My Brand of Atheism

I am an atheist; meaning, I don't believe there is any form of higher power dictating my life. I don't believe that there is a God. I don't believe that there is a heaven, nor do I believe there is a hell. I believe that what we have here is what there is, and there is nothing more. Yes, it's sometimes a depressing thought, but the idea of living for the rest of my life is just as unpleasant to me. I mean, what would I do? I'd be eternally bored. That would suck.

The most vocal atheists I know tend to bash on religion quite a bit, a concept that I'm not entirely comfortable with. I don't hate religion. It has it's place in the world, just not personally in my life. Do I think that religion is the basis for a lot of humanity's conflicts? Yeah, I suppose so. But I don't think those problems stemmed from the people that truly believed in the religion they claimed to believe in, if that makes sense. No? Okay, let me give an example to clarify:

From my understanding, the basis, the very core of ALL Christianity is that of love, understanding and tolerance. And this pretty much rings true for all religion as well.  That's the point that it's supposed to be getting across. Now, look at most churches and Christian sects hating homosexuals and denying them the right to get married. Not exactly loving and tolerant is it?

One of the qualms I've heard is that religious people are doing the right thing, but for the wrong reason. They are doing what's morally right and good for everybody, not because they want to, but because if they don't, they won't get into Heaven or they will end up in Hell. To that issue I say, so what? If they are doing the good thing, but for selfish reasons, what's the issue? They are still doing the good deed, who cares to what their personal motivation is? The person who is volunteering at a soup kitchen because they want to help is doing the same thing as the person who is volunteering at a soup kitchen to get into heaven. And I'm sure the first person has their own selfish reasons for volunteering, even if it's just for the good feeling that you get when you know you've helped someone.

I don't think it's their responsibility to validate their beliefs to us any more than it's our responsibility to validate our beliefs to them. I think that we should just really leave each other alone unless we are hindering on each other's rights. I mean, when an issue like gay marriage is brought to light by religious people who find it wrong, then yeah, it's our responsibilty to say "No, just because it's against your beliefs doesn't mean it should hinder someone else with different beliefs."

I don't think either side wins when they try to convert or change the other side's viewpoints. That just ends up in a pissing match. I think we REALLY need to pick our battles. Nobody that tries to talk to and convert me will change my mind, any more than a person who is devoutly religious will have their mind changed by me if I start prattling on about evolution and string theory.

At some point we have to take a step back and realize the irony of the fact that a good portion of why we dislike religious people is that they want to convert us; yet, we as a group also try to convert them. Can't we leave each other the fuck alone? Really, when I get to the root of it, unless they are bugging me, I really don't think it's my job to bug them. If we leave each other alone, I think everybody would be happier.