The more I see the term atheist, the more I don’t like it. Not that I have a problem with it. It just has such a negative connotation. And I don’t have a problem with those that choose to be identified as atheist any more than I have a problem with those that choose to be labeled Christian, Muslim, short, tall, funny, or any other adjective that they choose. It’s just that “atheist” doesn’t currently work for me.
I think the term areligious describes my beliefs better anyway. The way I look at it to know there is no god requires the same amount of faith as it does to know that there is a God. Since I have yet to see convincing proof either way I can’t fall on one side of the argument or the other. I suppose that makes me agnostic as well, which is a term I’m comfortable with.
And areligious really fits better because I’m not against Christians (or Muslims, Jews, or any other faiths), I’m against Christianity (or again any of the other religions). Every religion on this planet is man made no matter what your pastor tells you. They are all based on either oral histories or books written by men. No book was inspired by God.
Religion is what caused the Crusades, the Salem Witch Trials, the Spanish Inquisition, and the 9-11 bombings. Adults using what they were taught as children that God hates homosexuals is what leads to the Westboro Baptists protesting funerals. Had Fred Phelps been told that all people are people and that homosexuals just prefer to be with the same gender when he was young the Freedom Riders might not be necessary. Had Osama bin Laden’s mother not read him stories out of the Koran as a child the Twin Towers might still be standing. Had Hitler’s parents not raised him as a Catholic (yes, I know that there will be Christians who come along and disagree with that statement) hundreds of thousands of Jewish people may not have been killed. Catholicism is to blame, not the Catholic. Christianity is to blame, not the Christian. Islam is to blame, not the Muslim.
At the end I’m not against the belief in a god. I’m not against God. I’m against organized religion. It is poisoning the people of this planet and I feel that we would be better off if everybody could believe what they want without feeling that it is their god-given duty to fight a spiritual battle against those that believe differently. Unfortunately that is not going to happen any time soon as long as parents are teaching their children to hate others just because of a difference in belief.
