Quote of the Day, Department of Religious Affairs

[bloodyrosemccoy]

“When I say I realized I was an atheist when I was a teenager, I’m simplifying things a bit, because I was always an atheist. My big revelation wasn’t so much a realization that I was an atheist as it was a realization that other people weren’t.”

This quote was brought to you by our discussions of churchgoing at work. My coworker was totally cool with my being an atheist, because he’s one too, but he was also puzzled by the idea that I had been raised that way. Who knew atheism could be the default setting?

Comments

[stormteller.livejournal.com]

It's always seemed to me that Atheism is just another religion, or at least a religious position. People can be raised into it as easily as any other ideology, and grown people can convert to or from it just as with any other. It's not a more inherently sensible idea than any other.

(I'm an ignostic, by the way)

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Oh, it's definitely something you can get from your upbringing, but atheism is not a religion--it's a lack thereof. Atheism has no formal tenets, no supernatural beings or concepts, no sacred narratives. I'll buy religious "position," but only in the sense that it's outside of religion.

And hell, I do think it's the most sensible idea, because I subscribe to it!--but I ain't gonna tell others what to believe.