The following is a writing I’m reproducing for PinkDomino, but is originally something I simply put up in the ‘about me’ section of my user account at myspace. I am indebted to Bertrand Russell, Charles Darwin, C.S. Lewis, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Douglas Adams, Spinoza, and Einstein for how I’ve come to think. Those are simply the ‘famous’ names, the more tangible individuals who I owe for my perception of the world are those whom I speak with on a regular basis and call friend.
I am an atheist. I’m not ‘mistaken’, ‘a part of the church’, a ‘child of god’, ‘backslidden’, or any other euphemism for someone devoid of theistic belief. Atheism is not synonymous with nihilism, satanism, hedonism, Stalinesque Socialism, Hitler, Nazism, Hatred, Antichristian rhetoric, dystopia, depression, mental disease, insanity, nor idiocy. I am capable of penetrating self-knowledge and empathy for others. I bare no hatreds to any person based upon their beliefs, skin color, gender, sexual orientation, opinion, or mere existence. I am not, nor have I really ever cared for, proselytizing. I merely am what I am. I learn from, laugh with, and love christians, muslims, agnostics, atheists, and all those that carry the spark of life.
I love my life and living. It isn’t easy, but nothing worth doing is done without difficulty. I believe in just and unjust, right and wrong, goods and evils. They exist for humanity, but the universe cares not of our concerns. It simply is. If anything were to be labeled ‘god’; the universe, life, love, friends, family, you, me, would be most appropriately labeled as such. However, taken to that extent, the need for such a label becomes superfluous and highly likely to be mistaken.
This is my atheism, this is me, and all that I try to be. I am not overbearing, overzealous, or obnoxious about it. I have been in the past, and I’ve been self-critical about that and have altered my behavior because it was something I did not like. This is in fact what everyone does to varying degrees of success and failure.
Live your lives. They are all fragile, fallible, and precious. That life ceases does not make it depressing, it makes it that much more beautiful. The limitation of time in which we are conscious of the universe in which we reside makes each day, each moment, each hour, each friend, family member, and love-interest that much more important.
Enjoy Life, if only because some died unfulfilled, unloved, unliked, abused, belittled, ridiculed, villified, persecuted, and rejected. Live and love as fully as you are capable, despite your successes and failures in it. Hope is not lost for humanity, it is only lost if we choose to be apathetic towards our fellow creatures.
Change yourself, others will change when they want and when they see fit. Do not expect or force them into change. Change must occur with self, before others change. A life lived beautifully speaks more than any painting, poem, song, or impassioned speech. It is the only real thing that can ever be known.
On the Possibility of a Deity, in reguards to the refutation of atheism and condemnation of a person with atheistic view: If any real deity, of which I feel there is none nor need of one, were to condemn me for this very human state I would not desire to commune with such a deity. The human state in which I refer to is the questioning of the existence of a supreme being to the point of unbelief.
On Faith: Mine is nonreligious and a faith in myself, those whom I love, and humanity despite flaws, fallibility, and frailty.
On Morality: Morals live outside of any one text or person and are collectively and individually agreed upon, enacted, perfected, and reformed. Morals and ethics, as we understand and use them, are applicable only to humanity, as ‘lesser’ creatures and the universe have no need of them.
On the potentially inaccurately perceived hostility or egotistical nature of this ‘personal sketch’: I am flawed and fallible, but I have a natural right to be who I am and speak upon myself when the opportunity exists without fear. I know myself more accurately than anyone else as I’ve spent the most time around all that pertains to and constructs what I define as ‘me’. This is not to say I know everything, am always perceived as I am, or that I know how others feel about me without questioning them. I’m not in the business of conversion, exclusion, witch hunts, prejudice, or hatred. I am a unifier, friend, and lover.
