Born Again Atheist

Atheist seemed like too strong a word. It seemed too hostile towards religion. What changed? Why am I now calling myself atheist?

Oddly enough it started with volleyball last week. I'd like to play volleyball, but all I know of are church leagues or nonsocial pay-for-play competitive leagues. It occurred to me before to check into Secular Humanism, and here was a good chance. Perhaps there are Secular Humanist social volleyball leagues? As it turns out, no, not that I can find. There just aren't enough attendees.

As the web goes, one link lead to another, one Wikipedia article lead to another, and I found myself touching upon atheist web sites. Oh the uncomfort. Why are they so hostile? Wait a minute, I've been feeling more and more hostile towards organized religion lately. The bullshit they spout, and I don't just mean Biblical dogma. I mean blaming man-made and natural disasters on homosexuality. I mean fighting contraception. Attacking the separation of church and state that keeps this continent from being a constant holy battleground like some other continents.

That and reading a couple of atheist books helped me realize that I'm not the agnostic I claimed to be since my teens; I'm an atheist. Spirituality I can tolerate. Organized religion is really pissing me off, though.

Certainly hostility will come through this blog from me, but it's not the focus or purpose for my blogging here. I think once I get over the pent-up hostility from suppressing my atheism from myself I'll work more towards being a tolerant and accepting atheist.

Then I can start building pent-up hostility for suppressing my atheism from my acquaintances. Yeah, I'm seriously worried that one of the more nutty Christians would want and try to hurt me. Hopefully not one of my acquaintances, but surely they would scurry away and pray for me at their next service, and all it takes is one nutjob.

I had lunch with a coworker today. We had a nice conversation about our weekends and families, and being the pious man he is worked Abraham into the conversation. It didn't bother me like it might have a couple of weeks ago now that I'm come to terms with my atheism, but I did wonder how tolerant he would be if I talked about my atheism.