A part of me is annoyed even considering to write about that topic, it feels irksome to be confronted with a feeling of “need to” but that’s what I do feel, I feel that I have to clarify why I don’t believe in any god.
I could start with the obvious; basically every science known to (hu)man denies its existence for a lot of extraordinary good reasons. Would be a good point, wouldn’t it? Well ye..no. Because religious people don’t believe in science – at least not when it denies their gods. So as awesome it would be to quote various excellent scientists, great experiements and wonderfull books it would only make the mouths of atheists smiling but leave the theists eyerolling and x-clicking.
So what about the fact I was brought up atheistic. My mother was baptizises (lutheran) but never went to church and dropped out when she was old enough to do so, my dad never came in touch with religion. Non of my relatives are religious, though some were members of a church centuries ago but never believed. I grew up the first 5 years of my life in east germany, a communistic regime was ruling and propragandising atheism, after the Berlin Wall was removed we had access to western sources resulting in my primary school offering “free and voluntary religion lessons”. Nobody took them. Berlin is listed the least religious (meaning christian here, in the last years the number of moslems grew rapidly) part of Germany. In my ongoing schooltime I was confronted more and more with religion through classmates from various countries having various religious backgrounds. When I was 7 years old, I asked “Santa” (which I never believed in either) for a book about world religions. I got one and I read it various times, I was more than fascinated. When I was about 13 I decided that judaism is very interesting and I started to research basically everything about it. I read translations of the Torah that were available in the internet, I chatted to a professor for judaic studies in Haifa, Israel, I checked on universities offering judaic studies in Germany and I started learning the ivrith alphabet. And then I told people. Everybody was asking me if I will “become a jew” now, I said I wasn’t sure, though I actually had know that the answer was no. I was fascinated with the culture, the traditions, the language, synagoges, Rabbis, the wall in Jerusalem but I never thought that I wanted to “become a jew”. Jews believe they are the chosen folk, chosen by god. How come you can become a part of this already chosen folk then? The normal way to become a jew is to have a jewish mother. Makes sense. But you CAN join the club through counselling with a Rabbi and proving that you worth it too. Why? How? Did god left some free tickets somewhere?
I didn’t study judaism.
So was my upbringing responsible for my denial of god(s)? If so, do I deny the general idea of god or just the for Germany specific religion, Christanity?
Well I don’t like Christanity. Mainly, because it is around me so much. If I’d have grown up in India, being raised by the same parents with the same ideas about religion, would I mainly dislike Hinduism? Would I walk to Calcutta watching women in colorful Saris and go “oh c’mon!” and roll my eyes? I don’t know but I have a feeling I would still be atheistic but more accepting.
I do believe so because a major point of my growing dislike of Christanity is its easy-goingness. Talk to a moslem and he will defend the Koran loudly, talk to Shintoist and he will not give up his temple visits just because you tell him to…and now talk to a western christian, if roman-catholic, baptist, lutheran does not matter. Realize something? Yep, they are making “compromises” to adjust their religion into their everyday life, they might skip a church service if the airplane is 15% cheaper to see this relative in X, they either not or only sometimes, hiding then, pray before eating (maybe I’m blind but I enver saw someone praying in McDonalds), they will go to confess their sins, knowing they did them, to hear from someone else that god will forgive them if…, they ignore the 7 deadly sins because they are outdated… the list is ongoing. So basically, I don’t like modern christians because they are not willing to sacrifice for what they claim to believe in (they change a whole “god-given” testimony and replaced it with a “new” one, for gods sake). I don’t want to say other religions don’t do that but since I was born in a christian country, it stands out most for me.
I think a big reason why I can’t agree with ANY religion is the almost natural ignorance and intolerance that comes with them. I’m not talking about denying the evolution theory here (even though I would have to say a lot of thing to that one too), I’m talking about the ability of religious people to think they are better then others. For every religious person, his religion is most relevant. Other religions are wrong. But at least they believe in something. The worst are those nasty atheists. They are wronger.
If you ask (just because I know more of them) a christian what he thinks about atheists, he will tell you something about tolerance and that it he doesn’t care but the possiblity that in the very same sentence the “god loves everyone” comes up is high, very very high. If you are an annoying little bugger like I am and question them more and more and come up with the ultimative question, you might get some angry reactions. The ultimative question? It is the following:
If I believe and be good, I will come to heaven.
If I believe but be bad, I will come to hell.
If I DON’T believe at all but am a good person…….I will come to hell.
Right?
You will be surprised about the faces you’ll get.
The other thing is the arrogance. Religious people believe they have rights superior to non-believers. If a muslim father demands that his daughter wears a headscarf to school, even though the school has a clear Anti-Mummery Police, a conference will be called in and the school will eventually obey to not get in trouble. If dancing is part of the PE class but the mormon boy gets told by his parents dancing is evil, the PE teacher must take him out of class without consequences. If a orthodox jew denies blood transfering due to his religious beliefs, doctors must let him die. Etc. Etc.
Religious people also tend to ignore their own rules. Religious people will always expect respect to their beliefs and ways. Fine. But would they do that in return? I don’t think so folks.
If I visit a greek-orthodox church, I wear a overknee length skirt. If I visit a synagoge (and I’m male) I’ll cover my head with a Kippa. If I visit a moschee, I wear my hair closed and my shoulders and legs covered, if I visit a buddihstic temple I won’t make fun of Buddhas big belly.
My future MIL is a believing lutheran. When I see her, I try not to make comments about pre-marriage sex, I try not to swear with religious insults, I won’t diss Jesus or make fun about the whole immaculate conception thing. I will try to behave and be respectful to something that I dislike and disagree with.
But she doesn’t do the same in reversion. Nor does any other religious person who is really into the whole religion-idea. They will tell me that they “prayed for me” when I was sick, something that I detest enormously. The idea that someone “prays” doesn’t make me feel better at all, I don’t believe in god, it means nothing to me, how glad would I have been if that person, if he really cares so much, would have called me in the hospital or sent me a nice card, I would have been very happy about a hug and a “glad you feeling better!” greeting but no, these people pray to their god about it. They pray because that means they don’t have to REALLY care, they can load their guilt upon this guy who they know doesn’t exist for the atheist. I felt offended when I heard I was prayed for while staying in a hospital not long ago. Praying for an atheist is a selfish and actually rude thing to do.
Of course those are not absolutely obvious signs of ignorance, lets be fair and assume they meant no harm and actually never thought about this fact.
But what’s with the obvious ignorance? Comments like: “you just need to have faith” or “that’s a sin” or my favorite, quotations of the bible, are ignorant uses of cynicism, ignoring the fact that interlocutor doesn’t agree with terms like faith, sin and quotes from an irrelevant book. If I invite someone to my home, I don’t want to listen to tiring moralisers that disrespect my views, I don’t want to get cheesy guardian angel figures for christmas that “shall protect me through rough times” and I don’t want to get a withering glare because I use “damn it!” randomly. That is all disrespectful towards my opnions and views and I don’t understand why it is ok to accuse someone to be blasphemic but not normal to expect respect for atheistic views.
That reminds me that I must write about the unfair fact that calling someone a fatty is an insult but calling someone a skelleton isn’t.
Anyway. The main reason why I am an atheist is not the scienctificly illogicalness that a (reputed) omnipotent, omnipresent, is not proofable, it is mainly that I can’t stand the ignorance and arrogance of “believers”.
On another note, the whole idea of, if you believe its followers, flawless thing making so SO many mistakes is just ridiculous. God made humans? And the earth? Why does he overproduce us then, why does he allow airpollution, couldn’t he put a bit more brain into us if he is so very clever?
So god apparently has no gender. How come he is always a man then? What is the great about mary not having sex but getting forced to bear a child? What is the point in the whole Eve ate an apple and now everybody has to suffer during birth thing? I thought Jesus died for our sins, why didn’t he die for Eve’s sin? And why are we still doing sins then? Why is eating a lot a deadly sin? Why don’t we drop dead on the spot when we do deadly sins? What’s with the whole pope thingy? And the idea of kings and queens being positioned into their roles by god?
And most importantly: Why do christians wear the weapon that killed Jesus around their necks and not Jesus himself? Or a heart maybe? What about a lamb or a dove?
If Jesus would finally appear again, and he would die AGAIN for “our” sins, this time, killed by a Kalaschnikow, would people wear a Kalaschnikow around their necks?
I could go on but I will save that for Part II.
So here it is. The desicion. In exactly two weeks, I’ll be on my way to Down Under. Yep.
Nutts Massage bar made out of 
Wiccy Magic Muscles 
