Why I'm an Atheist - in 10 minutes

I've got ten minutes left on the clock before I head to Circuit City and pick up Iron Man on DVD, and I thought I'd use this time for something constructive - namely, interject yet another voice into the debate between religion vs. non-belief.

I know, this is exactly the kind of blog post that has cast the entire activity of blogging as an act of outright narcissism. And I'm not going to argue against that. Then again, maybe I should have called this post 'Why I'm such a goddamn narcissist.'

That said, I have been challenged on my lack of belief on occasion, usually by my mother, wife, or other people who know me well enough to ask me to question my lack of beliefs. Which always makes me wonder, why am I being asked to defend my lack of beliefs? Shouldn't the onus of proof be on those asking for it? I ask for no proof of no God. I ask for proof of a God. There's a vast difference there which is amazingly unapparent to those believers I find myself challenged by.

Do I require proof of no Thor from Christians before I accept their lack of belief in Thor? Of course not. Such proof is a.) impossible and b.) unnecessary.

So - a couple weeks back I was challenged on my referring to myself as an 'atheist'. 'Are you really an atheist?' Was the question? I knew what the inquirer was getting at, and so I conceded that no, nobody can be absolutely certain of the non-existence of God.

But I do like Richard Dawkins' 'scale' of belief, which runs 1-7 with 'Absolute Belief' on one end and 'Absolute non-Belief' on the other. Nobody can truly, logically profess 'Absolute non-Belief', for reasons I've just described. But - one can be reasonably certain, or at least certain enough to decide to live one's life as if God doesn't exist. And that's how I choose to live my life.

Time.

Not bad for ten minutes, I'd say...