CONFESSIONS OF A FORMER AGNOSTIC

Forgive me Father for I have sinned. Yes I have to confess. I used to be an agnostic, a member of that group of fence sitters living eternally in theistic limbo.

At first I deluded myself into thinking I just wasn’t sure; I needed more. This worked for a while until the obvious fact stood in my way; I was just too lazy to think. I hid behind a façade of moral superiority to conceal my indolence. Finally I came to realize that agnosticism is the domain of the philosophically feeble, the realm of insecurity.

I have evaded for too long. I have lived too long and at this point in life I can no longer answer “I just don’t know.” All religions fit me like a bad suit. Choosing one religion over another is like choosing to go to a party with no food or one with no drinks.

So I proudly proclaim that I am no longer an agnostic. I still don’t know,but based on the evidence I am an Atheist. I will describe my conversion.

Do you believe in God? is not the right question.  To be more accurate the question really is: Do you chooseto believe in God?  When you phrase the question in that way it puts Atheism in a different light and on a more level playing field.  Condescending religious advocates lose the moral high ground since it is self-evident that you can’t knowthat God exists any more than you can knowthat God doesn’t exist.  It becomes a matter of personal preference. Once you chooseto believe in God your next choice of which God to choose is just an exercise in individual taste based on such intangibles as birth, intelligence, culture and emotion.  Choosingto believe in God hardly confers one with superiority.  I choose Christianity.  He chooses Hinduism.  I choose Roquefort. He chooses Thousand Island.

Let’s be very clear about the degree of choice involved in this decision. One could make an argument that one also makes a choice by believingin gravity since we don’t see it and even some scientists argue that some of its properties may eventually lead to including gravity as some other physical force. Still, the sight of someone falling helplessly from a twenty-story building is more than enough evidence to persuade the occasional doubter; it is barely a choice at all.

A greater degree of choice might be whether or not to choose to believe in the Theory of Evolution. Despite overwhelming evidence supporting this theory there are many who choose not to believe it. This choice might be compared to the choice people had 500 years ago whether to believe the Earth was the center of the universe. Over the course of the last hundred years this became increasingly impossible to maintain; similarly, evolution will cease to be debatable within a few years.

Science has made it impossible to cling to these irrational choices. The fact that science has barely made a dent in the God Theory merely puts in more relief the clear choicebeing made by Believers.

I suppose some agnostics are still waiting for more evidence to come in but I doubt there will be enough evidence in our lifetime to overcome the paralysis all agnostics feel about making a choice. I made a decision to be free of that vast nether world of indecision, a world inhabited by, among others, the agnostic’s distant cousins, climate change deniers who deceitfully throw their hands up and reply “I don’t know, I’m not a scientist” when they know full well the question isn’t Are you a scientist? but Is there enough evidence to choose. I say choose; it is easy, liberating and courageous.

So let the sometimes well-intended, often misguided, intermittently violent “people of faith” have their outdated party. You don’t have to be a Protestant to appreciate Bach, or a Catholic to appreciate Michelangelo. The God-inspired beauty of medieval times will surely be replaced by inspiration provided by the wonders of the universe.

I once was lost but now I’m found. The future calls. I beckon agnostics of the world: Join the party.