Most people, when reading the title of this article, will have one of two reactions. They will either immediately see the word atheist and make negative connotations from there, or they will simply look past that word. These two types of people can be the difference between ignorance and tolerance. For me, I have not always been an atheist. I went to church with my family on Sundays, although nothing was routine. I went to Sunday school. I learned about Noah and the Ark, the crucifixion of Jesus, and the betrayal of Judas. As a kid, I saw these as things I was simply supposed to learn. It was never something I liked doing. I would leave church with a sense of relief, a sense of relaxation. I knew from that point I would never grow up to be a God-fearing Christian, or have any connection with any religion. I have probably been an atheist longer than I think, considering it is frowned upon in our society to announce such a belief.

Around the middle of high school, I began to see the world differently. I saw the pain and agony this world offers to some of us, sometimes fair, but most often times not. I began thinking to myself, "How has an omnipresent being of divine power allowed this to happen?" Some argue it is us who do it to ourselves. I would then question why God created Man to begin with (and why Adam and Eve had belly buttons in paintings, but that's none of my business). I first started questioning the very existence of God when I started observing things that always had a scientific explanation, like nature. Many people see nature as a work of God himself, when simply scientific theories and explanations can account for such events. The Greeks believed a man in a chariot pulled the sun across the sky when it's simply because the Earth rotates on an axis. There is also my belief in utter randomness. I started to believe maybe we aren't special when we survive a tragic car accident. Maybe it was simply luck. Maybe it was what we did that determined whether we died or not. Maybe that last minute jerk of the wheel resulted in you hitting a tree rather than the oncoming 18-wheeler. God did not tell you to do that. Your free will did.

A theory that caught my eye not too long ago, introduced to me by Neil DeGrasse Tyson, is something called the God Gap theory. This is something I truly believe, and if some people have a problem with it, then I would then ask them when the last time a snake gave them an apple. In essence, it suggests that throughout the existence of Man, the very limitations of our knowledge of the known universe is constantly growing, thanks to developments in scientific design. Dating back to Isaac Newton, he wrote in his journal that he simply could not understand why our solar system did not simply fly away due to deviations in gravitational force. He concluded that it must have been up to some divine power. Years later, another astronomer was able to figure out why. It was not because of divine power, but because of science. The God Gap theory simply states that as time progresses, the things we believe to be of divine power will slowly shrink. Something we believe to be of divine power now may be solved decades from now due to advancements in science.

I also noticed the hatred between religions. The whole idea of the "I'm right and you're wrong" mentality doesn't seem to be unifying anyone. Very rarely will you see an atheist argue with another atheist about anything, let alone go to war with them. Religious wars are some of the most bloody wars we humans have participated in. All for simply believing "I'm right and you're wrong". Some countries still suppress human rights on the basis of their religion, and some people don't question it. Others do, and pay the price. I have seen that religion has provided societies with an excuse to govern people a certain way. Religion creates its own set of morals, most of which conflict with societies today.

As a final thought, many religions have their own idea of what happens after death. If you want to count, there are several hundred versions of the so-called afterlife. We as humans can only understand what happens in our observable universe, with the exception of the multiverse theory. The idea of not knowing something can be a scary thing for a species that wants to know everything. We may never know what happens when we flat line, when we move on from this world when we are taken from our loved ones. This is why religion is such a big deal for some people. It provides a sense of resolution, a sense of comfort. It allows us to believe that we understand death, when in fact, we haven't had a clue. Religion is simply a safety net for things we cannot understand, and that is the very epitome of ignorance in my book.

I hope that with this article, it will allow others who think the same way to come out and state their beliefs. So long has atheism been seen as the opposite of the social norm, and I hope this article is seen as proof of our advancement of our freedom to say what we believe in.