On Atheism

The last time I posted on the question of a god, I was extremely undecided as to my own stance. Since then, however, I've come down much more solidly on the atheist side of things, often quite strongly and verbally so -- witness me calling the existence of a sentient, all-powerful deity "little short of ludicrous".

There are a few reasons for this change. The obvious one is that, since I cannot agree with the existence of a god as most commonly expressed, I am effectively an atheist. There is, however, a more philosophical reason why I've deliberately made this change.

Whatever my beliefs, I am confident at least that I disagree with the Judeo-Christian conception of a god. However, I worry that many people, having been brought up in the fairly heavily religious culture that I discussed previously, tend to just accept the idea of an existence of a god as a universal constant, whether intentionally or otherwise. They just assume that all civilized or reasonable people share the basic framework of their beliefs. I, personally, feel that it is extremely healthy for such people to have it almost shoved in their face that not everyone agrees with them. I think the society as a whole needs to be faced with the idea of reasonable, intelligent people, who honestly believe the prevailing ideas are mistaken. We can't, nor do we seek to, prove that we are right, nor even to persuade anyone to atheism. All I ask for, and I suspect many atheists agree, is more general recognition that people of our beliefs do exist, and won't be converted. Recognition that whatever you belief about god, you are entitled to that belief, but it is merely a belief, not The Truth, and that they can't necessarily assume anyone agrees with them. This recognition, it seems to me, (again, see the linked post), is far underrepresented in our society, and it is to that end that I sometimes will attempt to force it in peoples' faces, to a degree, that I am in fact an atheist, and do emphatically, but also reasonably and calmly, disagree with the prevailing notions.