You found Jesus? Where was he hiding?

For the people who don't already know this, here it is: I'm an atheist. I just recently came out with this not too long ago (to everyone who didn't know it already). It felt good, but it also came/is coming with its share of burden.

When I first revealed it to my mother, I was almost... ashamed, and I felt like I was coming out of the gay closet or something. No child should feel that way when telling his mom something that important. I probably wouldn't have felt that way, but I had a mother who constantly beat the belief (not the religion, though) and the correctness of the Christian God into my head so hard that it took me almost twenty years from the time I chose my religion (or lack thereof) to tell her what it was.

But, I get a lot of accusations/questions about my belief system, so let me get a few things about my atheism out of the way:

No, I do not worship Satan. If I don't believe in God, then I'm not going to believe in his arch-nemesis. I will say this for him, though: if he does exist, he listens to the best music.

Do I believe in Jesus? I believe he existed, and was a great man. He was actually my Person of the Month for December.

Am I strictly on the side of science? Yes and no. I'm logical and scientifically-minded. But, I don't claim to know everything about everything, and science doesn't either. I'm completely satisfied in the scientific explanations for the things that we do know. There's one thing that most people actually misinterpret about science: it proves NOTHING. Scientists looks for evidence to support an idea, and as long as the evidence supports the idea then it is accepted as true. When the evidence doesn't support an idea, then it's rejected.

Religious people always look at science as an enemy, but they never stop and think about the positive things that it has done for everyone, including them: it's given us cures for diseases, inventions that have made our lives better (or worse, depending on what it is)... I don't even care to go on. When you put your mind to it, you'll come up with a whole slew of things that science has done for you.

Evolution? It's a lot easier for me to buy than the creationist's explanation. Creationists also like to argue against it because the theory cannot go further back than the Big Bang... well, believers can't explain where God came from, either. I kind of have my own way to look at the theory...

Things have a limit as to how far they can advance through evolution; it's in their genetic make-up. If evolution was just this wild, everything advances, advances, and advances, then some of us would be flying around like Superman, reading each other's thoughts, and blowing things up with our minds like in comic books. Not to say that, down the road, some of us won't evolve in that way. Some may already have, if you're a believer in psychics and mind readers and shit like that, not that I am (more on that in a second). But, like the monkeys who stayed monkeys, some of us just aren't genetically made to do it.

Have I ever even read the Christian Bible? Yes, five times. I've also read the Torah and the Koran.

Now, here's where I throw most people a curveball: I believe in the supernatural. I've seen enough to convince me, and I'm not just talking about episodes of "Ghost Hunters".

Does that mean I believe in psychics and mind-readers? I believe that there's the possibility that there are people with those abilities. I've never met one, so I can't say that they don't exist.

Aliens? They're out there. How pompous would I be if I believed that, in the infinite expanse that makes up the universe, there isn't some sort of other lifeforms out there? Hell, they just found water on Saturn's moon Titan. That doesn't prove that life exists on Titan, but if a random, desolate rock like that can have some semblance of a life-giving substance on it, how can we deny that one of the billions of other ones out there doesn't have that and so much more?

That's all I can really think of at the moment. If you have any further questions about my atheism/belief system, feel free to contact me.

Before I end this, let me give all of you parents a tip on how to approach your child's religion: Teach them all you can about Christianity, but encourage them to learn about all other religions, Agnosticism and atheism included. And, at no point, ever tell them Christianity is the right religion and that it should be their religion of choice. Instead, tell them it's up to them. Coming from a person who was raised like I described in the first paragraph, your child will thank you for it instead of resenting you for it... religion causes enough hate as it is.

The best advice I ever got was from John Lennon: his song "Imagine". He was shot and killed. Imagine that.