Today is Ask An Atheist Day.

[Phillip McCleod]

58. the missing question, asked and answered.

there's a missing question. since i've heard it enough times to know it's out there, unasked but implied, i'll just go ahead and ask then answer it, for myself, and invite other atheists to answer as well..

'why?'

each non-believer will have a different answer. here's mine, and i'll try to keep it short..

i read too much. at the age of about 17, the first time i called myself an atheist in my out loud voice (i'm 40 now), i decided to read every holy book i could find. it might seem implausible but if you think about it, there's not that many actual *holy* books out there. the bible, duh, and it's apocrypha of various mystical strains is mountainous, sure, but the bible itself has only so many pages. same with the vedas and the avesta .. the book 'o mormons and the koran .. it's get's complicated with buddhism but honestly by the time i was 24 i'd given up, anyway, so the point became moot.

ever read the bhagvadgita (sp?) i bought a copy at age 19 from a krishna in durango, co and lemme tell ya.. krishna was *not* a loving guy. ever read the koran? mo was also .. uh .. trying to make alexander look like a local yocal. and succeeded. he was a conqueror first and then a prophet. it's in the book.

hell i read the corpus of gardnerian wiccan texts and as many books on freemasonry as a.e. waite and manly chose to publish. it's all different strokes for different folks that should *never* have *any* influence of public policy! because some of those 'different strokes' involve taking the heads off of non-believers (not just atheists.. anyone who doesn't believe in that particular strand of fantasia).

look i've lived all through the western u.s. most of my life and even the much ballyhooed native american religions have some perverse side-effects that you just have to see for yourself, since they, like atheists, aren't 'people of the book'.

religion can be just fine, in private, in the closet, the door closed, as some such prophet or avatar or another commanded. once you bust it out in public, it's fair game for me to poke holes in it's silliness.. rude or not rude, i'm not beheading anyone to impose my point of view.