As you may, or may not, be aware, today is International Blasphemy Day, and to that end, here is my little bit of Blasphemy… (edit: and dreadful comma abuse, sorry)

I deny the existence of Agdistis or Angdistis
I deny the existence of Ah Puch
I deny the existence of Ahura Mazda
I deny the existence of Alberich
I deny the existence of Allah
I deny the existence of Amaterasu
I deny the existence of An
I deny the existence of Anansi
I deny the existence of Anat
I deny the existence of Andvari
I deny the existence of Anshar
I deny the existence of Anu
I deny the existence of Aphrodite
I deny the existence of Apollo
I deny the existence of Apsu
I deny the existence of Ares
I deny the existence of Artemis
I deny the existence of Asclepius
I deny the existence of Athena
I deny the existence of Athirat
I deny the existence of Athtart
I deny the existence of Atlas
I deny the existence of Baal
I deny the existence of Ba Xian
I deny the existence of Bacchus
I deny the existence of Balder
I deny the existence of Bast
I deny the existence of Bellona
I deny the existence of Bergelmir
I deny the existence of Bes
I deny the existence of Bixia Yuanjin
I deny the existence of Bragi
I deny the existence of Brahma
I deny the existence of Brigit
I deny the existence of Camaxtli
I deny the existence of Ceres
I deny the existence of Ceridwen
I deny the existence of Cernunnos
I deny the existence of Chac
I deny the existence of Chalchiuhtlicue
I deny the existence of Charun
I deny the existence of Chemosh
I deny the existence of Cheng-huang
I deny the existence of Cybele
I deny the existence of Dagon
I deny the existence of Damkina (Dumkina)
I deny the existence of Davlin
I deny the existence of Dawn
I deny the existence of Demeter
I deny the existence of Diana
I deny the existence of Di Cang
I deny the existence of Dionysus
I deny the existence of Ea
I deny the existence of El
I deny the existence of Enki
I deny the existence of Enlil
I deny the existence of Eos
I deny the existence of Epona
I deny the existence of Ereskigal
I deny the existence of Farbauti
I deny the existence of Fenrir
I deny the existence of Forseti
I deny the existence of Freya
I deny the existence of Freyr
I deny the existence of Frigg
I deny the existence of Gaia
I deny the existence of Ganesha
I deny the existence of Ganga
I deny the existence of Garuda
I deny the existence of Gauri
I deny the existence of Geb
I deny the existence of Geong Si
I deny the existence of Hades
I deny the existence of Hanuman
I deny the existence of Hathor
I deny the existence of Hecate (Hekate)
I deny the existence of Helios
I deny the existence of Heng-o (Chang-o)
I deny the existence of Hephaestus
I deny the existence of Hera
I deny the existence of Hermes
I deny the existence of Hestia
I deny the existence of Hod
I deny the existence of Hoderi
I deny the existence of Hoori
I deny the existence of Horus
I deny the existence of Hotei
I deny the existence of Huitzilopochtli
I deny the existence of Hsi-Wang-Mu
I deny the existence of Hygeia
I deny the existence of Inanna
I deny the existence of Inti
I deny the existence of Iris
I deny the existence of Ishtar
I deny the existence of Isis
I deny the existence of Ixtab
I deny the existence of Izanaki
I deny the existence of Izanami
I deny the existence of Jesus
I deny the existence of Juno
I deny the existence of Jupiter
I deny the existence of Juturna
I deny the existence of Kagutsuchi
I deny the existence of Kartikeya
I deny the existence of Khepri
I deny the existence of Ki
I deny the existence of Kingu
I deny the existence of Kinich Ahau
I deny the existence of Kishar
I deny the existence of Krishna
I deny the existence of Kukulcan
I deny the existence of Lakshmi
I deny the existence of Liza
I deny the existence of Loki
I deny the existence of Lugh
I deny the existence of Luna
I deny the existence of Magna Mater
I deny the existence of Maia
I deny the existence of Marduk
I deny the existence of Mars
I deny the existence of Medb
I deny the existence of Mercury
I deny the existence of Mimir
I deny the existence of Minerva
I deny the existence of Mithras
I deny the existence of Morrigan
I deny the existence of Mot
I deny the existence of Mummu
I deny the existence of Muses
I deny the existence of Nammu
I deny the existence of Nanna
I deny the existence of Nanna (Norse)
I deny the existence of Nanse
I deny the existence of Neith
I deny the existence of Nemesis
I deny the existence of Nephthys
I deny the existence of Neptune
I deny the existence of Nergal
I deny the existence of Ninazu
I deny the existence of Ninhurzag
I deny the existence of Nintu
I deny the existence of Ninurta
I deny the existence of Njord
I deny the existence of Nut
I deny the existence of Odin
I deny the existence of Ohkuninushi
I deny the existence of Ohyamatsumi
I deny the existence of Orgelmir
I deny the existence of Osiris
I deny the existence of Ostara
I deny the existence of Pan
I deny the existence of Parvati
I deny the existence of Phaethon
I deny the existence of Phoebe
I deny the existence of Phoebus Apollo
I deny the existence of Pilumnus
I deny the existence of Poseidon
I deny the existence of Quetzalcoatl
I deny the existence of Rama
I deny the existence of Re
I deny the existence of Rhea
I deny the existence of Sabazius
I deny the existence of Sarasvati
I deny the existence of Selene
I deny the existence of Shiva
I deny the existence of Seshat
I deny the existence of Seti (Set)
I deny the existence of Shamash
I deny the existence of Shapsu
I deny the existence of Shen Yi
I deny the existence of Shiva
I deny the existence of Shu
I deny the existence of Si-Wang-Mu
I deny the existence of Sin
I deny the existence of Sirona
I deny the existence of Sol
I deny the existence of Surya
I deny the existence of Susanoh
I deny the existence of Tawaret
I deny the existence of Tefnut
I deny the existence of Tezcatlipoca
I deny the existence of Thanatos
I deny the existence of Thor
I deny the existence of Thoth
I deny the existence of Tiamat
I deny the existence of Tlaloc
I deny the existence of Tonatiuh
I deny the existence of Toyo-Uke-Bime
I deny the existence of Tyche
I deny the existence of Tyr
I deny the existence of Utu
I deny the existence of Uzume
I deny the existence of Venus
I deny the existence of Vesta
I deny the existence of Vishnu
I deny the existence of Volturnus
I deny the existence of Vulcan
I deny the existence of Xipe
I deny the existence of Xi Wang-mu
I deny the existence of Xochipilli
I deny the existence of Xochiquetzal
I deny the existence of Yam
I deny the existence of Yarikh
I deny the existence of Yhwh
I deny the existence of Ymir
I deny the existence of Yu-huang
I deny the existence of Yum Kimil
I deny the existence of Zeus

I deny the existence of any god or gods that I’ve missed out on that list.

I consider anyone that follows any of them to be at best deluded, and at worst psychotic.

I hold the religions that have sprouted up around any and all gods in contempt.

I consider those that try to force their religion on others are morally bankrupt.

I consider those that deny the evidence of science in favour of faith as idiots.

I consider any laws that attempt to promote any religion, religious belief, or any religious leaders above any other or at the expense of any other as being unjust.

There, that should cover most of it.

Just to add a note of fairness…

I respect the rights of the individual to freedom of thought, and freedom of expression.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article6925781.ece

BHA Please Dont Label Me poster

First off, this is not a campaign by Richard Dawkins. Prof Dawkins was a prominent supporter of the original “There’s Probably No God, Now Stop Worrying And Enjoy Your Life” advertising campaign. It wasn’t his campaign, he just provided some money and lent his support. I too provided money to that campaign does that mean it’s mine too?

Secondly, the article basically proves the point of the advert, but completely fails to realise it. Those kids are the children of “Evangelical” parents, they aren’t evangelical kids. Not yet anyway. Maybe they will grow up to be evangelical, and that’s fine. Or maybe they’ll grow up to be Buddhist, or Muslim, or maybe even atheist. But foisting a world view on them when they are far too young to make an informed choice is infringing on their rights to self determinism.

I am a Sci-Fi fan, but no one would label my daughter as such as a result. I am a software engineer, but that doesn’t mean that my daughter is too. My daughter is an atheist, but she told me that.

Thirdly, this campaign is not in any way shape or form about infringing on the rights of the parents to raise their children under the umbrella of the parents faith, nor to restrict their ability to teach their children about their particular brand of religious dogma. So all the commenter’s on the article really need to learn to read and comprehend.

It’s much rarer however to read about people like myself however who consider themselves to be life-long Atheists.

For me as a child religion was always sitting in the background, pretty much never intruding into my life. I knew it was there, I knew plenty of people who were practising Christians, I just wasn’t one of them. It didn’t seem to serve any practical purpose other than to take up time on a Sunday morning. I think my parents are/were (my mother died 14 years ago) nominally Christian, but very far from being practising. We basically never attended church (with the exception of the usual Hatch/Match/Dispatch events for friends/family), and neither I nor my sister have been baptised. Religion was never even a topic of discussion growing up as far as I can recall, and we certainly weren’t guided towards any particular belief system. We were simply raised to be well rounded human beings, with a sense of right and wrong, good and bad. There was never a need to back it up by threatening the wrath of some all powerful invisible deity at some unknown time in the future, why bother when there was the all powerful threat of being sent to my room right now!

So it’s from this background that I quite naturally and of my own accord found myself to be an Atheist. No other position made sense. When you’re free from religious preconceptions, all the modern dogmas start to look a trifle silly. It’s always struck me that in the caveman days it would only be natural to project a deity onto things like the Sun, Moon, and Sky etc. Those were visible physical objects that have a very obvious influence over your everyday life, so if there was any chance that they could have a conscious entity behind them then you would definitely hold it in high regard, and the temptation to deify it would be great. But as time moved on, and human knowledge grew, it became obvious that there was no such entity to heap praise upon. No sane person nowadays would believe that if you don’t pray to the Sun god, then she won’t rise in the morning. Once you realise that those gods aren’t needed, why invent others to replace them? They’re superfluous.

When it came to raising my own daughter, I decided to take a similar approach. I wouldn’t try and push her to follow my beliefs, but let her decide for herself. She attends a Church of England junior school – primarily because it’s one of the best in the area – where they are fairly liberal. They do do the Christian thing, I’d be surprised if they didn’t. But they do also cover other religious beliefs too, giving the kids a well rounded view of the world around them. Whenever she asked me a religiously based question, I’d try to answer honestly, point out my own beliefs, but also offer insights into how others believe. I’m not stupid enough to believe that I never favoured Atheism, but I did hope I provided enough information so she could make an informed choice. She’s a reasonably bright young person (obviously, she’s my child ) so she took it all on board, and eventually declared to me that she also didn’t believe in God etc. This was towards the end of last year, when the Christmas season was coming into full swing, so I wondered how she’d handle her belief in Santa. To my surprise she declared that she didn’t believe in him either! She’s obviously a bit more perceptive than I am because I think I was a year older before I gave up that one – either that or I was a bit more shrewd and realised there was something to be gained by holding onto Santa. Interestingly though, the Tooth Fairy is still in business. I guess the lure of cold hard cash is still too strong.

So it looks like another generation of Atheists is born. Recent studies seem to suggest (in Great Britain anyway) that religious belief in the younger generation is at an all time low, and falling. Hopefully that will translate more and more into people who have similar experiences growing up as I did. Once there are significant numbers of second and third generation Atheists around the world will be a very different, and in my opinion better, place.

If there are others out there that have always been Atheist, I’d very much like to hear your story.