our country and working together for mutual gain. We make friends because we like the company of others, and enjoy sharing our lives with those around us. And through religion, people are given one of the strongest bonds of all. Together people believe in one thing, with no if and or buts, they follow the same scripture and code. They are part of an almost completely unchanging society that motivates them to do better and brings them closer to one another. And if that weren't enough, most of those religions offer the promise of not only spending this life with your community, but spending eternity with them, never once leaving the Believer alone.

It's this grand idea of happiness and self advancement in the eyes of something bigger than yourself that makes God such an essential part of human life. And though I may not subscribe to the practices of any organized religion, I do so because like Believers, my decisions makes me happy. So who am I, or anyone else, to tell you that what you believe isn't right when the indisputable truth is that your beliefs make you happy.

God may not be sitting in the sky, and he may not have created the universe. But no matter what we all believe, it's indisputable that he exists in the hearts and minds of billions of people everywhere. And you, like every other person in the world, are entitled at birth to believe whatever will make you happy. And if that doesn't make him in some sense real, then what does?

Chapter 2: Our Many Faces

So like many other faiths, Atheism is extremely denominational. Our roadblock, however, is the rather large fact that, unlike the religious, Atheists don't bother to declare their specific belief or bother to search out those who feel the same. They simply make the declaration that they don't believe in God, and then keep all the details to themselves. I suppose that this is one of the only solid consistencies amongst Atheists. We all tend to be loners in our 'practiced' beliefs.

It's this loner aspect of our lives that makes it so difficult for each Atheist to know what the other believes. And with our difficulty, we simply choose not to care. So imagine, then, how hard it must be for the religious to know our differences when we ourselves are incapable of knowing. The poor religious, only trying to understand what it is that we believe and why we believe it, are thrown up against a brick wall of communication that moves for nobody.

Occasionally, however, one will stumble across a fellow Atheist who is very willing to talk, sometimes endlessly, about what he or she believes. But like I have stressed over and over, this individuals beliefs are not the beliefs of us all. this particular Atheist could talk for hours about what he or she considers the essential or true Atheist, but just like no Christian belief is more right than another, nor are this Atheist's beliefs more right than any other Atheist's.

All this dodging and weaving around what makes up an Atheist only raises one question, one I can hear others screaming constantly in their heads whenever I try to explain this to them. We are a creature of knowledge, and that knowledge is born of experience and question. The question you are most likely asking now is: 'Who the hell are you, and what the hell do you people believe then?!'

I promise, I will do my best to explain. I will do my best to answer your question, along with any other questions you may have as we progress through the rest of this book. But before I tell you who I am and what it is that I believe, let me first tell you about some of the Atheists I have come across in my life. Some of them I have loved, some I have hated. AS I said before, there is no community amongst Atheists. I make each decision on whether or not I will like a particular Atheist based on each one I meet. They are no different than anyone else. their beliefs do not sway my perception of them one bit. It's all about the personality.

That being said, let me begin with a type of Atheist you all probably know. This specific 'denomination' tends to be the most vocal. They are the only type of Atheist that I have met which forms up into pseudo-communities in order to achieve their goal; to make others believe that there is no God. Though their intentions could be paired with the intentions of any religious convert, it's their actions that separates them from these other groups. We will call this type of Atheist, thanks to their behaviour which will be further explained, the 'Hostile Atheists.'

My first prolonged experience with Hostile Atheists wasn't until I attended University. I went to school in San Antonio, TX, south of what is known in the United States as the 'Bible Belt.' There are plenty of Christians in Texas, much more than anywhere else I've lived. Largely because of this, there aren't many Atheists, or if there are, they don't make themselves known. I was in a graduating class of over 700 people in high school in Houston, TX. I was the only Atheist I knew.

I believe that it's largely because of this Atheist isolation that so many Hostile Atheists sprung up in University. You throw a large collection of similarly aged and minded students together in their first parent-free environment, it becomes almost inevitable that you will have people acting in ways that they never were able to before. It's not really their fault most of the time. If you suppress self-expression, it has a tendency to violently erupt when the restraints are removed.

It's all these characteristics of development that produces Hostile Atheists. These particular Atheists voice their opinions in rather insulting ways. They use guilt and aggression to attempt to sway others. but oftehn, their goals are not to convert. They don't care about making you believe what they believe. They already have their fellow believers, and they consider themselves elite in their understanding of the world. So instead of converting or sharing their beliefs, they focus on segregation and isolation. Like children in an elementary school, Hostile Atheists bully the religious with slogans like 'Without god there would be no more war!' and 'You can't believe in science and God!' Their goals aren't to convert the believers, but instead to rally support targeted towards making the religious feel unwanted. Hostile Atheists are manipulators, and quite often cruel ones at that.

We aren't all bad. I know I started with one of our least lovable denominations, but I'll try and redeem us a little here. Another type of Atheist is one which tends to keep all beliefs hidden. We will call this denomination the Secret Atheist. Secret Atheists have their beliefs, and then keep them all to themselves. They believe what they believe, but don't have any desire to share it with anyone. My grandmother was once a Secret Atheist, until the years rolled by and she became a little more vocal. Once upon a time, no matter how hard you probed her for answers, she wouldn't even give you a hint. That's just the way the Secret Atheist lives. Like Atheism requires, they live alone and silently, going about their ways with friends and family, but keeping their social lives and religious lives separate.

The Secret Atheist has a very close cousin called the Quiet Atheist. The Quiet Atheist is much like its cousin in many ways. They're non-confrontational, relaxed in their beliefs, and unwilling to share what they hold to be true. The only difference really is that Quiet Atheists will actually discuss what they believe when probed by people they trust. This is the type of Atheist my grandmother became in the later years of her life.

Now we are starting to get to Atheists who are more like myself. This type of Atheist we will now discuss is one I like to call the Conversational Atheist. This particular Atheist tends to be quite willing to talk about his or her beliefs, even if he may not fully understand them himself. Education and culture aren't part of the Conversational Atheist's arsenal. He isn't smart or worldly or wise. he is just a regular character who has, for whatever reason, chosen not to believe in God and wants you to know about it. Fortunately, the Conversational Atheist is a harmless breed. Often he has chosen to become an Atheist because he feels wronged personally by God. I find this to be most common with Conversational Atheists; when a person falls from religion, he most often ends up here in the Conversational Atheist corner. They are unable to convert others because most of the time their beliefs are grounded in personal history rather than logical reasoning. So though a Conversational Atheist may seem as though he is trying to sway your opinions, he really isn't. All he really wants is a bit of your time to talk to you about his life and where he's coming from.

This next denomination I would like to call the Evolutionist Atheist, but thanks to people not understanding that evolution isn't debatable, it's proven science, people have decided that 'Evolutionists' are a faith-based group rather than just people trying to progress human knowledge. So, I will instead call this denomination of Atheists the Darwinist Atheists. These Atheists are the next step from Conversation Atheists. They also enjoy talking about their faith, but they have chosen Atheism because their education has taken them there. They simply can't juggle faith in God and an extensive education. This happens a lot with people who follow the researcher or life-time student track. I think it has to do with the fact that they spend so much time focusing on what they can know for sure that they forget how to just believe in something. Without solid evidence, they are unconvinced, and the less grounded in reality that evidence is, the harder it is for them to believe. It's either that, or after a lifetime of education and studying how the world works, they lose all hope in both humanity and God. All I know is that these Atheists are one of the most common types of Atheists in the world. They have the most varied belief system and all come to their beliefs in different ways. They are the missionaries of the Atheist faith, using what they have learned throughout their lives to teach people how God simply cannot exist. They are probably the strongest willed Atheists as well, because no matter what anyone says, a Darwinist Atheist will never change his mind. He will always be an Atheist, no matter what, and he will try to tell you why he's right with equal dedication.

Which brings us to the final main category of Atheists that I will be talking about in this chapter. This denomination is the title denomination, and the type of Atheist that I consider myself to be. We are Religious Atheists. The Religious Atheist believes that there is no God thanks to a life of Religious exposure. I am not talking about experiencing just one religion, or two, or three. Religious Atheists have experiences countless different faiths from all reaches of the world. It's this extreme religious exposure that overloads the senses, rendering us unable to believe that with so many different faiths out there, how could it be possible that any one of them is the correct one? And so it seems to us that religion must be the creation of man, not the requirement of God. But the most important part of being a Religious Atheist is this: We will never say that you, regardless of your faith, whatever it may be, are wrong. Like you, we have chosen a particular belief system that works for us, and our is simply to not believe in any God at all. But it's still faith. Just like for whatever you believe, this is what works for us.

So, by doing my best to scratch the surface of the Atheist faith, I believe I have given you some of our most commonly occurring denominations. But there's an extremely important side note here that you must pay attention to in order to fully understand how we work. Unlike with religious denominations which are secure in their beliefs, the Atheist's lack of community allows for a pick and choose quality to our denominations. Any aspect of any of these faiths can cross over into another, depending on the believer. For example, I am a Religious Atheist. However, I have a hint of Darwinist and Conversational Atheist in me as well. I absolutely love to talk about God. Unlike Darwinist and Conversational Atheists, however, I speak of God as if I believed in him myself. But that's a subject for a later chapter.

Just know, as you turn the pages of this book, that though we have many denominations like many other faiths, ours are open to be twisted and manipulated based on the believer. With no one telling Atheists what to believe, I'm afraid this is inevitable. But maybe that's one of the most attractive qualities of our faith?

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.