INTRODUCTION
I could tell you how I morphed from a young Catholic boy, sweet and epistemically snug in my first communion cardigan, to a middle-aged skeptic comfortable with existential uncertainty. I could describe how the death of a child rattled my preconceptions about an all-good creator and led me on a spiritual search through theology, philosophy, biology, cosmology, mythology and history, ultimately leading to a rejection of all things supernatural.
BODY
I could try to convince you that we reside in a purely naturalistic universe. I could attempt to demonstrate the human authorship of all of history’s gods and the holy books ascribed to them. I could labor to show the historical, scientific and logical fallacies of many of religion’s claims. All of this could be done.
But these aren’t the reasons I abandoned my belief in God. The reason has nothing to do with the substantial evidence for the nonexistence of a deity. They have only solidified my position. The reason I’m an atheist has everything to do with the entire lack of evidence for a god.
Theism makes a positive claim about the nature of reality: “God exists.” Atheism is simply the lack of that belief. Atheism makes no claims. Therefore, the burden of proof falls exclusively on the theist. Yet, the fact that we continue to debate the topic of God’s existence proves theism has thus far failed its probative responsibility. Certainly, if God manifests himself in reality, we should be able to detect him in some way. If he doesn’t, then he would be indistinguishable from nonexistent and should be treated accordingly. Yet, no one, ever, not even once, has been able to demonstrate anything supernatural. And so we are told to take it on “faith.”
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, I wrote this to stand up and be counted with those who believe science has eliminated gods from the necessity of creation, complexity, order, morality and truth. I hope to maybe plant the seed of doubt in someone’s mind, the way it was planted in mine, and possibly move another person away from superstition and tribalism toward reason and acceptance of the beautiful and humbling fact that we are of the cosmos, not the point of it.
I want other nonbelievers to know they are not alone. In some places, apostasy can get you killed; in others, just shunned and ostracized. I know a number of people who think like me but are afraid to be open about it for fear of how their family, boss or social group might react. As people increasingly leave faith behind, being openly secular could amount to the next great civil rights issue.
