Atheism isn't a faith - it's the default position of objective humanity. We are all born godless & faithless, blissfully innocent of bullshit and eager in our wide-eyed preparedness for the wonders of learning as we come into cosmic consciousness. Then we get hit where it hurts by religious idiocy and the manifold evils and abuses of The God Concept.

Just as we have lungs eager to breathe clean fresh air only to find ourselves in a house full of smokers, so our minds are eager to seize upon the glories of art, language, music, science - only to find ourselves in a culture polluted by religion...

I was born an atheist - I will die an atheist. It is not a matter of faith, it is a matter of fact and knowing. And it's easy to show why there is no God because we can point at the moment in human history when they made him up. Far from ubiquitous, the concept flounders in the mire of righteous subjectivism.

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That said, I am SO looking forward to spending a few days of our up-coming Somerset holiday exploring the late-medieval bench-end tradition, and churches great and small. I will wander absorbed the Cathedrals of Wells & Salisbury and seek out the queerest religious imagery ever wrought in the church of The Holy Ghost at Crowcombe; not to mention St, Mary Magdelene at Bishops Lydeard wherein dances this singular fellow:

Bench End, Bishops Lydeard; June 2012. Pic : Blandiver; atheist by Birth, not delusion