In my head and thoughts, I have probably been an atheist most of my life, though never thought of it as a religion or that is took me out of the baptismal realm which I wore shortly after my birth. My awareness that I could not believe in any of the churches which I had attended started before I ended my first ten years.. I went to a Community Church in the Midwest when my children were young because I thought they needed a foundation in which to believe or to rebel, as they saw fit when they could think about it. I enjoyed the sermons somewhat as I had enjoyed some of my college professors but it did not connect to my early religious church experiences where fasting and communion were a requirement, where the services were conducted in what to me was a foreign language, and where my boredom had me counting men's bald heads and ceiling tiles to be able to continue sitting there..
More recently, as decade after decade passesin my life, I realize that I remain not at all convinced that Man is the highest power in the universe; nor do I believe that God created Man in 'his' image, nor can I make myself believe in the man-written Bible, Kuran, Talmud or whatever of any religion I have read about.
Many of my friends, which should not come as a surprise, are many for whom I have a great deal of respect as people who live moral and ethical lives and are Atheists. It has never occurred to me to think too much about my beliefs defining who I am...I just am. Because the forms I filled out never had a space for' Atheist' until recently, I always defined myself as a member of the faith in which I had been christened as an infant... that of my parents, though I never attended church, prayed, or respected the rituals of the church as soon as I was old enough to begin to question what I was seeing and exposed to...communion, holy water, holy bread, incense making my asthma flare up, and hosts of other impositions to my view of reality.
Today, I read an interesting article in AlterNet: 10 myths about Atheism. I would not just copy it and cannot and will not claim it as my own, other than that I found it something with which I could relate. To read this article, click here.
More recently, as decade after decade passesin my life, I realize that I remain not at all convinced that Man is the highest power in the universe; nor do I believe that God created Man in 'his' image, nor can I make myself believe in the man-written Bible, Kuran, Talmud or whatever of any religion I have read about.
Many of my friends, which should not come as a surprise, are many for whom I have a great deal of respect as people who live moral and ethical lives and are Atheists. It has never occurred to me to think too much about my beliefs defining who I am...I just am. Because the forms I filled out never had a space for' Atheist' until recently, I always defined myself as a member of the faith in which I had been christened as an infant... that of my parents, though I never attended church, prayed, or respected the rituals of the church as soon as I was old enough to begin to question what I was seeing and exposed to...communion, holy water, holy bread, incense making my asthma flare up, and hosts of other impositions to my view of reality.
Today, I read an interesting article in AlterNet: 10 myths about Atheism. I would not just copy it and cannot and will not claim it as my own, other than that I found it something with which I could relate. To read this article, click here.
No comments:
Post a Comment