The Rationale for Atheism
Atheists sometimes get a bad name. I’ve been an atheist for more than 50 years. It’s not that weird.
I consider myself an atheist, a freethinker, a scientist, a skeptic, and a secularist. As an atheist, I do not believe in the existence of any gods. I don’t know for certain whether there is a god, and neither does anyone else. Perhaps we all find out some day; perhaps we do not.
People may choose to believe in the existence of one or more gods because it gives them solace in difficult times, a feeling of purpose in life, a sense of community, comfort through the rituals of their church, a hope of eternal existence in some form, or an explanation for the universe. Many, I suspect, believe in god simply because that’s what they were taught as small children and they have always accepted it as truth without any evidence, investigation, or thought on their own.
I have never felt the need for a god for any of these purposes. I’ve never felt anything was missing in my life because I didn’t believe in, or feel the presence of, god. It’s not important to me whether I exist in some form after my natural death. This is the only life that I know for certain that I have (yes, even if we’re living in a computer simulation), so I will live it as well as I can instead of hoping for a fabulous but…
