One of the biggest questions I have heard as an Atheist is "why do you hate God?" It would seem an odd question to ask given that Atheists do not believe in God, yet the question still lingers. I think the people who ask this have a difficult time understanding how someone cannot believe in God, so in their minds there must be an underlying hate towards God. In all actuality, I have never met an Atheist who has become an Atheist because they hate God for doing something to them.
Like me, Atheists are Atheists because they have looked at science, logic, and reasoning and have come to the conclusion that any sort of god or goddess does not exist. Some of these people come from an already secular family others come from highly religious backgrounds. Many of us do not just wake up one day and think "today is the day I decide there is no god to believe in." It is not one of those things that happens overnight. It can take anywhere from a couple months to a year's journey of deciding that someone is Atheist.
A big reason for people having a hard time to admit they are Atheist is because of the stigma behind it. Like I mentioned earlier many think we hate God. Probably more popular than hating God, though, would be where we get our morals from. I could not tell you how many times I have heard someone question how someone who does not believe in God could have any morals. Well, it does not take a belief in a god to know what is right or wrong. Unless someone has an antisocial disorder, most of us have a moral compass shaped by what is appropriate in our society.
We know that murdering someone is wrong whether we go to church and be told that or not. Morals have a lot more to do with what we are taught from our parents, our peers, and society. Humans have the ability to feel empathy and compassion for people regardless of reilgious beliefs or not. I know that stealing is a bad thing to do because of the people it hurts. How would I like to have something stolen from me? Just because I do not have a God to prove to that I am a good person does not mean I am going to go around murdering people and the same for other Atheists. If Atheists are so immoral then why don't our prison systems have more of them?
The last stigma I want to address in this short article to you is a question I had never thought of until one of my friends recently asked me. She asked me "how do you enjoy life if you don't believe in God?" It was an intriguing question, and one that I was also taken back a little by. Did she really think that I could not enjoy life without believing in God? So, I decided to answer her question. I told her that I have the world around me and that I do not need to believe in God to appreciate the beautiful things this Earth has to offer. I can still enjoy the beauty of nature with the wind in my face or the hot sun beating down on my skin. There are waterfalls, streams of water, and even huge redwood trees that contribute to this Earth. How could I not enjoy life with all of this? I don't need a god to be happy, I just need me.
