Like all children, I was born an atheist and like many children I was subjected to years of attempted indoctrination to rid me of this terrible disease. In my case, the treatments just didn't take. There was too much curiosity flowing through my veins and, as Dorothy Parker worded it, “There is no cure for curiosity.”
This isn't a story of divine love, doubt, a sense of betrayal, an awakening, with a glorious conclusion of freedom and free thought. I have the deepest respect for those who made that journey, who bear the scars of betrayal forever buried deep in their hearts, but theirs is not my story.
My defining moment, I think, was the de-bearding of Santa when I was a wee child of two. Surely my dear uncle couldn't be the mythical Santa! It doesn't seem like such a big thing. I'm sure many children have done it, but for me it served to prove that adults were fallible. Of course, the word “fallible” did not grace my vocabulary in those days, but having to tell one's family that their story of Santa was false did make an impression on my young mind. The scene was repeated just two years later when I announced to a crowd of children at the Sesame Street Musical that Big Bird was just a man in a suit. I remember clearly peering up the leg hole of the costume that my short stature made so readily available. I nearly started a riot! So began my years of apathetic skepticism.
Until my teens I didn't think much about religion at all. Church was just something my family did most Sunday's because my step-dad thought we had to. I spent my time contemplating the passion depicted on the stained glass windows and patiently waiting for the “peace be with you” that signaled my freedom. I stopped going altogether when I was old enough to be left home alone.
Around that same time I took a literary interest in religion. I was curious why people believed the things they did. I read the Bible, the Bhagavad Gita, the Upanishads, the Ramayana, the Egyptian Book of the Dead, the Book of Mormon, the Tao Te Ching, The Epic of Gilgamesh, and every other old or holy text I could get my hands on. Still, I did not understand how people could take any of these stories as fact. Off I went into the field of psychology and there I remained for many years, following one line of thought after another. My overall apathy towards the religious persisted. I use the term “apathy” because if anyone had asked me when I was sixteen, or twenty-two, or even twenty-five, I would have answered with a dismissive wave, “Let them believe what they like. Their silly stories and superstitions are harmless.”
Then politics happened. I'm not exactly sure when I discovered politics, but it ever-so-slowly dawned on me that the people in power believed this nonsense and I began connecting the dots. How much of public policy was written based on their religion-tinged views? Views based on old stories?! So I watched, and I saw the condoned hatred of gays, the birth control debate, the abortion wars, the failure of human rights for certain people. “Shit,” I thought, “9/11 was based on religion!” (I wasn't always so quick.) This prompted me to look beyond my relatively sheltered Midwestern life and into world events. I found still more religiously-based evils and I took my first step into what I would become. “I'm an atheist,” I announced to anyone who would listen. Such a simple statement, but I figured that if I couldn't solve the problem, at least I could make it clear that I wouldn't be a part of it. And so the chain reaction began.
Anyone who has “come out” as an atheist is familiar with the responses. Incredulity. Indignation. Tears. Prayers. “Tough love.” Insults. And...open hatred. So it was with my journey, too. Steeped in this adversity, I grew. I learned.
The term “anti-theist” didn't enter my vocabulary until just a few years ago. I owe that change of heart to Sarah Palin, Ann Coulter, the Tea Party movement, and the attempts of Creation Science to infiltrate our schools among many other issues. It was a very short step from there to “anti-theist activist” which I owe to the rape politicians.
The final stage in my journey to date is the decision that something needs to be done about all of this nonsense. About a year or so ago I began contemplating how. How does one change the whole world? What is the cure for the disease religion? How does one reach out to the indoctrinated and make them listen? I don't know that my answers are the answers, but I will share with you what I have come up with thus far.
So, how does one change the world? I don't know for certain, but perhaps the ripple effect will work. In reaching out and changing only a few minds, those few minds will in turn (hopefully) change a few minds. But, how do we change minds? How do we cure the disease of religion? By instilling curiosity and honest thought in it's place. If we non-believers, as a whole, seek to educate the world, to plant the seeds of doubt in indoctrinated minds, then we are part of the change, we are helping to facilitate the change that is taking place the world over. Those of you familiar with my work know my "tactics" for education.
How do we reach those walled up, indoctrinated minds? This is where I tend to differ from the “New Atheist Movement.” So often I see atheists talking down to believers, calling them names, using mean-spirited provocation. I'm sure I've been guilty of it on occasion, too. It is incredibly frustrating at times trying to reach past the religious condescension, but, as the old adage says, one catches more flies with honey than vinegar. Conducting ourselves with patience, compassion, and love will evoke far more positive change than anger and mean-spirited witticisms. Many of us were once one of them. But, if we keep the end goal of a tolerant world, free from religious dogma and hatred always in mind, perhaps we can further expedite the change that has already begun. Perhaps it will aid us in remembering patience. Perhaps we can give to our children the world we hope for.
So, that's it. That's where I'm at in my journey. Know that my heart is with the doubter trying to come to terms with non-belief, the faithful blindly living in servitude to an imaginary god, and all those working for positive change in the world. I wish you love and happiness. Thank you all for being who you are.
~Ratia Vox~
(Atheist, Secular Humanist, Anti-Theist)