I'm an atheist, but not a practising one
I'm in an odd position that until I was in my early 20's, I was a pretty devout Christian. So I know a lot about the Christian church, the way it works, the theology, the rituals and the "myth".
I also know that when you're embedded in the society, it's hard to break out of the mindset and "questioning" isn't encouraged.
I also know that it isn't all paedophiles and brain-washing. There is, at core, good there. However, it's not anything that shouldn't/couldn't be instilled by parents.
I know my faith started leaving when I had to question the religion. It began with the Nicene Creed which asks God to forgive all those who aren't Christians (along with a load of other stuff). I couldn't understand it. If I was born an Indian or Chinese, my faith would almost definitely not be Christian. I'd be whatever faith my parents were. So I learned a bit about other religions and found that there are other monotheistic religions that essentially worship the same God in pretty much the same why. Why would God make me say a prayer that asked for Muslims to be forgiven, when they worship him too? Surely all He wants is for his little people on Earth to praise him and get along?
The cracks appear then. You notice that a lot of "good Christians" aren't actually very nice people at all (again, this isn't a blanket thing, there were certainly a lot of very pleasant Christians). They're greedy, selfish and manipulative - even up to people who are "ranked" like the church wardens, readers, etc.
I realised that in truth, some people don't really seem to actually believe in God as much as they believe in the Church, or the rituals. Certainly the things taught by the bible and faith seemed to pass them by completely. Christians should help each other, be
genuinely nice to each other and avoid "sin". Yet some wouldn't say hello in the street (and certainly would think four or five times before pissing on you to put you out if you were on fire) and most of them regularly sinned and repeated the same sins.
I couldn't understand a couple of things really.
1. How can they go to church each week to be absolved of their sins and keep repeating the same sins and claim to be "religious"? Surely when you stand in front of God and he says "why, week after week, did you do the same things and make no effort to correct your ways"?
2. How people who act (outside of church) in such an un-Christian manner can call themselves Christians? It's a way of life, not something you force yourself out of bed for every other Sunday, if you can be bothered.
Once those cracks were in place, the whole thing started falling apart. Religion just doesn't work.
Then you start to research beyond the doctrine and find out that the entire thing is balanced on the belief that God told people (the same kind of people who play act at being Christians each week) what he wanted in his religion and how people should behave. You have groups through history making decisions based on "God's word to them". People "directed by God's hand". What if, just what if, these people weren't? What if they were doing it for their own political gain? What if the sin they asked for redemption for every Sunday was the sin of "religious manipulation for selfish reasons"?
Religion is built upon the broken foundations of corrupt/corruptible men.
I spent a bit of time wallowing around in agnosticism (and by definition, all atheists are to a degree agnostic), but in my late 20's I did more reading, more research and had a lot of discussions with people about it. I eventually came to the conclusion (which was always obvious) that if there is a God, then he has no influence on us at all and is worthless and chances are, there just isn't one at all.
The thing is, it does take a long time to leave indoctrination and think for yourself. Religion is built on guilt and ignorance. You must remain ignorant and unquestioning or we'll make you feel guilty.
The thing is, I'm not actually anti-religion. I'm anti-religion trying to affect the world. Hixee's amusing post above sums it up. I think there are some things religion teaches that we should follow. We should be nicer to each other and stuff, but it's just the kind of thing people should learn anyway.
I'm struggling at the moment because Maxi-Minor_Furie is a firm believer in God and Jesus. His school isn't supposed to be religious, but it is in the way all British schools are. I could say I want him excluded from all religious ritual, but... I believe that you can't make a choice without experiencing all the options. I also believe it's healthy and natural for a six year old to have imaginary friends.
The biggest issue is that I'm not going to get into a theological discussion with a six year old. It's something that is hard to do, to tell your child that his teachers are wrong. At that age, there is a level of trust that "adults in charge" are right about stuff, especially big stuff like God and Santa. To destroy that trust is a problem. Who does he believe? It's tough at that age to understand that different people can believe different things when it comes to fundamentals. It's something we'll have to tackle soon though and he can make up his own mind, just as long as he doesn't expect me to go to a church service and pretend to say things I don't believe in.
