I’ve intended to make a post on this topic for a few weeks now, and just recently got into some conversations that have helped me to formulate just what I’d like to say.

My family is from the mid-west, the bible belt you might say, although by the time I was old enough to form any memories we had moved to the west coast. Even though both of my parents had grown up with some religion in their lives, it was not practiced in my immediate family. My grandparents would occasionally haul my sister and myself off to church but never too frequently.

When it comes right down to it, the only true direction I received as a child towards any belief system, was that I was free to choose whatever course I wanted to take in terms of religion or any other types of beliefs, my mom told me almost those exact words on several occasions. By the time that I reached my teens, I was officially referring to myself as an atheist. Why? because even at that young age it was the only thing that made sense to me.

A few years later I did become involved with a mainstream religion, and yes there was a young lady that created some motivation there. It lasted a few short years in the grand scheme of life until eventually I returned to the way I felt before and continue to this day. I feel there is so much we don’t know, so much more exploration to do, and that simply because we don’t have the answer for something making up something to fill in the unknown is not the correct course of action.

I know a lot of people who have mainstream religious believes, many of them very cool people. I would never make any direct efforts to change their minds, because as I was taught as a youth that the most important thing is for everyone to make their own decisions on the matter. And likewise I would never want to offend anyone on purpose.

That being said, there are a few things that have churned within me that I feel the need to express. The primary issues that I have with most religions is that they suppress thought. It’s by design, and I happen to feel a method employed to control people. People are taught not to question, and in fact it is one of the requirements, they refer to it as faith. With any rational thought it makes absolutely no sense that the earth was created in seven days and that the age of the planet is a mere six thousand years. Yet people are required to suspend that rations thought and except on faith something that is completely irrational.

It is interesting to me that during the time I was involved in a mainstream religion, I made some of the worst decisions of my life. Some of those decisions I will never recover from. Perhaps I would have made those bad decisions anyway, but I have to wonder had I exercised thought the way I should have, and have the ability maybe I wouldn’t have made those decisions.

There is also this perception in life that a religious person is a good person. That someone who does not believe in a god lacks morals and therefore can feel free to do bad things. Well, while I’m not perfect and admit to having done things from time to time in my life that I’m proud of, overall I would consider myself and most people who know me as a good person. I can honestly say the same thing about nearly everyone else I know who has similar thoughts about meaning of life and existence. Interesting enough the vast majority of people who are in prison for heinous crimes consider themselves to have strong beliefs in a deity.

I have always thought with wonder about the universe for the majority of my life. In fact often times just sitting and pondering what is out there and how it all works can bring me actual physical pleasure.

While I was never given any formal direction in a belief system as a youth, one thing I did have was a poster on the wall of my bedroom. I have no recollection of how it ever got there, but it was a poster of the solar system with various facts about the planets. I loved to look at that poster and study it, I believe I still may have it tucked away in a box somewhere.

Carl Sagan once answered a question about the future of our planet. He said it concerned him that when a young child asks a parent "why is the grass green?" or "why is the sky blue?" all too often the child receives ridicule about concerning themselves with such things. They parent often replies that they should just accept things as they are. Dr. Sagan suggested that rather than gloss over the question how wonderful it would be if the parent took the time to truly explore the question with the child. Thereby giving the child the gift of thought.

Whomever it was who hung that poster of the solar system on my bedroom wall gave me the greatest gift I have ever received.