-The Preamble to the Humanist Manifesto,
Prof. Paul Kurtz, Council for Secular Humanism.
Prof. Paul Kurtz, Council for Secular Humanism.
I've created this blog mainly for two reasons: 1. To satisfy my own selfish needs, to vent frustrations as an atheist living in a theist world, and 2. To hopefully help other individuals who feel the same way find solace in knowing that they're not alone. In this first post I want to give you a little background information on who I am, and why I feel that it is so important for this blog to exist. I would like to note that although my blog is entitled The Secular Humanist, I will be using the terms Secular Humanism and Atheism interchangeably, as to me they are the same thing.
I first labeled myself an Atheist at the age of 13, but I've had issues with religion for much longer. I cannot tell you with certainty when I came to the conclusion that I no longer believed in a god, but I can tell you that that moment was years in the making. Throughout the majority of my childhood I had been dragged to Church and forced to sit in the pews, all the while sincerely trying to swallow the words coming from the pulpit, but I couldn't. To me the idea of a god didn't make sense, the stories and texts of Christianity didn't make sense, and I could no more believe that a higher power existed above me than I could believe in Werewolves and Teletubbies. So at 13 I cast off the shackles of my former religious beliefs and began my life anew as an Atheist. Being a young teenager it was a harsh reality to face and a rude awakening. The notion of the natural world being the extent of existence terrified me. For this and other reasons, at times I lost willingness to function on a day-to-day basis and I periodically entered and withdrew from severe bouts of depression. I often felt as if every effort was futile and in the end I would perish accomplishing nothing in a meaningless existence, but it was at this point in my life that I knew I had found my truth. That while some people had reached this point only to turn back to religion when they felt all was lost, I knew I couldn't. The idea of "God's" existence was too unnatural and illogical to me and I knew that in turning back I would only be living a lie. So I pressed on through the hard times and became unshakably stronger in my beliefs, standing before you today a proud Atheist.
The thing that most people don't seem to realize, and that up until that point in my life, I never realized, is that our society, our culture, the human race itself, is incredibly god oriented. Most people already know that here in the US, "God" is integrated not only onto our currency ("In God We Trust" stamped on the back) and into our courtrooms ("Do you swear to tell the... So help you God"), but into almost every other aspect of American life. Another example of this is Church based groups that run practically all non-profit organizations in the our country, and yet another is how sports teams, from professional to pee wee, often use prayer as part of their pre-game preparation. Now granted, the example of Church based non-profits and praying sports teams do not involve the US government like the other examples and is therefore not an example of a secular organization injecting religion into it's proceedings, but it is still rather shocking how deeply embedded religion is in so many aspects of our lives. Although to me this is quite odd for a supposedly secular nation, the majority of Americans either accept or support these practices as a natural way of life in this country. Now, my point is not that there is something fundamentally wrong with these "God" related issues being, say, in politics. If you are a religious individual it would only make sense that these issues would be important to you. My point is that it makes avoiding religion, something I and I'm sure many other atheists wish we could do, impossible. Considering the majority of the country is religious, religious issues are, and will more than likely be, involved in many aspects of many people's lives, and because I support the Democracy I live in I have no qualms with that fact. I just have an issue with the fact that I have to deal with it on such a regular basis.
Well with my first post coming to an end, my only hope is that many Theists out there will recognize that being an "devout" Atheist is not as easy as they'd like to imagine, we don't have everyone around us saying "Logic bless you!" as we leave for a trips and "Charles Darwin!" when we stub a toe, and that we have no Atheist "Place of Reason" that we can visit every Sunday. Instead we have Theist beliefs thrown at us from every angle, every day, and the only support we can rely on is our own steadfast beliefs, and maybe a small group of friends that share our ideals. So all in all there must be something attractive about Atheism that keeps myself and others, resilient in our beliefs, maybe you just need to take a logical, skeptical look for yourself.
I first labeled myself an Atheist at the age of 13, but I've had issues with religion for much longer. I cannot tell you with certainty when I came to the conclusion that I no longer believed in a god, but I can tell you that that moment was years in the making. Throughout the majority of my childhood I had been dragged to Church and forced to sit in the pews, all the while sincerely trying to swallow the words coming from the pulpit, but I couldn't. To me the idea of a god didn't make sense, the stories and texts of Christianity didn't make sense, and I could no more believe that a higher power existed above me than I could believe in Werewolves and Teletubbies. So at 13 I cast off the shackles of my former religious beliefs and began my life anew as an Atheist. Being a young teenager it was a harsh reality to face and a rude awakening. The notion of the natural world being the extent of existence terrified me. For this and other reasons, at times I lost willingness to function on a day-to-day basis and I periodically entered and withdrew from severe bouts of depression. I often felt as if every effort was futile and in the end I would perish accomplishing nothing in a meaningless existence, but it was at this point in my life that I knew I had found my truth. That while some people had reached this point only to turn back to religion when they felt all was lost, I knew I couldn't. The idea of "God's" existence was too unnatural and illogical to me and I knew that in turning back I would only be living a lie. So I pressed on through the hard times and became unshakably stronger in my beliefs, standing before you today a proud Atheist.
The thing that most people don't seem to realize, and that up until that point in my life, I never realized, is that our society, our culture, the human race itself, is incredibly god oriented. Most people already know that here in the US, "God" is integrated not only onto our currency ("In God We Trust" stamped on the back) and into our courtrooms ("Do you swear to tell the... So help you God"), but into almost every other aspect of American life. Another example of this is Church based groups that run practically all non-profit organizations in the our country, and yet another is how sports teams, from professional to pee wee, often use prayer as part of their pre-game preparation. Now granted, the example of Church based non-profits and praying sports teams do not involve the US government like the other examples and is therefore not an example of a secular organization injecting religion into it's proceedings, but it is still rather shocking how deeply embedded religion is in so many aspects of our lives. Although to me this is quite odd for a supposedly secular nation, the majority of Americans either accept or support these practices as a natural way of life in this country. Now, my point is not that there is something fundamentally wrong with these "God" related issues being, say, in politics. If you are a religious individual it would only make sense that these issues would be important to you. My point is that it makes avoiding religion, something I and I'm sure many other atheists wish we could do, impossible. Considering the majority of the country is religious, religious issues are, and will more than likely be, involved in many aspects of many people's lives, and because I support the Democracy I live in I have no qualms with that fact. I just have an issue with the fact that I have to deal with it on such a regular basis.
Well with my first post coming to an end, my only hope is that many Theists out there will recognize that being an "devout" Atheist is not as easy as they'd like to imagine, we don't have everyone around us saying "Logic bless you!" as we leave for a trips and "Charles Darwin!" when we stub a toe, and that we have no Atheist "Place of Reason" that we can visit every Sunday. Instead we have Theist beliefs thrown at us from every angle, every day, and the only support we can rely on is our own steadfast beliefs, and maybe a small group of friends that share our ideals. So all in all there must be something attractive about Atheism that keeps myself and others, resilient in our beliefs, maybe you just need to take a logical, skeptical look for yourself.
