You're a non-believer too, you just don't know it.

For some reason people look at "Atheist" as a dirty word, as if being an atheist makes you mean or angry. Personally I think it is often misused, it's almost implied that if your an atheist, you want to forcibly convert all religious people of the world to your way of thinking.



But in reality we are all non-believers, ever heard of Zeus? Or Xenu? How about Apollo? Bet you don't pray to them, do you? Well guess what, millions of people either did or do. Many Christians despise atheists yet they don't believe in Mohammad, Jews don't hesitate to disregard Jesus - but still call themselves believers. So what makes atheists so different - we just believe in one less God than everyone else.

Believe it or not, all modern religions are just ancient ideas that have been rehashed. There's nothing original in any of them, even in Judaism which is the father of "The Big Three". Religion - like human beings - has evolved over thousands of years, into what we see today, every generation wholeheartedly accepting what the one before taught them, without rethinking what they'd been told. Imagine applying that same rule to astronomy, or medicine - what was thought to be true only a few hundred years ago is now laughable, but I digress.

When I started exploring the world of knowledge, outside of what I was raised with, one of the big questions to me was, how could there be so many people out there that are just as certain as I am in my beliefs? I'm a pretty cynical guy, but I don't think the Pope is consciously trying to deceive anybody, I'm sure he believes every word he says. As terribly misguided as I think the Tusher Rebbe is (just an example), I still think he means well, and is sincere in his convictions. If these guys are so certain that they are correct, how could I be so sure of myself? I understand the arguments for and against belief, but one belief against the other is just two straw men - it doesn't work.

It was kind of a big mental hurdle to get over, but it force me to think. If every religion says that theirs is the right way, and the others are 100% wrong, than whom do you go with? Don't they all cancel each other out? Is it purely by chance - I was born to Jewish parents so I'm Jewish, but I could have easily been born to anyone else and raised to believe in something else entirely?I asked my dad that question, and he had an angry and expletive-filled answer for it, but that's a story for another time.

The bottom line is we're all non-believers, we just pick and choose what not to believe in, I personally have chosen to throw God out along with The Tooth Fairy, Santa Claus, and The Boogy Man.