And apparently it's because we're all atheists that twelve people died.

No. You know what - fuck you, Mr. Gohmert. I’m sorry, but really.

I grew up an atheist. I did go to some churches, because my parents wanted me to grow up to be understanding and tolerant of other religions, and I was part of a Unitarian Church for several years, although I largely went because they fed us cookies afterwards and stopped going once I was too old for the kids class.

I like to think I am a moral person. I do try to do good. A lot of the things I study and the books I read are motivated for two reasons - I want to understand the world, and I want to help people with the knowledge I have. I want to be an engineer so I can help bring electrical power to Africa, or change renewable energy.

And I do not believe in God.

I’m not claiming to be perfect. I lie to my dad about who ate the chocolate and I’m incredibly hypocritical when it comes to my sister and her singing, versus the loud music I like to blast at random hours. But I don’t shoplift, or do drugs, have no interest in alcohol, and generally try to be a good person.

Most of my best friends are atheists, or at least agnostic. They’re not perfect either, because we’re teenagers and human, but they help at charities, lend their shoulders when someone needs to cry and spend a lot of time thinking about the state of the world we live in.

I think it’s sad that so many people believe morality is based in religion. For some people, it might be. But I don’t want to really be friends with the people who do good because it wins them brownie points in the afterlife. I want to be your friend if you do the right thing because it’s the fucking right thing to do.

Also, may I point out that the Scandinavian countries are the least religious, and yet are ranked among the safest countries in the world (http://www.visionofhumanity.org/).

The most recent horrific tragedy there? That was caused by a very religious person. It wasn’t caused by a secular nut. Religion drove it. And it resulted in children dying. I don’t think atheists would really do that, largely because a lot of us aren’t that motivated and also, we believe in only having this one life; there’s really no good, moral reason for killing a bunch of people and taking away the only life they’re ever going to have.

(I just also don’t get people who talk about militant atheists, because I guess I qualify as that, and the most terrorist related thing I do is read offensive comics on the internet. But then again, everything is offensive on the internet.)

Anyway, I’ll try and phrase this into a better argument later, when I’m not so angry, but for right now, that’s what’s on my mind.

I will be kind of offensive and say that, since Texas’s board of education has declared it doesn’t want to teach the children critical thinking skills, this whole thing kind of isn’t that shocking.

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