Why I am an Atheist

Lately I have been reading the entries of the fine folks at Freethought Blogs , in particular that of PZ Myers. There have been a number of reader submitted essays posted on Pharyngula in which the authors detail why they are an atheist. Excluding a couple notable trends, the variety was interesting and they make for excellent reading, I’d suggest checking them out. They inspired me to right my own essay on the subject and I thought it would make for an excellent introductory post. It is in two parts, the former of which is the narrative of how it happened and the latter is why I find it so important. I begin with the narrative because it details some of the finer points in my belief system and acts as a sort of pseudo-biography for at least some the important aspects of me.

In my early to mid teenage years I used to be quite the Christian. While church attendance wasn’t quite weekly my attendance at our church’s youth group was, and I even had my first job as the church’s janitor. The church, in retrospect, was fairly liberal and I had the idea of Jesus as a nice fellow who helped those who needed it most and spoke out against those that harmed or oppressed others. These were ideas that I could, and still can, get behind. I was perfectly happy with my beliefs and, since taking the bible literally wasn’t an idea that was presented very strongly, never once bothered to question what I was being told. I never would have stopped to think if my minister had not announced he was gay.

As long as I have understood what homosexuality is I have recognized that homophobia is a crock of shit. If all people we to be considered equal why were homosexuals bad? What is it about this kind of love that made it bad but all other types of love good? So I was shocked, not at the announcement, but at the backlash. Members of this church that had help teach me love and tolerance were suddenly not showing these traits themselves. While I had not attended the meeting myself I was later told that some had gone so far to label the minister a demon. This caused me to stop and think hard. What I came to realize was that the church, as an organization, was getting things wrong. They missed the memo about loving everyone. I decided to follow, not the church, but merely Jesus. So it came to be that I labelled myself non-denominational.

This was an important first step. No longer did I have an authority figure telling me what to think, I had to do all the thinking myself. I don’t know how long I spent in this state but I can recall missing the community that had once existed happily in that church. I think the general dissatisfaction of belief without the added benefits of the community is what lead me to stop and think again. I came to ask the question, “do I really think of Jesus as the Messiah? Did he really die to save us from sinning?” The answer came quickly as a firm no. Suddenly Jesus was just a guy who had some cool ideas about dealing with others. The question “is there a God?” was something that was tougher however. So then I labelled myself a deist.

Deism sat well with me for a fairly long time. I could not conceive of a universe that was not created without intention. The universe’s majesty, something I still fully appreciate today, was just beginning to be revealed to me through high school science classes and it was mind-boggling. In effect, I was suffering from what Dawkins called the “argument from personal incredulity”. Stated simply it is: “I cannot comprehend how this could happen without God so there must be one.” This of course is not a very good method of creating any belief system and it eventually came under attack from my more rational side. The question of evidence was raised. What evidence did I have for God? The complex systems I saw were not evidence for anything other the how amazing the universe is. That was my way into agnosticism.

For a long time I held that agnosticism was the most proper belief. Since it is impossible to prove or disprove the existence of a god then it is simply best to claim no knowledge of the subject. In many ways I can still sympathize with this idea but later, as I came to desire a career in science, I began to refine my thoughts. I learned of concepts like Occam’s razor and asked myself questions such as, “Why do I claim no knowledge of a god and will not say there is none yet I am perfectly fine saying that of unicorns?” The end result of this line of reasoning was atheism. There is no evidence therefore I state it does not exist.

The last nails driven into this coffin came from my on-going study of psychology. As I learned of concepts like confirmation bias and saw the results of studies on listening to authority figures I realized, with horror, that I had once been guilty of all of these to an alarming degree. The church which I had trusted and my own precious mind had conspired to imprison my thoughts. If I had not grown up with the ideas that society had given me about religion I never would have adopted one as an adult. They preyed on me as a child before I could rationalize anything properly.

This leads me to the second part of the essay, why I think atheism is important. I am still guilty of these phenomena, and many like it, as is every reader whose eyes grace this page. We, as biological entities whose thoughts are the product of a physical brain, are flawed creatures. We have evolved to think heuristically, take mental short cuts if you will. We can’t always bother to solve all our own problems so we trust authority figures. We look for information that confirms our already existing beliefs to reduce cognitive dissonance and promote self confidence. If I am deciding what I want to eat for lunch, this is a fine way to decide, it wastes no time. If I am deciding whether to condemn a man for loving another man or give up ten percent of my earnings to a man in a robe I would consider it terrible to rely on these defaults in the thought process. Rational thinking is important when the consequences are important and it is far too easy to slip into biased thinking without realizing it.

 Virtually every religion, for all the variance among them, teaches that faith is a positive trait. In fact, they all rely on this teaching. Faith, in this context, may be defined as belief without evidence or proof. This means that virtually every religion teaches that it is not only ok but it is admirable to believe something for no rational reason. And to go further they teach that this is fine even when it is important enough to affect one’s entire world view. Teaching irrationality is wrong. Many of the horrors committed by our species could be stopped if those committing them stopped to think and act rationally. It is important to note that a complete eradication of irrationality is neither possible nor desirable. Despite this I believe it important to teach others that careful thought before rash action leads to a better world.

Atheism, in contrast, breeds scepticism. It leads to the questioning of concepts and a culling of the bad ideas from out society’s consciousness. It leads to an atmosphere in which my neighbour is comfortable telling me I am wrong and willing to do so in a fair way, an atmosphere in which I can do the same for him. I am an atheist not only because of the lack of evidence for god(s) but also because I want us, as a species, to learn to think in a healthier and more productive way.