Changes

    Changes , changes. I am still an atheist, my stance on non-belief is stronger than ever. I am just not angry about it any more.
     I got to a point where I had to understand my anger. I came up with several reasons. I felt like I had wasted a lot of my time and energy on something that just isnt true. When I was younger I went to a christian school. I was also at church every time the doors opened. I had dreams of one day becoming a preacher. ( I think I would have been good at it too.) All of that time was, for me, wasted.
    I felt that I had been made to believe a lie. It was kind of like when children come to understand that there is no Santa, no easter Bunny, or Tooth Fairy. I do know and understand that for those who truly believe, they do not think that they told me a lie, but that is how I felt.
    I felt the true compassion of those who believed. When I first really started to doubt, I asked questions. When I brought these questions to some of the people I love and respected I was not answered with the love and kindness that christians proclaim. ( I must note that this is not true for all my believing friends) . I did not get any answeres at all. I was made to fell like I had done something wrong. They felt ashamed of me, and wrote me horrible letters. So I was pissed for a while. I got over it though.
     I was met with intolerance and anger. I once thought that the christian religion was very tolerant and understanding. I began to understand that that was only because I believed what they did. As soon as I did  not believe any more I began to understand just how intolerant the religion truly is.
   I know that I have made many people mad at me, I am ok with that. My views have not changed a bit. I just do not feel the anger as much any more.I still get angry about a lot of things that religion does. I still get angry that people like me are treated as outcasts and are thought of as evil. It still makes me angry that atheists do not have a voice in this country. But I am not mad at the people any more. I feel like the people are just acting out what their religion demands of them.
   As always I encourage folks to think and really study what they believe. I would think that if someone wanted to base their whole life on a book they would want to know everything there is to know about it. Like the history of the book and how we got it. This will be the topic of my next blog. In order to truley study about the bible you are going to have to read some stuff that was not eritten by believers. Look if I wanted to study about Nazis I would not just read Nazi literature. Same with the bible. It is far from the perfect book you are led to believe. It may be a week or so before I get into that.