Am I throwing the baby out with the bathwater?  Did my experience as a Jehovah’s Witness sour my oulook on religion as a whole?  Why am I an atheist anyway?  These are not questions that have been burning on my mind lately.  As far as I’m concerned, I’ve answered them satisfactorily.  However, this seems to be a common response from those of the Christian faith upon hearing about my transformation into a life that is not based on belief in a God.

It’s not that I’m not open to being convinced otherwise, it’s just that no one has been able to convince me.  Those who try seem to think that God’s existence is some sort of default, that unless I can prove he doesn’t exist, he does.  Why this line of logic seems to only be applied to God and nothing else I can’t be sure.  For every other matter of existence vs. non-existence, it is the one making the claim of existence that the burden of proof lies with.  If I claimed Bigfoot exists, most thinking people would demand proof.  It would be the same with Leprecauns, fairies, and ghosts.  Yet, in only one issue, the existence of God is deemed by many to be a default, that the burden of proof lies upon the unbelievers.  This demand for proof of absence is not logical, but emotional.  It is an assertion the believer holds close to his or her heart, and any skepticism of their belief is deemed intolerant, ignorant, and foolish.

I believe this also partly stems from a misunderstanding of what Atheism actually is.  Atheism is not about making the assertion.  No Atheist believes that God absolutely does not exist.  Atheism is merely not having the belief due to lack of sufficient evidence.

This weekend I spent some time with a variety of religious people, Christians of a few different types.  It was definitely an eye-opening journey.  I spoke with my older brother who doesn’t follow any certain denomination, my aunt and her husband who follow the teachings of the Mormon Church, and finally I visited a former coworker who is involved with his local Independent Church of Christ, where I attended Sunday services.

The conversations with my brother stemmed from a situation this past week with my family.  He left the Jehovah’s Witness religion long ago, studied with various faiths, and eventually assembled his own unique philosophy.  Anyway, being a staunch believer, he found my non-belief hard to accept, but said that he would love me regardless.

I was perfectly happy to leave it at that.  However, after seeing some of the discussions I was having online, the next conversation, though pleasant at first, soon became a launch pad for his attack.  He made his points, I tried to make mine (I was cut off a lot), and technical troubles with his cell phone ended the conversation.  I decided to take a mini-vacation after that, so I called my Aunt and arranged to meet them the next morning.

The next religious conversation I had was with my Aunt’s husband.  He is a Mormon as far as I can tell, but wasn’t direct about it.  There were two parts of the conversation that stuck out to me.  First, he stated that scientists hated the Big Bang theory at first because it requires someone to “set off the spark.”  I found it odd because in reality, most Christians seem to hate the Big Bang Theory for precisely the opposite reason, that it doesn’t require a supernatural cause for the origin of the universe!

The second part I found quite disturbing.  It was when he told me that he would think nothing of killing people if he didn’t believe in God.  To me, these are the kind of Christians everybody should worry about, the kind of people who are only held back from being murderous fiends with a belief in punishment from a supernatural being.  It is therefore not morality that this man’s God gives him at all, but selfishness, merely a desire to avoid punishment.

Sunday morning, I went to my friend’s church, an independent Church of Christ in the suburbs of Detroit.  I met a few of the church elders, the pastor, and attended the teen pre-worship meeting with the Youth Minister.  The Youth Minister was quite a pleasant fellow, and we had many things in common.  I enjoyed his company and he is one of the few people I meet that I can feel at ease around right away.  The meeting began with discussions of a trip they were planning, and consideration of a verse about being merciful toward non-believers.

It seemed strange to me.  There seemed to be this fixation on these “mean Atheists” that corner kids in school and tell them their beliefs are ridiculous.  Does that really happen?  I can’t really say.  I’m not in grade school anymore, but I suppose it could.  Children often aren’t very polite with each other.  Anyway, one thing that struck my as quite disturbing came from my friend.  He was telling the teens about the role of a man and a woman, that the man is the head of the house.  Why?  “That’s just the way it is.”  No explanation, no clarification, just ‘that’s the way it is.’

I’ve noticed a certain duality with some of the Christians I have encountered.  Some, such as my brother, will claim to be tolerant and respectful of my non-belief, but will turn around and attack it at every opportunity, whether it is on purpose or not.  My friend claims to not be dogmatic, but when it comes to the role of a man and a woman, will say things like “that’s just the way it is.”  He will agree with the minister on the pulpit who says that the Bible is the only way to teach morality.

After the youth group, I went into the main auditorium.  The building wasn’t old, but much older than most Kingdom Halls I’m used to.  The ceiling and walls were cladded with a medium-toned wood, the vaulted ceiling rising high above the congregation, supported by thick, wooden beams.  Certainly this was designed for acoustics in mind.  The pews were wooden as well, the same color as the ceiling and walls, but mercifully padded.  Red, hardcover bibles as well as hymn books lined the backs.

The services began with a hymn, two verses from one and a third from another.  There was no musical accompaniment, but the acoustic design of the vaulted ceiling reverberated their voices, ensuring there was no need.  The quality of the singing (and the songwriting) was much higher than what I was used to in the Kingdom Hall.

A visitor from the church’s eastern Europe ministry arrived with some news of “progress” the church had accomplished.  They seem to be big on government sponsored (I like to say “enforced”) religion in school, and was helping the Ukraine government achieve that goal by providing Bibles for Bible classes in the nation’s public schools.  The visitor claimed that the youth of that country are in crisis, and have no moral compass, and thus the only true moral compass is the Bible.  They’ll just have to skip over the part about raping prisoners of war and forcing them to marry their attackers, how God thought it was a-okay for Jepthah to burn his daughter alive as repayment for victory in battle, how sinners should be killed, and how happy you’re supposed to be when you dash your baby against the rocks, I guess.  I mean that’s what American churches do, right?  Oh, I forgot, they come with some mental gymnastics about how what the Bible says isn’t actually what it means.

Anyhow, after another song and prayer, there was the admonition for those who wished to come forward and be baptized.  Apparently this is usually pre-planned, but unlike Jehovah’s Witnesses, it doesn’t take months of bible study courses and a three-part question-and-answer session with the body of elders in order to “qualify” for baptism.  The only question that was asked of the baptizee was “do you believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God?”  If I were a believer, this approach would definitely be a selling point for this church, since it is the most biblically-based.

As much as I’m pointing out the things I don’t like in this church, there are many things I would like if I were a believer.  First off, the singing is excellent. Secondly, the humbleness of the church service was astounding, standing in sharp contrast to the dogmatic utterings of the Watchtower Society.  Finally, the people of this congregation do seem to be truly striving to emulate what Jesus taught as best they can.  They reject the heirachal structure the Watchtower organization has (even though they deny it), and seem to do a pretty good job.  There are some leadership positions, but it seems like they only have as many of these positions as they need, and no more.  There is no central authority in the Churches of Christ, no creeds, no publications save for A Newcomers Guide to the Bible.  Even then, it’s not looked upon as “spiritual food” or any source of specific doctrine.  If I were a believer, this group would most definitely be on my short list.

Overall, I found my friend, the member of the Church of Christ to be the most pleasant and most tolerant towards unbelievers.  What I like the most was that he has the ability to let go of that issue and continue our friendship unaltered, something I suspect my brother and quasi-uncle will be unable to do.

I will make no qualms about the fact that I am not as knowledgable about science as many other Atheists.  I know enough to refute the standard arguments about things like evolution and the Big Bang, but I don’t always remember them off the top of my head.  I don’t think someone needs to be a pHd and read A Brief History of Time in order to be considered “smart enough” to be an Atheist!  The claim of the supernatural, by the believers own admission, requires faith, belief that is not based on evidence.  Atheism doesn’t mean you’re on this great crusade to debunk Christianity, all it means is that you’re not asserting anything!  It doesn’t take a lot of brains to not do something.

Besides, who wants to live their life like it was one big debate contest?  Not me.  Because to me, that isn’t living.  I don’t attack every Christian who says something I disagree with because the vast majority of the time I don’t care. When I do care, I write it on my blog, and that way if the Christian doesn’t want to hear what I have to say, he doesn’t have to.