It’s Cool To Be An Atheist
Part Six of a Multi-Part Series “Towards Religion and Meaning”
Note: This is a multi-part series, if you haven’t read the previous posts, I highly recommend checking them out to catch-up before proceeding, here.
- Part One: Why I Turned Away From G-d
- Part Two: Declaring My Atheism
- Part Three: The Repugnancy of Religion
- Part Four: The Superficiality And Thoughtlessness of Religion
- Part Five: The Silencing of Religion
During my teenage years, the number of my peers who would come to identify as ‘Atheist’ skyrocketed. This was best represented in my junior year, when all IB Diploma candidates had to take a course entitled “The Theory of Knowledge”.
Theory of Knowledge was effectively a philosophy course that touched on some of life’s greatest questions: purpose, happiness, etc, all of which had general answers supplied by various religions. And yet, religion never came up. This was likely due to religion’s negative stigma of anti-intellectualism and violence amongst my peers.
Finally, I felt like I could have an intellectual discussion with my peers about these important topics. And I didn’t plan on ever looking back — the pride I took in being one of the first to explore Atheism also precluded me from ever reconsidering / re-examining religion.
I recall explaining to one of my classmates (when he was considering Atheism) how the process of removing a G-d would leave them with a way greater sense of awe for the universe and allow them to more readily forge their own path. A common phrase I would use was “I wish I was religious, because then I’d have all the answers.” It was true, the featured video (below) would come out a few years later and accurately sum up my beliefs.
As religion gave way to Atheism, my peers underwent an Renaissance. This coinciding with teenage years only furthered its effects as my classmates would explore their beliefs, sexuality, identity, etc… it was a brilliant time and people were thinking for themselves. Atheism had finally become ‘cool’.
