Why I Love
Being Atheist!
Matt
From: "Satan"
To: "Positive Atheism" <editor@positiveatheism.org>
Subject: love
Date: Thursday, August 24, 2000 1:22 AM
Yes I am an Atheist and yes I am very happy with my life right now. Is it all because I'm an Atheist? Of course not. But it has made a lot of wonderful contributions, enriching it far beyond what I had expected.
First, Atheism has increased my desire for knowledge 10 fold! I cannot read enough books! And my retention of what I read has increased as well! Why? Because I must constantly defend my disbelief. This requires a broad based defense from many sources. Evolutionary theory alone is enough to keep you occupied! But to defend Atheism properly you must also learn about all the other branches of science such as geology, paleontology, anthropology, biology, etc..to defeat the weak creation "scientist's" (LOL - the combination of those two words always makes me laugh!) claims. Then you must learn how to debate. I have read what I consider the true master Atheist debaters: George H. Smith, C. Dennis McKinsey, James A. Haught and Acharya S. Which brings me to another field of study. You must have at least partial knowledge of other religions to show that what Christianity tries to present as unique and it's own is actually old and stolen. And finally, history is a definite must!
Second, Atheism gives me the chance to do one of the things I love to do, debate! It excites me to think that there is always a new person to engage. Some thiests are easily defeated but others hang on, only being defeated entirely when they leave as they will never concede to losing, they will just say "they have faith." Which of course just means, "I imagine that it's true..." I love the awesome responsibily of being one of the few capable of freeing a mind from the shackles of religion. It is a beautiful thing to see a person see the world as it really is for the first time! It's almost like they are born again...lol!
Third, my Atheism has made me much more self sufficient and appreciative of my life and and what I have. It has also given me a greater appreciation of the lives of others. Because I know this this life is the only chance we get. There is no after life. It's mythology. With this in mind, you really begin to cherish life on a new level. You realize that there is no sky fairy watching over you so you learn to rely on your own natural capablities and the strength of other real people. It gets you off your ass because you realize that there is no invisible cloud man to hand you the good life on a silver platter. You must earn it.
My Atheism has not been an easy journey. It has been filled with many obstacles. Not everyone is willing to accept your choice. Even your own family can and will sometimes turn against you. I've both seen it and experienced it. My parents and relatives though, after much explaining, understood and accepted my choice. It just took a while to break the hold of Christian programming. You must realize that a lot of Christians, for some reason, think that Atheism is synonomous with Satanism. Once you explain that this is blatantly impossible then they calm down. :)
These are my feelings on this beautiful thing we call Atheism and how is has changed my life.
---Matt
"Intelligent is he who believes when it has been fully proven using logic and reason, than he who blindly believes anything he has been fed, for this man is gullible."
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