I have for most of my life considered myself an atheist.
“I do not believe in God,” I would say using those exact words many times. Not as a challenge, nor with rancor or desire for argument. No arguments. Perhaps the last time I tried to persuade someone there was no God? I was ten years old.
It was an absolutely ridiculous thing, this “God” people described. There was never any slightest doubt that such believers were broken. I remember how my best friend’s older sister had done some rite of passage they called “catechism,” and in this process she was firmly implanted with the belief that I, as a non-Catholic along with all other non-Catholics was going to hell.
I remember thinking that this was an evil “god” therefore, and therefore, no “god” at all, this “God” she talked about. Yes, I was ten, and those were my early thoughts on the subject. Any talk of gods or God was stupid. Only completely destroyed people ever believed in such nonsense.
“Arrogant,” I was called when I upon occasion revealed my honest opinion. To call other humans, “broken,” or “destroyed?”
Yikes.
Yet look at how the poorest and most outcast are viewed by most of society in exactly those terms. Usually not with hate, but pity. These are reflections of material conditions. I was observing something else.
But wait!
Did I not say I had always considered myself an atheist? So, what else is there to observe besides material conditions?
We shall leave it at that. This theme has several strands. Better to keep them all distinct and simple for now, so with that paradox, until next time!