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Testimonial 1 - HAL

I am an atheist. Although that word is accurate, I don't like using it where I live. People seem to associate the word with bad people and bad acts. Maybe I should call myself non-religious or some other less unappealing term. I don't know why they would think I would be a bad person because I am an atheist. Perhaps their religion teaches them to think like that. Maybe they think I have been in jail several times, am a bad citizen, or have more bad habits than religious people. I live pretty much like every other good citizen. All it really means is I don't believe in any God, because I don't have any rational reason to do so. That's all. Nothing more, nothing less.

I have never been religious, so perhaps it's easier for me to look at the world the way I do. I don't have any religious indoctrination to overcome, nobody was warning me of Fire and Brimstone if I don't believe the "Right Way" when I grew up. Of course, that's the big problem, which reigion is The True One. If I had grown up in India, I would most probably be a Hindu. If in Saudi Arabia, a Muslim. If in Country X, I would be a [insert local theology here]. You get the idea, I think. It seems to me human beings are mainly indoctrinated from birth to believe the way they do, and morph everything they learn after that to fit how they were taught to believe. I have been lucky enough to have been free to choose for myself, and I chose none of them.

You may ask how I can look up to the night sky and not instantly realize some Grand Creator made it all. Of course we don't have all the answers yet, but does that mean we need to attribute things we don't understand to deities that offer no proof of their existence? I basically attribute that kind of thinking to the God of the Gaps outlook, where the gaps equate to everything we don't understand, and thus are attributed to a God's design or causation. But, as we have seen throughout history, these "gaps" grow ever smaller, and not one of the gaps has ever been filled with a divine explanation. They have been filled with the knowledge that results from scientific inquiry though, which remains the best available way to learn about our Universe.

I have had innumerable discussions with religious friends and associates over the years, and I still have found no rational reason to think there is an invisible man floating around somewhere in a supernatural hiding place, desperately desiring for me to believe in him, but not giving me the slightest rational reason to do so. If you would like to discuss these issues with us, I invite you to join our Forum, we'd love to hear from you.

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