Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Why label myself an atheist?

I was reading a blog post about the term "atheist" and thought my comment to it warranted its own here.

One of the comments noted that calling oneself an atheist is "like if someone asked me my hobby, and I said 'Well, I don’t collect stamps'."  This is a good point.  I am an atheist within the realm of religion, but really the only reason I care to label myself is because of the theists. If it weren’t for religion, I probably wouldn’t care.

My political philopsophy is libertarian, but that doesn’t label my beliefs either. It just states that you can live your life as you wish provided it doesn’t stop someone else from living their life as they wish.

In my own personal life, I am much more of a traditionalist with regard to family and behavior. Most people assume that I am a Christian and a conservative, because that’s what they mostly are here in the Bible Belt. I look and act the part, so therefore I must be one.

Just because I live that way, does not mean I judge how you live though. I have friends that march to all sorts of different drums. My only judgement is that they are rational and generally intelligent.

I may have to ponder a bit on my own personal label.  For now, I'll stick with atheist libertarian.  This is because within the discussion of politics and religion, this sums it up.

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