the following was written as a reply to a friend who questioned whether atheists just don't believe in god, or whether they have some problem with christianity, specifically. my answer is the first time i've put down my thoughts about my atheism and my feelings about religion in a fairly clear and concise form, so i thought i'd share it here:
both.
i gave up on religion when i was 24. i grew out of it, because the moment i try to look at any of it objectively, it falls apart. my wife still believes and goes to church, but the kids have the same problem with god that they did with santa claus: it was a relief to them when they learned it was a myth. they couldn't make sense out of it any other way.
i understand that religion can be a comfort, especially when you lose someone you love or when times are hard. i don't have any issue with that, regardless of what your religion is. i was good friends with our pastor in minnesota and the jesuit priest at the catholic church we went to and used to have spirited debates with my dad's cousin, father fred. all are sweet people and genuinely believe that religion can be a good thing. and in their mouths and hands, it is.
but if you use your religion as an excuse to discriminate, promote public policy that is not in everyone's best interest, teach creationism in public schools, take money or power from the needy, or to try and counter a logical argument, i will slice your arguments to pieces and likely knock your block off, because all of that is just plain wrong.
i find all religions equally silly, but my experience has been that evangelical christians push religion into everything. many of our neighbors are jews, muslims, hindus, etc. they never say anything bad about anyone. that's not true of many of the christians that i know. in fact, one of our relatives who is an elder in his church once told me that members of his congregation regularly sit in at their local mosque 'so them muslims get the message'. he was actually proud of this. i was dumbfounded; this was a sweet, funny man. how can he be such a monster and not even be aware of it? and maybe that applies to me, too.
everyone's atheism is their own, just as i'm sure that everyone's religious experience is different. sometimes i envy you your faith. it would make everything so much easier and less terrifying if i could just believe. but an invisible old man in the sky who rewards me for being good and punishes me for being bad? i'm a grown man; i try to be good because i care about other people, no matter what they do or don't believe, and we teach our children to do the same. we don't need the promise of some vague reward or the fear of some equally vague punishment to try and be decent human beings.
