Why Are You an Atheist?

I was not an naturalist at first. I was a Christian. Rather I was a person under the delusion that I was a Christian. Because of my faith in the Bible, and the war between creationism and evolutionism, (I use war in the place of controversy because in reality there is not actual controversy), I was afraid to read any evolutionist material that my cause me to question my faith. However it was thanks to YouTube that I was slowly exposed to what evolutionary science really is and how creationist understandings of it are dramatically incorrect. It came to my realization that if evolution was a fact, then the Bible’s account of creation was false. Now any consistent theologian who knows the problems with theistic evolution also understands that evolution has a ripple effect on the rest of the Bible. No longer is the Bible inerrant or infallible, and if the Genesis account of man’s fall from perfection into sin never occurred, which is what evolution would suggest, then man has no need for a saviour, a redeemer.

Evolution was the catalyst that led me to fall away from my faith. It was the consequences of evolution that freed me. My life is full of important people that, had I been a Christian, I would have been required by God not to be in relationships with, especially my girlfriend, who did not meet the requirements of my brand of Christianity (Baptist). I did not want to give her up, but the Bible said that there would be those who scoff at the word of God because they want to walk after their own lusts. That was the claim that I only don’t want to believe so that I can go on sinning. So I chose to reject that on the grounds of evolution. If evolution is a fact, I thought, then there was no original sin, and this ancient moral code has no bearing in reality and further more is supported by no evidence and as such has no basis on which to call natural, imperative human desires sinful or lustful.

Love remains love, based not on religion, but on an evolutionary imperative that we as human beings choose to act on for the mutual benefit of our partners. And no, evolutionary theory does not lessen the value of love. It’s what you choose to do with it that determines true love. True love in the sense that we are perhaps the only species that has the ability to act outside Darwinian imperatives and love others even when it has no visible evolutionary benefit. If without God love is an illusion, so what? If it’s an illusion then tough. It’s an illusion that benefits humanity.

So why am I an atheist? I am an atheist because I refuse to be guilt tripped and psychologically manipulated by faith without evidence. I am an atheist because I reject a system of guilt and fear based on no evidence in favour of a methodology that can be tested, verified and proven beyond reasonable doubt.