I tried hard to believe in God. I really did. In fact, once upon a time, I believed that there was a God. And a Heaven.
“Something had to make us”, I’d exclaim. I believed in angels and spirits. I believed there were people who had the ability to channel a dead person to relay a message to a loved one. I believed in all of this without any need for proof or evidence. Yet I didn’t believe in Bigfoot. Or Santa Claus. Or fairies. And I didn’t need any evidence to deny their existence.
So why did I believe in God?
One day, I realised that I didn’t. This wasn’t a belief. This was a hope. A hope that my life wouldn’t be wasted. That once I’d died, that wouldn’t be the end. I would go to somewhere unimaginably beautiful rather than falling out of existence. That wasn’t belief. The same way I didn’t believe in the teachings of the Bible or any other religious artifact. To me, that book was just a way of controlling people in the past. So if I didn’t believe in what was said in the Bible, why would I believe in God or Heaven? You can’t pick and choose. You either follow a religion and it’s teachings or you don’t. You cannot decide which parts benefit you the most and accept only those.
All this lead to me becoming an Atheist. Well, truth be told, I began by calling myself an Agnostic. “You can’t prove there’s no God either”, I’d think. So I just sat on the fence. Until, one day, I really thought very hard about what it was that I believed. Not hoped for. Believed.
“Did an invisible, almighty being create me and my surroundings? Hmmm…I don’t think so.”
I began to study religious teachings and religious debates, trying my best to understand both sides of the arguments. But I couldn’t. I found it almost impossible to understand why people believed in something that they had no proof or evidence for and why they’d attack Atheists who believed in the scientific explanations.
Again, I think the reason = Hope. That and the fact that they’ve been taught from a young age that this is the truth.
Hence why this idiot, Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly, argues with Richard Dawkins, stating that Atheists “have no moral foundation.” Well, Mr O’Reilly, I can assure you that even though I was not taught any Bible teachings as I child, I was brought up with a certain moral foundation – you do something good, you feel good. You do something bad, you feel bad. I learnt what was right and wrong and I, nor can anybody else I know, be likened to Hitler or Stalin.
Now, don’t get me wrong – I know that not all religious followers are idiots. I have a few friends who are Christians, Jewish, Islamic, Sikh and Mormon. And neither do I have any intention of telling any of them that they are wrong, as I have as much evidence of God’s non-existence as they do of his existence. It’s just my belief.
Not hope. But my belief. My hope is that when I die, I do go to a heavenly place where I’ll see my passed loved ones. But I don’t believe I will.
I also believe that there is life on other planets. I don’t say that this is the truth, but it seems very plausible to me.
So until the day that my heart stops beating, I will continue to follow my morals and enjoy my life.
And if there is a God…well, I’m sure he’ll accept me for who I am.
