I choose Science over God

I was raised in a Christian tradition with all the holidays. We did not go to church and I often tell my friends that I was Homechurched. My father would read from the Bible from time to time and not necessarily on Sunday. Just whatever day suited him or us. I would often ask to him to read the Noah story. It was my favorite of all the stories and now I suspect that it was because he was saving the animals. I guess it was because it was the only time they weren't sacrificing the animals for god.

I am now 43 years old and I am an atheist. I have not come to this decision out of anger at a deity or a religion, ( though some of the more heinous crimes against humans has been in the name of religion ) I have come to this decision after long and careful thought. I have taken what I have observed in the natural world and I have come to, what I feel, a rational conclusion. I cannot believe in the supernatural as I have observed no evidence of such a phenomenon. My decision is based in a casual study of all the world's religions and beliefs. I have listened to Christians and I have listened to the skeptics. The skeptics have won. Christianity is merely another myth based on many myths that have emerged since, well since I cannot even say when. When many climbed out of the trees and started asking the big question.

As an atheist I am afforded the great possibility of exploring the most profound questions that we face in our time without the fences of a belief system getting in the way of rational thought. I do not have to worry what a deity might "think" if I accept that evolution is a sound theory of science, much in the same way that gravity is a sound theory in science. I have come to realize that science has both the questions and some of the answers and the great thing about science is that it places no restrictions on the mind. If a proven theory has been exposed to new information that might threaten its existence science will allow the information and retest the theory against that information. This cannot be said of religion because it has absolutes and is very resistant to exposing its beliefs to the evidence.

It has not escaped my notice that religion and religious groups have a very hard time accepting the natural world as it is. This makes me a bit sad for them because the world is truly a wondrous thing and perhaps you have to let go of the idea of a "paradise" beyond this world to see that. It is all we have and it is truly an amazing sight and the more you understand about how it all works all the better. I try not to be too judgmental of religions but I have found that I can't help it because religion is constantly trying to impose its will upon the scientific community. It seems to want to suppress science but at the same time pretend to allow it so as to put up a front so that it seems like science is the suppressor. Science by its very nature could not be oppressive. It is the free inquiry of the natural world without the constraints of religion.

I have only recently entered into a discussion of sorts with a group of homeschoolers regarding the creationist v evolution question. As far as science is concerned there is no question as to what should be studied in the schools and the creationists want their "theory" taught alongside or even as an alternative to evolution in the science classroom. What they are asking is nothing short of suggesting that we take a myth about the earth's beginnings and making it a theory without the benefit of scientific inquiry. Creationism cannot stand up to the scientific method and therefore it belongs in a philosophy classroom. This is clear and creationists know this but they have blinders on with regard to this issue for the simple reason that they do not want to alter their beliefs. It is this type of debate that causes so much strife amongst humans. I cannot understand why these people who are thinking and intelligent beings cannot make the connection. It is clear to me that science has proven many things and we all are benefiting at this very moment of thousands of years of scientific inquiry. The computer from which I am typing this message is a direct result of science and technology. The medications that keep us kicking, the cars we are driving around, the homes we live in are all technological marvels that without science and the processes of science would not be here.

God did not give us these things. Science and the men and women who spent their lives studying science, some of which were burned at the stake, are responsible for what you see in front of you the good and the bad for that matter. Make no mistake science does not always contribute good to our world, one very obvious being nuclear weapons. Science provides and it can be a destructive force. In my humble opinion religion rarely provides and is almost always destructive when push comes to shove.

I realize how hard it is for people to make the leap from Christianity to Atheism. I did not make the leap completely. I went through many years of fear until I finally admitted that I might be agnostic and then I went for another several years moving toward atheism. Once I finally accepted that I was an atheist it was a great relief for me, it was like finally coming home.

As a child I was pretty curious. I spent much of my time by myself playing with matchbox cars and dissecting my baby dolls. I wanted to know what was inside. I took my toys apart, much to my mother's consternation and warnings that I would not see another toy if I continued to dismantle them. I did not realize that this was wrong, I found that I enjoyed my toys more if I could take them apart to see how they worked. As I said before I was brought up in a Christian tradition, but I always had questions and those questions went unanswered and now I understand why. I was told about good and evil, god and the devil and I was so scared that I was really a bad child and an agent of Satan that I believed what I was told and I prayed nightly for god to be merciful on my soul. I was sure that because I had questions about things that just did not make sense that I must be evil because I could not see what my parents or my sisters saw. I could not make sense of what it meant to have faith. Faith in what? I thought it meant that I was doomed to go to hell. I was terribly frightened most of my childhood thanks to religion and public school. I spent a great deal of time making deals with god and praying over and over and over with no relief of the fear.

I now live without fear of hell because I know that this does not exist. I can do good without feeling like a hypocrite. I enjoy doing for others for the simple good feeling it gives me and not for brownie points. I am free to enjoy the great mystery of this world and my life and it is a truly remarkable feeling and the only way I can describe it is to make this analogy. I remember hearing stories of folks who say they are "born again" into Christ. Well I could say that I am born again without Christ and oh what a feeling it is. I understand that there is a part of all of us that longs to know that there is something or someone out there directing this entire symphony but frankly that is more frightening to me than knowing that it is a natural and beautiful process of nature and I can now spend the rest of my life enjoying it free from religion.