Atheism - My Diversity
Rhoda Monihan
1 September 2015
Atheism: My Diversity
My disability may be my diversity according to some unknowing others, and certainly to some of my more distant friends of the past, but to me and my friends today my belief in atheism is my diversity. Being different can easily get you down, but it would be wrong and extremely sad to be bitter about your true diversity, resenting something that's just part of your physicality like indeed a disability, or something that’s just part of your mind, like a belief in atheism. My diversity is my atheism rather than my disability because my beliefs and values have so often determined my states: emotional, social, educational, political and more. Moreover, beliefs make us what we are since they form the very centre of our mind, and to claim a facet such as a disability as more meaningful than a belief like atheism would sometimes be to patronise relationships, personality and will.
To ignore your atheism for your disability, saying that your physical challenges are more strenuous than your personality clashes with believers can sometimes be wrong and delusional, even when we are just quite simply embarrassed by our views, since we risk killing our spirits and showing ourselves up as weak. Others are worthy of knowing your mind, your opinions, your views and your very own self, and we must let ourselves out by actively intending to differentiate ourselves away from those with whom we disagree. Freedom of speech and expression mean that we can say exactly what we want to say and be how we want to be, somewhat and quietly if we are a quieter person, but outrightly if we are a more outgoing type of person. Poetry to me is the epitome of language because it gives a validity and credibility which renders us sensible, sensuous, rational and relational even when we feel rejected and down-trodden, and even when we are actively not advised to postulate or believe that which we know.
Art also lets you express yourself such that its interpretation is very much the concern of the viewer rather than the artist, with every stroke of the brush being the artists full entitlement. The Magna Carta documents make all of us free to state, ignore, criticise and slate, as they redirected the free speech of the kings and queens to the work places and homes of the people, making every one of them the privileged and righteous by default. Today, free speech defines our society since it is the condition required of each of us by our schools, educational establishments and parents, if they are good parents, and since it contributes necessarily to the everyday health and happiness of our nation.
When people bother us about what we believe, and when they really can't take the answer, we must judge whether we should get round the question using intelligent English, whether we should hide behind any other diversities we have such as a disability or even our nerdism, whether we can quietly tell them the truth in the way that is most acceptable, or whether we should risk boldly stating that which we truly believe and feel about god and religion. We are free to do any of these things, but some will become more attractive than others. There are consequences to informing a dying fundamentalist Christian mum of an atheistic sway, because most of the humanistic principles that are implied by us will often very starkly expose her as separate from society and contemporary thought, and sometimes as down right odd because of her personal beliefs in god and the church. An atheist’s belief in people and in common society can in conversation default him/her as above the Christian, when such a person sees themselves as above criticism. Sometimes this illumination can just be too much for them, and the atheist may experience a backlash from any such honest exchange.
Being an atheist for me in the past has meant loneliness, especially when I was young, it has meant friendship, kind and sometimes very deep, it has meant distance, when my school or community actively rejected me for my atheism as they propounded Christianity, and it has enabled understanding, of the world and of nature by way of their structures and facets. Having an atheist’s perspective of the rational order has enabled me to have my own perceptions and views of books and textbooks and has given me a understanding of life which I can never diminish or complain about. It has partly made me into the person I am today, and I believe that there is no god in the same way as a fundamentalist Christian believes that Jesus is his son, only my belief has validity through an historical analysis and explanation of the progressive god concept. I don't doubt my belief in any way whatsoever, and I know it today as an adult just as I knew it as a four year old child so many years ago.
However, there is a condition to atheism and that condition is very big. Ancient texts can be divided into literature and sacred texts, using literature as a broad umbrella for all other works beside the few sacred texts. Religions stand, those few giants which nimbly tiptoe in and out of crannies, firesides and highways when you open up to your friend in the car,
Be proud of your diversity, and stick to your guns even when those about you are loosing theirs. When they are loosing their heads and frustrated at your beliefs, assertions, manner and way, don’t empathise with them by changing your mind or stance, and don’t look back after you've come to your own conclusions by finding your own thoughts. It doesn't matter what you believe, within reason, as long as you believe in it yourself, by reading, films, media, the arts, from educators, or from conversations with people you like and trust. It's your life and it's your pride that’s at stake, and you and only you have to live with your decisions and persuasions. The mind is a very beautiful thing, and shouldn’t be abused by brainwashing or selfishness as it facilities thought, abstraction and deed, enabling kind and sometimes ineffably considerate behaviour. It is the most excellent minds in this world that will cure cancer, not god, and it's our mindfulness which will care for, help and reason with others.
We all have the right to the assumptions of our identity and we all have the right to a diversity, so lets reside in the security of what we have thought and of what we have believed when we as kids or younger people analysed life and asked where we came from. Be proud of what you have said and done if it’s what you actually wanted to say or do, rather than saying what someone else told you to. We must think about the nature of truth and goodness and believe in our own conclusions about them, rather than just accepting other people’s faith testimonies and claims about god’s existence. We don’t need to imagine that there’s someone else out there, some reason out with life for existence, or that there’s something going on when there is not, like divine transcendency in our relationships.
We must not think that the way we were brought up and the things we were taught to believe when we were young are right and true, or think that way is the only way to live. The best way to live is the best way for you, albeit within an evolutionary reason, because evolution was by diversity and change since it happened to every individual, all people. There is no one way for all, when that way negates the many for the few select faithfuls who go to heaven.
We all have our own geography, a locality within a culture, so keep searching and finding out about the things you don't know in order to make yourself better, and to help others also to do so. Then you will be able to accept, live with, enjoy and communicate your diversity more to prospect and foster the greater good.
Comments