I Only Have One Set of Footprints, Thanks.

I have never believed in god, and I never will.
 
Most people do not believe me when I say this. They try to insist that I will eventually see the light or find my faith or feel the presence or their own personal melodramatic euphemism of choice, but I am confident in my opinion. One that I did not reach without education or independent thought.
 
I grew up going to church sporadically, if only because all of my mother's best friends went to our local Congregational Church. My father stayed home, referring to himself as a "recovering Catholic." I was baptised and confirmed; however, even throughout all the classes that I attended for my confirmation at the ripe age of fourteen, I already knew that I did not believe in any god.
 
I was a member of the Youth Group at my church throughout high school; however, I saw the group solely as a way to do community service, not as a religious experience. Except, of course, for the time that we accidently ended up at Jesus Camp in Tennessee one summer, and my Northern-as-they-get minister had to explain to all of our puzzled faces what the Southern Baptists meant when they asked if we had been saved. The church I went to was the kind that allows you to substitute in the pronoun of your choice when referring to god, which is probably why to this day, I feel weird when people refer to god as a him. (But that is a whole nother topic for a whole nother time.)
 
I have always seen religion as a crutch: some people need it to support them (and that's great for them), but I just never have. I've gotten through the difficult times in my life without reliance on religion. I can totally respect that people get comfort out of the idea of there being a Heaven waiting for them at the end, but I've always been much more into living the life that I have now rather than waiting around for the possibility of another.
 
The word faith has always irked me, especially since I have mostly heard it used as a response to my many questions about religion. When a concept doesn't make sense, "it's called faith" just doesn't cut it as an answer for me (this is particularly in reference to the aforementioned Southern Baptists). I can't just "have faith" that Jesus could be all divine and all human at the same time while simultaneously being one-third of an entire spiritual entity- especially when that three-part entity is then the basis for a monotheistic religion. Those pegs just don't fit into the assigned holes.
 
I've heard many people justify god's existence with the fact that the Earth is perfectly designed to hold the life forms on it. Humans thrive here, all the animals know exactly how to live, the Earth continues spinning at the same speed every day. How could something so perfect be created by anything other than a higher power? Coincidence. The universe is so immensely gigantic and infinite that there is a statistical guarantee that there would be somewhere within that vast space that would be perfect for human life. The Earth is the space that worked out perfectly, conveniently for us humans.
 
Others use the justification of all of the unexplained mysteries of the Earth. There is so much about the universe that cannot be explained, doesn't there have to be a higher power to control it all? No. Think about all of the things that have been discovered over the past 250 years (a virtually minuscule hiccup of time in the overall age of the Earth)... the X-Ray, the Periodic Table, Penicillin and Insulin, the Internet. People used to believe the Earth was the center of the universe, that you couldn't get pregnant if you jumped up and down after sex, and that leeches constituted medical care. New discoveries are made every day; new mysteries are solved all the time. Gravity existed before that apple fell on Newton's head, it just didn't have a name, or thus, an explanation. The world is still evolving and humans are still discovering new things. If people had used the lack of knowledge about space as a justification of a god, we may never have travelled to the moon.
 
My best friend, Hannah, is a Religious Studies major. Although not personally very religious, she spends of her time studying the principles, dynamics, and interactions of all the world's major religions. Raised by agnostic-Christians in a predominately Jewish town and currently engaged to a Muslim, it's easy to tell why she is intrigued by the effect that religion has on the world.
 
In a recent discussion with her, Hannah brought up the point of divine inspiration. While we both agreed that most everyone would concede that religion has been a cause of multiple conflicts and wars over the years, Hannah was arguing that that is all people focus on. If a composer is so inspired by his god that he writes a piece of music that revolutionizes the world of piano, no one thinks to acknowledge religion for its positive aspects; yet they are always quick to blame 9/11 or the Crusades solely on religious extremism.
 
While this is most definitely true, the difference between the two ideas is both the point and the downfall of the argument. While many people can appreciate art, rarely does it save lives; always does war cost lives. It is not a case of the ends justifying the means. Religion does do good- it helped me to build houses for impoverished families- but it is used to justify far more evil. People decide to become suicide bombers for many reasons, most of which we will never be able to fathom, but they are not all religious reasons; however, it is both the bombers themselves and the public that justify the actions solely with religion as the cause.
 
I am certainly not trying to turn anyone into an athiest- that would be just as obnoxious as the zealots who bang down your door trying to get you to convert. All I ask is that you make sure you are educated in your beliefs because understanding is the single most important part of religion. It is not alright to blindly follow any way of life simply because of tradition and antiquated rules, religious or otherwise. It is necessary to discover the meaning behind these rules and traditions and decide if they are right for you. Besides, what good is doing something if you don't understand the meaning behind it? What good is giving up something for Lent if you don't fully understand the motives behind the sacrifice?
 
I did my research and I am confident in my decision not to make religion a part of my life. In fact, I think that my atheism has actually helped me to learn about religion more clearly because I am not blinded by bias. Most people cannot study religion objectively because they are so sure that their own sets of beliefs are correct so they fail to be able to understand other religions. Just as the U.S. is so grossly Christian-centric, most are unable to focus outside of their own beliefs. Being an atheist gives me a unique perspective with which to think objectively about religion.
 
Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/martinleonard/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0