coming out

Being an atheist in today's religious society can be quite intimidating. I know that I am in the minority here in conservative America. I have numerous friends who come from deeply religious families and backgrounds. This leads to the obvious situations where they ask of my religion. This is also a tricky situation. Up until now, if I knew them to be religious I would always give this long sort of answer. I'd say that historically I'm Protestant Lutheran being that I'm from Sweden. Sometimes I'd say I hadn't made up my mind yet, though I realized that was the wrong route because they wanted to try and "save" you. Why is it acceptable for people to go to the ends of the earth to spread their christian views and be labeled as heroes? And yet if atheist missionaries did the same they would get vilified.

Atheism and agnosticism isn't a new concept. It has seen a resurgence as of late though. Over a century ago Nietzsche declared that god was dead. If only we could leave in that world fantasized by Lennon in his classic Beatles song. The world without religion, no heaven or hell, and one in which we just lived for today. I'm a secularist who believes int he total separation of church and state. We live in a country where the president readily admits he turns to his faith when faced with hard critical decisions involving policy. This scares the hell out of me.

I believe religion is dangerous. I believe it is a cult. Why is it going so badly in Iraq? To reduce it to simplest terms, there are two groups there. The Shiites and the Sunnies are quarreling about who succeeded the prophet Muhammad in the 7th century. I believe staying silent on religion has come to the point where it is dangerous. Religion is a dangerous cult with people living in a bubble world. These people then elect people from the same cult to run the world. It must stop. It's encouraging that atheism is now on the rise. It's only taken a century to realize that Nietzsche might of been on to something.