My atheist manifesto

I have been sitting on this post for some time but thought it might be too inflammatory and goes against my principle of inflicting my belief system on others. As it goes it does explain a lot of what I am about so here it is, my atheist manifesto……



I do not believe there is a god. I do not reject theism for practical reasons. I don’t seek to go out and commit sins against my Christian upbringing. It allows me to be a more moral and accepting person than I might have been otherwise. It may not work for everyone but it is my faith.

I do not care what your religious or political beliefs are, your race or your sexual orientation, you can be my friend. I can respect any person except bullies and the narrow minded.

I achieved this enlightenment some 25 years ago. I can remember the moment, although it is growing dim. It was an epiphany. I felt I had achieved spiritual wholeness through the acceptance that this is it. There is no more, there is no external influence, what you see is what you get. I felt at one with my existence, my place, role and importance in the universal all. The feeling lasted many weeks, and, now and then it returns. I wonder in awe in the all that is.

I raised in a fairly lax Christian environment. At best my father was agnostic while my mother followed the teaching of her adopted church more closely, but not very. I even went to Sunday school on a few occasions. I guess at that time I believed in the churches version of history. As I grew and questioned the world more closely, this belief diluted through the usual stages; God exists but the church is not his real representative, something started all this but has since found better things to do, there may or may not be a god and, finally, the actualization of my spirituality.

My belief is renewed every time I look with wonder at the world. I see the myriad of random events that have lead to this point. I see the acts of humans changing human history. I see evolution at work in every aspect of nature. I feel and try to understand the geography of my environment on my travels and sense the great interactions that govern life on this planet. I know in my soul that no omnipotent, omniscient entity had anything to do with it (yes I know the universe does contain all the information within it but it misses out the potent bit).

I have love, family and friendship and when I die my existence ends. This is enough for me. I do not need anything else. All that I do and all that I will become is contained in the period between my birth and death. The only aspects of my existence that will continue are the memories of those that knew me and the effect my life has had on the world. Neither of these will be a part of my life.

My morality is based on my understanding of what is right and wrong. I learnt these values from my family, friends and society over the years. I uphold these values but I am human. When I break my personal code I feel shame and remorse. If I break a societal code then society will deal with me. I do not seek forgiveness from an all powerful entity. What I do is my fault and can only be forgiven by those who I have caused harm or paying my retribution as set down in law. There is not right of appeal to a higher being.

I believe in free will and believe free will is not associated with immorality or amorality. Humans, as a whole, are essentially good (if somewhat selfish). I know that you can have a moral framework without fearing the rathe of a God.

I do not blame my present on the will of some unseen force. I arrived here through the sum of all history but chiefly as the result of my own actions. All history brings me to this point; from the first quantum tick of the universe through to spending this lunch time pecking away at a keyboard. Random outcomes summed to the present. My future starts now with every decision I make and how that interacts with the present state of reality.

I feel a responsibility to those who will come after me. It is my duty to them to minimise my impact on the environment and to leave a decent society. The goal of all life is to propagate. Given humanities supposed higher intelligence our goal must be to ensure our species continues grow and prosper. In this respect I fail badly. My consumption of resources far outstrips my share of the Earths sustainable output. I see wrongs and let them slip by without comment. I know there is much more that I can do but don’t. It is those that are left after I am gone, not a deity, who will judge me (and you) in this regard.

Most people are inherently good. They just want to live their life, raise the kiddies and get on with life. Throw in a few psychopaths and you have organised religion. Some last long enough for the tradition to continue – some for thousands of years. I don’t understand why people get involved with these things. Sure, if you are raised in a tradition you seldom have any choice until you mature, but people who join these various gangs later in life are a mystery to me. Some, through circumstance, have no choice either. I would hate to admit I was an atheist in Tehran or Kansas. In that circumstance being the voice of moderation and progress would be the only option.

Taking up the banner of a religion and using it to gain power over others is one of the most immoral acts I can think of. Regardless if this is to convince a person to detonate a bomb on their person or to gain some political advantage it is wrong. There are lesser crimes in this category such as perverting a religious text by ignoring the central message – be good to one another – to vilify some group in society or using religion to whip up a mob. Intolerance is the root of all evil, money is a distant second. Preaching intolerance is unforgivable.

You may have realised that I have a problem with organised religion. These organisations, which ever god/s they serve, seem to be the source of much evil and suffering in the world. From Anglicans to Zoroastrians they are all guilty of some crime against humanity. Don’t get me wrong, the vast majority of the devotees are good people, it’s just that as soon as you get an organisation together some psychopath (referring to the clinical definition) will corrupt it to their own ends.

There are many ways to argue the non-existence of one god or another but I will not repeat those arguments here. There can be no proof of faith. I do not hold the view that believing in a god is wrong. It is important to have some reason to live for. If theism provides meaning to your existence then excellent but don’t be mislead by those who will try and pervert your holy book to their own ends.

I try not to inflict my belief on others. I simply believe the world would be a better place without religion. That is my opinion. When involved is a discussion on theology I openly give my view and argue my points but that is that. I don’t go out knocking on doors or handing out pamphlets. My belief system works for me and that is good enough.

In the words of one religious leader “live twice, live a good life and when you get old you can look back and enjoy it again”.

Live long and prosper.