I'M AN ATHEIST!!! I'M AN ATHEIST!!! What ya think bout that?

And what's so special about that? There are actually Atheists in almost every religion from Hinduism to Christianity. If you investigate Christian Atheists, you'll find they don't believe in God, they regard themselves as not living their lives the way they know the Bible says they should, they don't believe preachers represent anyone but themselves and yet they still believe in the possibility of Christ as a man, a prophet and that the Bible possesses wisdom and truth when it is taken for what it is rather than what preachers and priests make of it.

I myself am a Christian Agnostic (aka Agnostic Theist) in that I believe in the possibility of God if only that there is a prevailing life force within the universe itself... as if maybe the universe itself is a living entity and we're just part of it. I do not believe in tradition because all Christian tradition came from a period of time where it was a capital offense for commoners to possess a copy of the Bible and they would be burned alive at the stake like witches. Until King James, most who possessed a copy of the Bible couldn't even read it because it was written in Old Latin and each copy was edited by hand so most were different from one another.

But science and archaeology using the Bible have found people, places and events which only the Bible speaks of... and they are finding them exactly where the Bible says they would be found in much the same way ancient Troy was discovered exactly where it was said to be but no one looked because they thought Troy was a myth.

Most Atheists say they don't believe in the Bible and it's all a fairy tale... it's actually not. The Bible is a series of books which chronicle people, places and events with their beliefs. The Bible has been heavily edited, revised and mistranslated yet, for all of this, science and archaeology are proving there is a great deal of wisdom in the Bible... but to separate the Bible from the theism which grew out of it.

It's like attacking the Founding Fathers with one side claiming they were Christian and the other saying they weren't. They were almost entirely Christian, but then as now men of knowledge respected Christianity for it's merits... and criticized or condemned it for it's extremes. One person posts writings from Thomas Jefferson claiming it proves he wasn't a Christian... another posts writings from Thomas Jefferson claiming he was Christian... and both sides are correct in their interpretations of the writings because he was Christian, but he was intolerant of Christian extremes and extremism.

An Atheist is essentially someone who doesn't believe in God or gods. They may, in fact, believe in spirits or otherworldly entities which is why some are attached to various religions if not by belief, then by culture as Christianity is more than just a series of beliefs. Most claiming to be Atheists and who ridicule Christians as ignorant are even more ignorant of what an Atheist is... because Atheists do not hate, attack, condemn or ridicule Christians. Men like Charles Darwin are questioned in retrospect if they were Christian or Atheists... regardless, they respected Christians as a whole but condemned the extremes no different than men like Jefferson. Darwins wife was a devout Christian and there's no question of that. She loved debating with her husband about their beliefs and they found wisdom and respect with one another because if Darwin was an Atheists... he held no hate for Christians as a whole, he instead respected Christians as revealed by how he expressed himself with his wife and other Christians close to him in his life.

Anti Theists on the 19th century were different in that they were organized, they promoted their beliefs, they attacked Christians and all other religious faiths with hatred, ridicule and scorn. They created so much hatred that secular society turned against them and most Anti Theists began calling themselves Atheists to continue their beliefs but toned down the hate.

A true Atheist doesn't need to profess who or what they are and what they believe... because an Atheist isn't an enemy of Theism, they simply do not believe in God or gods and generally just want to be left in peace. They don't care that Christians have their beliefs, they don't care that Christians profess their beliefs and they don't care how Christians express their beliefs. If Christians want to have a nativity scene at the court house, Atheists truly would not care where an Anti Theist would. The term Anti Theist pretty much tells you they are oppose to Theism and it is they who try to force Christians to stop expressing and professing their faith.

Atheists don't want Theist beliefs rammed down their throats such as being at a work site where the workers are made to bow their heads and pray... but that's different than denying people their right to celebrate things like Christmas in their own way. The word "tolerance" is often used by Atheists in regard to what they believe... but they offer very little in regard to Theists because Anti Theists calling themselves Atheists for over a century has confused the views of Atheists. This is why many Atheists actually side with Theists about nativity scenes and so forth because they're allowed to have Santa and to celebrate the things they want to celebrate.

So you are an Atheist... so what?

Be proud of who you are and what you believe... offer the same to others who don't believe the same as you do even when they're making you angry. If you fall into the usual Atheist schtick, you'll lump all Christians together with hatred for them and find yourself laughing when someone starts trading Bibles for porn to illustrate your hate for them. And that my friend is not what you want to be as a hater is a hater regardless what else they may claim to be.