A
TALE OF TWO CLOSETS by Reid B.
One
might say I am "just a poor boy from a poor family,"
however my life has not been a "Bohemian Rhapsody" in any
manner.
I
was actually born to a middle-class, blue-collar man and his
junior-in-college wife on a cold January day some 50 years ago.
Like
every person on this planet, we are born into the religion of our
families; some atheists are born into families that lack belief. I
was born into a Christian family; although, a family of two
denominations of Christianity: Lutheran and Methodist.
I
have always been on a journey of both self-discovery and becoming
more knowledgeable than I was yesterday. The key to both of those
has been honesty and acceptance of facts in evidence.
Honesty
and acceptance of facts helped me declare to my mom one late fall day
in my junior year of high school that I am gay. And now, those same
qualities helped me, finally, realize and declare, on this late
winter day some 35 years later, that I am an atheist.
Wow!
I just outed myself to you. And guess what? The world did not end,
the sky did not fall, nor has any bearded man come by to chastise me
or banish me to an eternity of “torment, fire and brimstone” for
not believing in his existence.
Why
am I an atheist? Another question would be "why did it take me
so long to declare it?"
An
answer to both questions is the partial purpose of this article. The
other purpose of this article is to let other
gay atheists in the area know that “you are not alone.”
Atheism,
from the Greek word 'atheos,' is defined as the lack of belief, or
the rejection of belief, in the existence of any deity. At one point
in Greek history, even Socrates was accused of being an atheist
(though this accusation was probably more politically-motivated
than theologically-motivated).
In ancient Roman, early Christians were persecuted as atheists
because they worshiped a different god than those officially
sanctioned and worshiped by the government.
On
this "pale blue dot" (to quote Carl Sagan), aka Earth, at
least 5,000 deities, from Allah to YHWH, are worshiped today. And
within each faith system, there exists several denominations. If any
god existed, there would be no need for any Bibles, Qur'ans, Torahs,
etc., as that deity would speak for itself and we all would know, and
hear, it.
Throughout
the many decades since I was born, I have traveled the gambit of
religious experiences: Mormonism, agnosticism, fundamental
evangelicalism (thanks to my first partner), Hinduism, and Wicca
(they worship a pantheon of gods as well as revere nature). All in
all, no god, nor its illegitimate child (think about it), ever
physically appeared in my life to help me with anything, nor stop me
from doing anything. I did every great thing, good thing, and
not-so-good thing ALL by
myself.
I
have come to realize that I do not need religion in order to be good
or moral. In fact, my morality is the only thing keeping me from
starting a religion and exploiting your gullibility for profit, just
like L. Ron Hubbard or Joseph Smith.
Now
I am sure I will hear from some folks telling me that because I am an
atheist, I'm therefore (somehow, ipso
facto)
immoral, filthy, or, perhaps, at best, a hedonist (or even, worse
still, a libertine).
Before writing those comments and sending them to me, ask yourself
if those were not the same (or similar) words thrown at you
merely for coming out as gay or lesbian or trans-gender.
Hopefully
this article will encourage you to read the Bible from cover to
cover, without study guides or any spin to it. Sometime between the
talking snake, God kill children in Egypt (Exodus 12:29) or God
commands Abraham to kill his own son as proof of Abraham's fealty to
God, and when Jesus tells people to hate their mothers and fathers
(Luke 14:26), you will become an atheist. [NOTE: OR, you could just
say, “...and Jesus telling...”]
For
more info, please read books by Bertrand Russell, Robert Ingersoll,
Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, George Smith, or Dave Steele (among
many others), and/or listen to podcasts by former ministers, like
Matt Dillahunty, Ryan Bell, or Seth Andrews. I will also answer all
questions and comments at A.Gay.Atheist@gmail.com
