So I've recently discarded what was left of my religious beliefs. Ask me anything.

[backscatter712]

For quite a while, my beliefs were in the nebulous area of "agnosticism", where I didn't care much for organized religion, but still figured there was some sort of higher power.

When I was younger, my beliefs were closer to traditional Presbyterian-style Christianity, of a relatively moderate flavor - I'd believed in Jesus Christ, went to church regularly, went to youth groups, that sort of thing.

But now? Count me as an atheist.

At best, I acknowledge the theoretical possibility of the existence of a god, but in the same way I acknowledge that the Tooth Fairy could theoretically exist. But I concluded that the real probability of God or the Tooth Fairy existing is extremely remote. And, well, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

What about morality? As it turns out, theists and atheists aren't all that different. Atheists are straightforward about how they think about morality - they use philosophy, sociology, psychology, and other areas of knowledge to piece together some ethics and morality that minimizes harm, keeps people living together without killing each other all that much, and allows people to live their lives freely.

Theists? They do the same thing. They claim they pull morality out of the Bible or Koran or whatever religious scriptures they believe in. But what's in those scriptures? Contradictions. The Bible says in one place "Thou shalt not kill." and "Love thy neighbor as thyself", but in other places, has God explicitly commanding killings and even genocide. The Bible, and other religious texts, are all over the map when it comes to morality. How do people resolve this? They do the same thing atheists do - they think up their own morals, but instead of discussing them straightforwardly, they pick and choose verses from their religious canons and use them to rationalize the moral choices they made.

But what made me cross the line from fuzzy agnosticism to atheism? Dan Barker, author of Godless. I saw him deliver a talk at my university, bought his book, got him to sign it. I think it was his talk about the inherent contradictions in the concept of a god. Can a god be omniscient and omnipotent at the same time? Think about it - if he's omniscient, he sees everything, including all things now, all things in the past, and all things in the future. But if he sees all things in the future, and knows how things are going to turn out, he sees his own choices and actions, and are limited to those actions - which makes him no longer omnipotent. Throw in morality. Can God be omniscient, omnipotent, and all good at the same time, given all the destruction and suffering in the world? I don't think so.

Part of it was also Barker's description of how he became an atheist - he was an evangelical preacher for 19 years, then concluded that God was not real, got out of the preaching business, and founded the Freedom From Religion Foundation. His story echoed mine - a slow realization over time that in things religious, things do not make sense. Even faith does not make sense - it's the opposite of reason and inquiry. I, like Barker, concluded that unquestioning faith leads to irrationality.

So I no longer believe in any religion. Ask me anything. The floor is yours.