First, some definitions. Ethical...conforming to a standard of what is right and good. Honorable, moral, noble, principled, virtuous.
Atheist...one who does not believe in the existence of a god; a non-believer.
The religious mindset tends toward dichotomous thinking---good and evil, black and white, believer and heretic. Because of this, most religious people
in the world (I'm speaking of all religions here, not just Christianity) view the non-believer (the atheist) as the complete antithesis, the direct opposite of themselves. If they consider themselves moral, they think the atheist immoral.
If they are kind and gentle, the atheist must be mean and hateful. If they are sincere and trustworthy, the atheist is a liar and a cheat. Since they are striving to be the very best, most god-like creatures on the face of this earth; then surely, the atheist has to be the most vile and degenerate.
Well, to quote the famous 1920s songwriters, George and Ira Gershwin.......
"It ain't necessarily so."

I am an atheist; but in all other respects I am exactly like you, Dear Believer. We are both human beings. We both have the same potential for good or evil, and a thousand subtle shades of gray in-between. We can both thrill to the strains of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, or to the enegmatic luminosity of
Da Vinci's Mona Lisa.
There is only one difference between us. You have chosen to suspend your reason and to 'believe' that for which you can offer not a shred of evidence.
I have chosen not to. I do not have your need to believe. I have, instead,
a need to know. I cannot replace knowledge with belief. I cannot replace common sense with wishful thinking. And I cannot pretend to believe,
in order to please you, for I cannot trade my intellectual integrity for hypocrisy......not anymore.

For years this was exactly what I did. When I first realized that I was, indeed, an atheist, I hid it from you, Dear Believer. I cared what you might think of me, for I knew what you would think of me. I knew exactly what you would think, for up until that time, I thought exactly as you...but then I changed.
I saw myself as an atheist.

Upon seeing myself in this new role, I realized that it was not I that had changed, but my perception of the world. I had always tried to be an honest, moral, thoughtful and caring person . I still was. I was the same person;
I hadn't lapsed into some primordial pagan state. Not believing in God had not made me some sort of Satanic devil-worshiper; for Satan is no more plausible to me than God, or Budda, or Mohammed, or Zeus, or Jupiter, or Ra. What actually happened was that I could no longer view God (the Christian Yahweh) in the context of religion; but instead, I now saw him in his appropriate place--a mythological figure in a long line of mythological figures from the beginning of time. I was seeing the universe (nature) as it really is, as it has always been, and as it always will be; not as how I had been told that it was (religious dogma) or as how I might like it to be (wishful thinking).

At this point, I quote the great nineteenth century freethinker, Robert G. Ingersoll.

"When I became convinced that the Universe is natural -- that all the ghosts and gods are myths, there entered into my brain, into my soul, into every drop of my blood, the sense, the feeling, the joy of freedom. The walls of my prison crumbled and fell, the dungeon was flooded with light and all the bolts, and bars, and manacles became dust. I was no longer a servant, a serf or a slave. There was for me no master in all the wide world -- not even in infinite space. I was free -- free to think, to express my thoughts -- free to live to my own ideal -- free to live for myself and those I loved -- free to use all my faculties, all my senses -- free to spread imagination's wings -- free to investigate, to guess and dream and hope -- free to judge and determine for myself -- free to reject all ignorant and cruel creeds, all the "inspired" books that savages have produced, and all the barbarous legends of the past -- free from popes and priests -- free from all the "called" and "set apart" -- free from sanctified mistakes and holy lies -- free from the fear of eternal pain -- free from the winged monsters of the night -- free from devils, ghosts and gods. For the first time I was free. There were no prohibited places in all the realms of thought -- no air, no space, where fancy could not spread her painted wings -- no chains for my limbs -- no lashes for my back -- no fires for my flesh -- no master's frown or threat -- no following another's steps -- no need to bow, or cringe, or crawl, or utter lying words. I was free. I stood erect and fearlessly, joyously, faced all worlds."

At that point, everything made sense to me. It was all so perfectly clear. In my mind, reason had defeated superstition. All the religious dogma in my mind became 'dogma-doo', something to be cleaned up, cleared out, to be replaced with fresh, natural freethought. I was now a FREETHINKER, "a person who forms opinions based on reason, independent of tradition, authority, or established belief."

And replacing the dogma was HUMANISM, "a secular ethical philosophy which (1) values people, (2) emphasizes reason, and (3) focuses on the world in which we live."

I will expand on the concepts of freethought and humanism in future articles; but for now, let me return to my main point ---that I can be both ethical and
an atheist. Yes, I am a good person. No, I don't believe in God.
No, Dear Believer, I am not going to the hell in which you believe. Beliefs, whatever their nature, are simply imaginary. I live in the real world, and I have no difficulty accepting the laws which govern the real world, the natural world.
Like my cat, when I die...that's it. It's over. It will have been enough. I don't presume to expect more.

Dear Believer, I know that you and I will never be able to reconcile our philosophies, but I can like you as a person, and you should be able to afford me the same courtesy; in fact, doesn't your philosophy demand that you do?
I don't expect you to see things as I see them . I consider myself one of the lucky few, to have broken free from the years of indoctrination by society, church, family, and friends. It wasn't easy. The human mind seems to be hard-wired, predisposed to this 'need to believe'. I'm thankful I have managed to re-wire this circuitry of my mind. .

Have you ever stopped to consider, Dear Believer, that you are an atheist, too? You don't believe in Allah, the god of Islam; therefore, to the Muslim you are an atheist. To the Hindu, you are an atheist, as you are to the Buddist.

You disbelieve in all the other world religions except your own,
and you also disbelieve in all the thousands of ancient gods
who ever reigned in the mind of man.

We're really not so different, you and I.   I simply believe in one less god
than you.

When I contemplate all the wonders of the universe, I stand in awe of nature's diversity, for my mind simply cannot comprehend it all. I don't have the time nor the brain capacity to simultaneously engage in the contemplation of any sort of supernatural world.

"But something so awesome must have had a creator," you say.

"No," I reply, "something so awesome has merely evolved."

Please accept my RIGHT to freethought, as I accept your RIGHT to your beliefs. You may view my ideas as heretical and blasphemous, as I view your beliefs silly and barbaric. I cannot respect your beliefs, and I do not expect you to respect my ideas; but I do RESPECT YOUR RIGHT to those beliefs, and ask only the same consideration from you in return. Please...don't pray for me. I find it condescending and insulting; in doing so, you are effectually saying, "I'm right and you're wrong."

Don't try to save my soul, and I won't try to open your mind.   Deal ?

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