I always liked the clever line from All In The Family: “Thank God I’m an atheist.” Besides the obvious irony, I always thought that it spoke to a deeper wisdom on Human Nature. That is, that there seems to be a innate Human need for a philosophical belief. A religion of some sort.

That’s not to say I believe that any of us are a particular religion by birth. Catholics, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, etc. are just people who were raised to practice a set of rituals. Belief and Faith are strong components of any religion, but they are secondary to the continuation of practices and procedures.

If switched at birth, a child from a Hindu family that is raised by a Catholic family would be a Catholic, while a child from the Catholic family that is raised by a Hindu family would be Hindu. There’s nothing genetic in religious disposition.

Religious disposition has more to do with the Stockholm Syndrome than anything else. The Stockholm Syndrome is a subconscious survival skill that finds a captive becoming emotionally attached and sympathetic toward the captors. Acceptable behavior is rewarded. The captor is safe as part of the group.

There’s also the factor of available information. If a child is raised by an entire society – or subset within that society – that promotes one theism to the exclusion of all others, then that child has no inclination to question that theism.

And then there’s the inherent them-versus-us survival instinct that compels us to stick with our own kind. “They” are different, so “They” are bad.

About 16% of the world population identifies itself as atheist, agnostic, or non-theist, number three behind Christianity (33%) and Islam (21%). Not to nit-pick over the differences, I lump all non-believers together as kindred spirits. (Many fervent atheists come across as religious zealots, but that’s their problem.)

What the heck is my point here? Well, I guess I’m just stating my preference for agnosticism. As an independent thinking adult, stripping away the rituals of my childhood, looking objectively at all the evidence, I simply can’t believe that the existence or nature of any deity can be quantified at this time. God may exist or not, but no Human can prove it.

I believe in reason, ethics and justice, and that dogma based on divisive superstition is only destructive. I believe that a planet-wide acceptance of such basic concepts would bring us all together as one peaceful, healthy, and happy tribe.

Jim Lawter

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