I was a devout Catholic child [View all]

I actually experienced an epiphany very young, while chanting Latin and filling my mind with devotion. My internal dialog stopped. I lost personal boundaries and felt the communion. Much like Buddhist chanting and meditation.

I had a discussion on evolution with a priest, my position being "why couldn't God act on the world in this way through evolution". He told me to read Silent Spring, a major influence in my life.

I later tried to join the altar boys, mostly for tips and stealing wine. My parents immediately yanked me out. To this day I wonder why. What did they know?

The nuns were mostly deeply damaged people who needed to retreat to the convent. I still suffer damage from their hands.

I mentally left the Church in 8th grade when a priest at the pulpit told us we couldn't love Mankind as a whole so we had to love our fellow Americans and support the Vietnam War.

I never decided to be an atheist. I just woke up one morning absolutely convinced there is no afterlife. Now I deeply believe that the only thing that counts is how we treat each other in life.

I don't believe in faith. I believe evidence. I've never seen a soul. I've seen many poor, sick and hungry people. Like Stevie Wonder said, when you believe in things you don't understand, you suffer. Anything not supported by evidence is superstition or speculation.

I see the bonds of community and neighborhood that belonging to a church can instill. I see the spirituality of losing one's ego in the face of immensity. I see the kindness which can be practiced. I see the good works of the Catholic Worker movement and the Berrigan brothers and the many people who took seriously the command to love. I appreciate the Nature-love of some pagans. (I regard the Abrahamic religions as pagan.)

I won't argue religion with anyone. We'll all find out the truth, even in the negative sense of oblivion. I suspect we simply can't conceive or perceive the truth via the limitations of our nervous systems. I speculate that death can be a liberation.

I see the greed, abuse, and lust for power which organized, hierarchic religion perpetrates. The misery of billions can be traced to the abuse of faith by the conpeople. There is great evil in churches and institutions.

There is a place in my life for humility and good works. But not for what we in the West generally call "religion", in the sense of propitiating supernatural beings with sacrifices.

I don't believe in faith.