I found myself commenting on a blog post about faith recently by stating that I have none. No religious faith, at any rate. I have faith, more or less, that the sun will rise tomorrow , that my husband most likely won't cheat on me, and total faith that my kids are perfect. Although that latter one strikes me more as fact than something I need to believe in. It's just true- obviously.
I have faith that when a small red dog bothers a skunk late at night we will most likely be heading out for Skunk Removal Product in the morning ( and that's how *my* Friday began...yours?) , I have faith that the ground will stay beneath my feet ( I lost that faith in California where occasionally it didn't).
Anyhow, I digress.
I am an Athiest. I suppose I could say that really I am an Agnostic but lately I have been feeling militant. Most folks, in this country, have a belief in what Bill Maher calls "The Space God"-that Being that sits somehow removed from us in an odd place called Heaven and yet also active in our daily lives. I don't. That makes me, in this society, an Atheist.
Even if The Space God were to show up on my doorstep I would probably kick Him/Her/It/ Them out for doing a really lousy job. No, I won't worship anything that allows things like the recent Earthquake in Italy, The 2004 Tsunami, and a myriad of other nasty things like,say, skunk spray. I am not arrogant enough to think that any sort of Supreme Being would have an interest in my tiny life ( have you looked at the Hubble Telescope pictures lately folks?- if there is a God it probably doesn't care about out little lives here).
Go here for a list of common misconceptions about Atheism
So, what do you all think? Apparently after Carl Sagan died his wife , Anne Druyan, was asked if Carl had finally become a Believer as he approached death. She is reported to have said" Carl didn't want to believe. Carl wanted to know". I'm with Carl.
I was raised Christian, dabbled in a variety of New Agey ideas, and , over time and experience, have come to think that there is no one in charge. Or at least no one like the God my mom believed in- an all loving God who watches over and takes care of everyone. I have seen zero evidence of that Being.
Science is the best tool humans have for understanding reality and it does a pretty good job, all things considered. I'm sticking with that until someone can convince me that there is something better. So far I have found nothing. And I have looked. A lot.
ETA: This isn't a choice: I should add here , for understanding, that I could no more choose to believe than I could choose my eye color ( tinted contacts notwithstanding). I don't believe because I don't believe. I have tried. I don't think I got the "God gene" .
