Why I am an atheist – Ric Baker

I am an atheist because I got lucky. My luck came in two forms: good parents and an education in critical thinking. First, my parents had a large hand in developing my atheism. No, please don’t think that my parents “indoctrinated” me into atheism like religious parents indoctrinate their children into their superstitions. In fact, the opposite is true. My parents protected me from indoctrination. Like almost all people raised in the United States, I was reared in a relatively religious community and was surrounded by believers. Now, having grown up in the North East, my community was not nearly as rabidly religious as some, but I still felt the pressure to conform to religion as a child and felt the fear of damnation. But when others would try to indoctrinate me, my parents would subtly counteract it by explaining that what they were telling me was not THE way to believe but merely one among many ways that people believe. By simply exposing me to other religions and beliefs, I was able to see that none was more rational or believable than any other.

I was also naturally intellectually curious, and I always loved reading From a young age, I devoured every book I could get my hands on. This trend continues to this day and led to my being thoroughly educated in critical thinking and philosophy. In fact, I received an MA in Philosophy with a specialty in critical thinking. Anyone who has not been indoctrinated, who knows something about critical thinking, and who has read widely is bound, in my opinion, to come to become an atheist. And thus I did. My atheism is indeed deeply rational and scientific, but I do recognize that I was lucky to reach this conclusion based on the preparation I was given in my childhood.

Ric Baker
United States

http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2011/11/08/why-i-am-an-atheist-ric-baker/

You really do give the term "christian" a shot in the arm.


Well done.

you cannot distinguish why belief in any one is better than any other - they effectively cancel each other out.

Most people do not choose their religion - they are born to it. If god's true faith is found in both the christian and the muslim next door, then god is a schizophrenic.

It's not really that big of a stretch for anyone.... people with "religion " have already eliminated every OTHER religion .... expect one.

why try to get into one of the many heavens if you will end up in all the other hells? most religions say you go to hell if you dont believe them. So if you are a devout christian you may go to christian heaven but you will go to jewish, muslim, and perhaps many more hells. So you get one heaven and say 2 or 5 hells or a thousand other hells. so what is the point?

above self-revealing two paragraphs. There are, obviously, "distinctions" between religions, and any educated person would, no doubt, see them. So how and were did you come up with the concept that the writer could not make distinctions? It's clearly NOT in the text.

Clearly decision-making occurred, among a variety of choices, and the rationale for the decision that was made was presented.

So the conclusion your post drew was rather baseless, in my opinion. Perhaps a bit mean. Definitely not logical.

To help you comprehend the highlighted text: Jack and the Beanstalk is no more believable than Rumpelstiltskin.

So you're a Christian because you can't comprehend what you're reading? That explains everything.

Keep up the good work. :sarcasm:

Every time cleanhippie posts one of these "why I am an atheist" pieces, you reply as though he wrote it himself.

He just sees "atheist" and his knee starts jerking.

right on point.

A rational educated person in today's world has no need of a religion, or belonging to a religious group in order to feel good about ones self and become a productive, contributing member of society.

I took them to religious education classes at a Unitarian/Universalist Sunday school and honestly answered their questions. When he was 4, my son believed in "God" because his best friend did. Knowing I was an atheist, he tried to taunt me with his "god" belief. I told him he was free to believe whatever he thought was right.

Now, at 14 and 11, both of my children are far above average in their science test scores and express surprise at how many people actually believe the magical stories of religion.

But note that many theists sound just as reasonable.

As do most of us who are agnostics. ;-)

Yes, many theists sound reasonable, but that doesn't mean that the beliefs are reasonable.

I took a college course called Myth and Culture. I read about the myths of dozens of cultures and religious traditions. Some of them I found intriguing, others seemed silly, still others seemed plain absurd. This happened to be during the time I was experiencing my crisis of faith. This class helped push me over the edge as I realized, if only on a subconscious level, that I was foolish and hypocritical to continue believing my own Christian religious dogma was true (merely because I'd been taught it was) and still view all of those others the way I did.