“Atheist” doesn’t mean “evil”

[rug]

By A.J. Moyer - 05 17 16 - 6:00 am

I’m an atheist. I’m not usually highly vocal about it, and don’t think it really has much bearing on whether my thoughts and opinions are valid. I get into religious debates once in a while, and I can be as condescending as anyone arguing a position they hold as superior. I’m not perfect, but I still have a good moral and ethical code. I know the difference between right and wrong. I work with children, prop up people in my community, and try to do good things for others every day. “Atheist” doesn’t mean “evil.”

I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts, Reply All, recently. Their story was about Paul Modrowski, a life inmate at a maximum-security prison, who writes a blog by mailing handwritten posts to his mother who then types them up and posts them. When he identified himself as an atheist in one of the posts, she editorialized because she “didn’t want people to think he’s evil,” implying that atheism is a greater evil than murder.

This is not a self-contained incident. If I tell people I’m an atheist, regardless of any legitimate accomplishments or influences in my life about a third of them will immediately change their opinions on me significantly.

I don’t think religion or religious people are evil. I grew up in the church, so much so that I became a youth leader and was asked to represent our congregation for a regional meeting of the larger church body (called a synod).

http://suindependent.com/atheist-doesnt-mean-evil/

[heaven05]

1. while I admit that

Last edited Fri May 20, 2016, 07:38 PM - Edit history (1)

I am a person of minimal faith in believing some all knowing entity that created all we know including evil and sin can expect me and all generations/human to pay for the alleged mistake of two people so many millennia ago, I can understand how an atheist can exist and why. Religion as created and perpetuated by the two most popular religions on this planet have brought more grief, misery, warfare, misogyny, racism and just plain HATE than any other tool in the hands of human beings since those two in that garden, alledgedly, didn't listen to God about when to engage in some intimate interaction that has cursed and destroyed many an individual, male and female since the beginning of 'recorded' religious time.

As a human being who in the past had joined the most popular american religious faith, Christianity, I have had, since 1980 a mixed experience in trying to increase my faith and understanding of living as an active Christian believing that a God who came here as a man had my best interests in mind when he sacrificed himself for my so called sins. After being "born again", as a person of brown skin with a significant other who was of a different color/race than I, we started attending a Southen Baptist church, since the person who led me to Jesus was of that faith. First big mistake. Our experience there ended with an assault against my skin color in the name of Jesus and by the pastor of that church. I did not know the SB had since slavery times relegated POC to second class citizens of faith. I soon found out. Long story short, my significant other and I, with whom I had been with for 10 years, were not to sit together during services because it upset some of the parishioners. Yes actually told us this when we met with that pastor to formally join his church. She and her two children were to sit elsewhere, not with me.

I got very angry and if my close friend had not been with me, I might have committed a felony that evening. We left and never returned. To the relief of many in that congregation I'm sure. We tried a couple of non denomination churches but still, to a lesser degree, faced rejection based on our interracial relationship. Ham was still cursing me with his Canaanite blood. Southern Baptist believe people of Canaan were black people. I guess somehow after Ham saw his father, who was of Noah of the Ark fame, naked and was cursed, he somehow turned into a person of color?

Anyway since I'm growing tired of reliving this incident in my mind, I will say that all atheists ARE justified in their beliefs and I applaud their and your courage of conviction. Conservative RW CHRISTIANITY AS CREATED BY MAN, RADICAL ISLAM BEING THE OTHER MISGIUDED OFFENDER AGAINST THE HUMAN RACE HAS CREATED MORE HATE THAN I CARE TO ACTIVELY BE A PART OF. The child in me even at the age of 68 still hopes for a better experience after this life, BUT HUMAN EXPERIENCE HAS LEFT ME WITH ONE ADULT HOPE, THAT OUR CONSCIOUS SPIRIT MAY LIVE ON AND EXPLORE THIS VAST UNIVERSE WE ARE A PART OF and that evil as practiced by the hitlers of the world, current and past, will be only a human anomaly that will not follow into whatever consciousness awaits us.

[rug]

2. Sorry you encountered these people.

The history of the National Baptist Convention may interest you.

http://www.nationalbaptist.com/about-us/our-history/index.html