Brand New Atheist

I sent an email to about 12 of my friends today to share this new blog. The first response was a good one. My friend Rob (a pastor), asked “Why I waited so long to come out of the closet?” Excellent question.

First of all let me explain that when I was a believer I kept it to myself. So when I became a non-believer I kept it to myself. Fortunately I began writing everything down. Even when I thought I might share this new part of me there was an obvious concern. How will friends treat me, will they suddenly become afraid of me somehow?

In “The God Delusion” Richard Dawkins says, “The status of atheists in America today is on par with that of homosexuals fifty years ago.” Thats’ a scary thought, are people going to fight me because of this? It’s reason enough to be concerned or take precautions. In my previous post, I thanked several individuals for their help. They helped by indicating what it’s like to be a known atheist in America today. They all said hate mail is virtually non-existant. So if christians only occasionally get animated then should I worry about Muslims? Then I realized, they view christians and atheists as infidels, so we are no different to them.

Now that I’ve ruled out threats and harm, who am I afraid might know that I’m an atheist? No one.

Christians openly show what they believe with their Jesus fish on their cars, and their crosses hanging from the rear view mirror. If they can openly share their personal beliefs without fear of harm then so can I.

To answer your question Rob, “Why did I wait so long to come out the closet?” Fear of the unknown, I really didn’t know what would happen when people found out. I wanted to wait and get some answers from seasoned atheists about whether or not I was endangering my family (because my family come first). It was only 5 months ago yesterday that I decided I was an atheist, so it really hasn’t been that long.

After a conversation with my wife earlier I realized, had she been born 500 years ago she would believe the Earth is the center of the universe.

This is important because today she does not believe that. Why? Because of the empirical evidence that science has proven. You would be considered a lunatic today if you believed the Earth is the center of the universe. The bible has many references that have been dis-proven through science. Realistically speaking it’s only a matter of time before science dis-proves even more of what the bible teaches it’s followers.

“Think of all the answers we have today that once was a scientific answer and was replaced with a proven religious one. You won’t be able to think of one, but turn that around and the list gets very long. Think of all the religious answers we once had that are now explained by a scientific one.” Sam Harris

I heard Mike Huckabee say that he would always refer to the bible answer if it conflicted with science, in which I told my wife, “Mike Huckabee believes the Earth is flat and is the center of the universe.” In reality he probably (I use that word loosely) doesn’t, which means he picks and choses what to believe is true.

Just as many people ignore the bible referring to the Earth being flat, 100 years from now believers will fully believe in evolution and ignore that part of the bible that it conflicts with. They will reject Genesis and focus on the parts of the bible science has yet to dis-prove.

An example of religion interfering with and holding back science is Galileo’s discovery of the Heliocentrism in 1616 (the theory that the sun is at the center of the Universe). The Catholic Church banned the reprinting of Galileo’s work for 100 years because they contradicted the Bible. On 31 October 1992, Pope John Paul II expressed regret for how the Galileo affair was handled, and officially conceded that the Earth was not stationary, as the result of a study conducted by the Pontifical Council for Culture.

This example is exactly the reason evolution is not being taught properly to our children today. Religion still has a tiny hold over this evolution, but it will fall through and evolution will be taught in the same way Heliocentrism is.

Side Note: Heliocentrism is a scientific theory as is the theory of gravity and the theory of evolution. All of these theories have enough evidence to be considered facts.

The people today that don’t believe in evolution are tantamount to those people 500 years ago that thought the Earth was the center of the universe. And they will be replaced with people who do believe in evolution. And so on and so on until bible believers have nothing left to cling to and the bible is little more than an ancient novel.

It’s only a matter of time until science disproves almost every aspect of the bible and people are capable of living without a God.

There’s a great line in the first season of “Lost” where Jack asks John if he’s going crazy, John says, “You’re not going crazy, because people who are going crazy think they’re getting saner”.

Using that kind of logic I would not be able to even have this train of thought. But I do think I’m getting saner. I think things make more sense now.

A great line from Men in Black.

“1500 years ago everybody knew the Earth was the center of the Universe, 500 years ago everybody knew the Earth was flat, 15 minutes ago you knew that people were alone on this planet. Imagine what we’ll know tomorrow.”

I can’t wait.