I am an atheist

That's right. I don't believe in a god, and if that offends or shocks you, I'm sorry, but you'll just have to accept it because you aren't going to change it.

There is a call to action by many "militant" atheists for all atheists to stand up and be counted. To "come out" as it were. I think it's time we did so, mostly because religion is being used in such a perverted way these days and threatening to shoot us back into the dark ages after all the progress we've made in the last century or so. I mean "we" as in society in general. This is especially true in the U.S. Gladly, Canada, along with the UK and other "enlightened" countries hasn't fallen quite so far into this trap -- so far.

I am an atheist and have been since I was 16 years old and suddenly had an epiphany (if I can co-opt the Christian term) that I simply could no longer buy into in the Judeo-Christian-style concept of a god that I had assumed all my life up till then was in charge up there. Perhaps my parents or my educators didn't do a very good job of explaining the nature of God to me (and I only give that word a capital G because it's his given name, not because he's A god). Perhaps if they hadn't brainwashed me with this mental picture of an old man with a long white beard sitting on a throne up in the clouds, I may have had more tolerance for the entire concept of "deity.

"Militant Atheism" doesn't sit very well with me either, to be honest, but it has its points. I dislike it because it's combative, which makes it no better than the attitudes of many theists, who believe that if you don't believe in their particular brand of sky-god, that you'll burn in hell for all eternity, or that it's okay to murder you and your children and be rewarded for it.

I personally don't feel a need to convince others that there is no god, although, I'm a little baffled by the whole idea of religious belief. It's always seemed kind of odd to me that otherwise intelligent adults can believe in a spirit for which they have no concrete evidence, espeically when there's so much hard evidence to refute many of the theistic beliefs, such as creationism. It's always seemed strange to me that strong, capable men, who are otherwise very sensible and practical, will pray and worship something they've never seen, something they have no more proof of than the brainwashing they've received all their lives to believe. I'm equally convinced that there is no god as they are that there is, yet I feel no need to go out and convince them that they're wrong.

On one condition...that they let me believe what I want and don't try to change my mind. Tit for tat.

Militant atheists like Richard Dawkins (author of "The God Delusion") are generally very smart, sensible people, but they're far too offended by the whole idea of religion. They have to relax a little, for crying out loud. Then again, as someone once said, it takes the radicals in any movement to make the rest of the world listen to and accept the ideas of the moderates. I guess that's what Richard Dawkins is doing for the rest of us moderate atheists.

As for me, I do agree that atheists need to stand up and be counted. Christians and Jews and Muslims go around wearing the symbols of their faith on their bodies so all the world can see what they believe in. Even I go around wearing a star of David - but only because it has sentimental value. I have often wished that there was a symbol that atheists could wear to proclaim their own belief (or lack thereof). Imagine my surprise when I found so many others with the same idea when I googled "atheist symbol."

My favourite was the circle with the stick coming out the bottom, a simplified magnifying glass, symbolizing scepticism and scientific research. But as soon as I read someone else's description of it as a lollipop, I lost interest in that one. I saw another that incorporated the pi symbol, which was nice, and one that used a stylized DNA strand, also very clever and attractive. I think it has to be something that can be drawn very easily by anyone...very simple, preferably semetrical. But also something that can be beautiful if rendered in an artistic way. Something that people would like to wear in place of a crucifix or star of David.

I think it's important for atheists to come out because it will at least show the rest of the world that they're not completely in charge. Why should atheists hide? It's really not unlike what it used to be like to be gay. When gay people started coming out of the closet they faced a lot of discrimination and persecution, sometimes even lethal. I've heard stories about atheists who've gone public being persecuted in much the same way. Threats, vandalism to personal property, job loss, social ostracism. Why should that be tolerated?

The biggest challenge atheists face is that you can't prove something doesn't exist. And we'll always have that problem, at least until the rest of the world lets go of their mythologies and superstitions. Then it will still be unprovable, but nobody will care.

A few times I've gone out looking for a sense of community in my atheism, but always come away feeling disappointed because I either find a bunch of atheists sitting around ridiculing theists, or I find progressively more hostile debates between theists and non-theists, which just make me frustrated and sad. I don't want to debate. I just want people to be allowed to live their own lives without feeling like they have to change everyone else to their own opinion.