Testimony of a Theist

I wasn’t raised to be of a specific faith. At a very early age, my parents showed me a few dozen paths, let me loose in the library, and told me choose my own path. It didn’t really bother my parents what I believed or if I believed, so long as I respected and celebrated everything.

Of six kids, I landed where I am today and every one of my siblings landed somewhere else.

I used to say that faith, or lack of faith, is something I’ve considered my whole life.

Of course, that was before I met my husband.

Dave is an atheist.

Before Dave, despite my studies, I don’t think I ever really considered how “faith” interacts with “lack of faith”. I don’t think I realized how many things that people do are based in the idea that everyone believes in some sort of god.

It’s a little like the subtle bullying you see on the playground. “I want to take a picture with everyone who wore pink today,” a little girl says. She didn’t shove the girl in all blue. She didn’t call her a name. I don’t know if there’s an official name for that sort of behavior, but I’m pretty sure it’s called bullying.

Off the top of my head, here are some things that atheists could do without:

Blessing their sneezes
Telling them that God has a plan (or variations thereof)
Telling them that their dead loved ones are with angels
Calling them agnostic
Requiring them to pledge their allegiance to their country “under God”
The Religious Assumption (“Everyone is religious in some way or the other.”)
Requiring them to sing along to religious songs or take religious breaks
Assuming that they don’t know scripture
Assuming that their morals are more flexible than those of religious people
The expression “A lack of faith”

I’m sure the list is infinitely longer, but those are the ones that come to mind. If you need the testimony of a theist to believe in the worth of an atheist, then you have it here.

I, a theist, hereby vouch that atheists are no more likely to be evil than theists.

In fact, here’s a poem about it:

I’ve never seen him eat a man
or beat a dog to death.
He isn’t into taking drugs.
He isn’t making meth.
He doesn’t pass the homeless
with blissful apathy
and when he guides a blind man,
he doesn’t charge a fee.
He doesn’t pray to Satan
or call him out by name,
and even when in foxholes
his morals stay the same.
He smiles at blessed sneezes.
He doesn’t want your kids.
He’s not the one on Ebay,
running up your bids!
He doesn’t beat his wife
or preach for anarchy
and he’s never ever killed a man
for not seeing what he can see.
He’s just like you and I,
in almost every way–
except when nighttime falls on him,
he still doesn’t pray.