I have contemplated faith for most of my life. I have thought deeply about religious beliefs, and even attended bible study in elementary school, Young Life in my early teen years, and church a few times at the end of high school—all at my own will.
My mom (who is spiritual, but doesn't participate in organized religion) read to me about different religions when I was growing up, because she wanted spirituality to be my choice. My dad (who is an atheist) never really discussed religion with me, but certainly didn't discourage faith.
When the topic did come up, he always said that his "religion" is to be the best person he can be. To him, this means never intentionally hurting another person—emotionally or otherwise—as well as avoiding inadvertent harm at all costs. It also means living life "by the book"—never engaging in or supporting unethical behavior.
Struggling with my own doubts about the existence of a God, I chose to follow my dad's footsteps. After all, it seems that the primary purpose of religion and faith in God is to establish a moral code to live by, and isn't my dad's philosophy accomplishing the same goal?
The difference between religion and simply creating one's own ethical guidelines, however, is the absence of judgement and pressure to conform to certain ideals in the latter. My major gripe with religion is that God is supposed to love and accept all of His children unconditionally, yet the bible establishes that we are all perpetually living in sin. The last time I checked, unconditional love was defined by accepting people for who they are—not who we want them to be.
I have serious issues with being made to feel as though everything I do is wrong because an incredibly outdated institution says so. While the standards established in the Bible don't impact everyone negatively, some people can't be who they are because religion shames certain conduct. Having to conceal one's true self is difficult and hurtful. How can religion claim to advocate the highest level of moral standards, while blatantly ignoring the most important morals of all—kindness and acceptance?
Choosing to live by my own, self-imposed set of morals has been the best decision of my life. I feel free to support marriage equality, have sex despite not being married, get tattoos and dress to express myself, terminate a future marriage if need be, and favor women's right to choose. Miraculously, none of these things affect anyone other than the person supporting or engaging in them, so what's the problem?
I don't mean to say that religion causes people to be judgmental. Today, most religious people are very tolerant and simply use religion as a source of personal comfort and guidance—and that's wonderful. The point is, religion is personal, and one's views shouldn't have a negative impact on others or cause one to think negatively of those who diverge. Like many demographics, religion isn't a choice. Sure, we can choose how we exercise our particular religion—by going to church (or not), by praying (or not). But our faith—what we truly believe—is involuntary.
Regardless, atheism is constantly looked at in a negative light. Atheists aren't bad people. And this should go without saying, but atheism is NOT devil worship. (Seriously. I've had at least two people tell me that's what they thought I meant when I said I'm an atheist). We are just people who don't believe in God. And for the record, we don't believe in Satan either. We are just as likely as religious people to believe in and exercise goodness.