The atheist voice

I have been told several times lately that I'm not allowed to talk about something because of my opinions on the subject. What, I hear you say, could possibly be my opinion-crime, could it be that I champion race hate? Do I think that gay people should be banned from society? No. Lets face it I am never ever going to be that much of an idiot.

My crime is not believing in God.

I am a atheist. Atheism is simply the absence of belief that any deities exist. I do not hate faith. If people want to believe that there is a big guy up in the sky who passes judgement on everything they do then fine, that is their choice but I don't and I don't see why I should be punished for that. If someone could come up to me and give me indisputable proof that God exists then of course I would believe it, I would have no choice but no one can do that. When a scientist discovers a new treatment for a disease the onus is on him to produce the proof, he cannot simply say 'well I know it's true, you can't prove it's not' but this is what we do with religion. Why are the two so separate?
Faith however is not my main problem with religion, the problem I have is with organised religion it's self. I find it massively hypercritical, negative and in our modern day society I find it out dated and in some respects harmful. Why do we need to go into a building so ornate it rivals a palace? Surely the money spent making this building so beautiful could be spent elsewhere? Could be spent feeding the starving children that are littered around the world? Even Jesus himself would worship on the banks of the river.

The person they've deemed the person most appropriate to channel the word of God has spoken out against the importance of contraception, the need to procreate and the evils of being homosexual. How in a developed society can we possibly ever accept views like this? What is more terrifying is the effect his words are having on the less developed countries, people who are more vulnerable to poverty and virus's, such as AIDS, are putting themselves at more risk because that is what the church is advising! If AIDS is going to be the emdemic that destroys the world it is going to be at the church's hands.

What really prompted me to write this however was the fact that if I express these views in public I am told I am a hater of the church and wouldn't ever give it a chance, this is rubbish. I have given the church chances in the past, I have attempted to believe, I tend to not close my mind over to anything and that includes religion but it's not for me and what is so damn wrong with that? Just because I am an atheist doesn't mean my opinions are any less vaild, my decision to not believe were borne from careful consideration and gut feeling alike. If you believe in God then that's fine with me but do not attempt to shove it down my neck and do not tell me that my words are not valid because they are not confirmed by a book that was written by man.