Ellen Johnson is a former president of the national organization American Atheists.

American Atheists was founded by its first president, Madalyn Murray O’Hair, in 1963 as part of her campaign against mandatory prayer and bible recitations in public schools within the United States. According to their website:

American Atheists is dedicated to working for the civil rights of Atheists, promoting separation of state and church, and providing information about Atheism.

It is the goal of American Atheists to provide you with new avenues for learning about the Atheist philosophy. At this site, we will work to inform you about state-church separation issues, and give you the Atheist perspective on them.

This information is thought-provoking, intellectually challenging and pure hard-core Atheist. It’s something that you won’t find anywhere else.

Johnson describes herself as a “second-generation atheist,” having grown up in an atheist home. She has been active with American Atheists since 1978 and took over the presidency in 1995 when O’Hair suddenly went missing (along with her son and grandaughter, it was later discovered that she had been murdered by an ex-convict). Her resignation was publicly announced on May 2, 2008. Johnson has made numerous television appearances, including an ABC special, “Heaven – Where Is It? How Do We Get There?” along with Larry King Live, Good Morning America, and Fox News.

She is currently the executive director of the Godless Americans Political Action Committee (GAMPAC). The following is a description of their activities:

GAMPAC endorses candidates for public office who support the First Amendment separation of church and state; defend equal rights and protections for our nation’s godless Americans; inform our community of the voting records of their elected representatives on issues of concern; and support our goal of having “a place at the table” in formulating public policy.

In addition, GAMPAC will facilitate the training and development of those godless Americans seeking to bring their organizations talents to the field of electoral politics.

You can read more about American Atheists at their Welcome page and their Visitor’s Center. You can also help support them by becoming a member.

GAMPAC has a newsletter, for which you can sign up here.

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I don’t remember anything specific that my parents said in my early childhood, but I know that whatever they said had caused me to be an explicit atheist with respect to the Christian god by the time I was 5. The reason I know this is because my grandpa gave me a book called My First Bible for my 6th “crismas” (you know, the “crismas” right before my 6th birthday) and when I saw it, I though, “Oh, hey, someone took the bible and made it into a cute book of faerie-tales!” as opposed to the pile of tiny text it was originally. I was distinctly aware that, as my grandpa hugged me and smiled for a picture, he was sure that I was going to be converted to Christianity, but I laughed for the picture as I thought to myself that he was dead wrong. However, I had already learned by that age that we were not to discuss matters of religion with our extended family.

My other grandpa (my dad’s daddy) gave me a King Fisher’s Children’s Bible for my 9th “crismas” (three years later). The method of opening presents is a little different at that house, so I had to climb over piles of infants to reach first grandma and then grandpa to say thank you. At first I thought that they were trying to convert me, too, but their attitude was much more laid back. They weren’t trying to convert me; they just innocently thought that a children’s bible was a good gift for an 8-year-old. I enjoyed that one much more, because it had different, spookier, and longer stories in it than the other one.

On the trip home, after getting one of the bibles (so I can’t remember if this was when I was 5 or when I was 8…), I was reading it in the car and one of the stories wasn’t making sense, and then a later story contradicted it, so I asked my parents about it. I figured they would be able to provide the missing information to make the story consistent, since they had both been raised baptist. After a couple of questions from me, my dad shouted, “You know none of it’s real, right!?” I felt like he was accusing me of being stupid. I said, “I know! I just think that, if so many people believe it, it must make sense, even if it’s not real.” Both of my parents laughed and my dad said, “No. You’d think that, but it’s not true.” And my mom said, “That’s the thing. It doesn’t make sense.” “Then why do people believe it?” I asked. “I don’t know,” she said. Then she talked about how people are raised to take non-sense on faith, but I stopped paying attention and started trying to find the consistency in the story anyway.

Now that I think about it, that must have been when I was 5. Once, when I was 7, I asked my dad a question about “why would people even believe in god?” and he got all mad. I generally tell people that my dad is an atheist, but that is wishful thinking on my part. He is non-religious, but likes to pretend that there is some kind of god and after-life. Well, I suppose he wants an after-life and thinks that that must require a god. Anyway, his comment from when I was 5 made me think that he did not believe in god, but then, after the events when I was 7, I asked my mom about it and she told me that he believes in “god and heaven, but nothing else”. Therefore, I learned to tread lightly when discussing religion with daddy, for fear of stepping into his own dogmatic territory.

My dad’s mother took me to church once when I was 10. I told her that I wanted to go because extended extended family members were going to be there, and I wanted to meet them. I went in my play clothes that I had slept in and when we got back my mom was mad because she thought that my grandma was trying to convert me and keep it a secret from her! I don’t know if my mother’s interpretation was correct. Grandma did seem hurried that morning, but I had thought it was because the church service was about to start.

In 7th grade, my sister and some neighbors tried to convince me that there was a god. They were all Christians, but they did not try to convince me of Jesus, just of god. I eventually told them that their god was plausible and that I would give them the benefit of the doubt. I was accustomed to assuming that people were telling the truth unless what they said contradicted something I knew to be true. Though I was an explicit atheist with respect to the Christian god, I did not have a logical basis for my stance and was easily swayed. I spent a few months going around with the thought of this hypothetical god in my head. I was trying to believe in it, because those other kids had insisted on it so strongly. God, those months were miserable. The misery reached a maximum as I was walking home one night. I was thinking about how awful it felt to perceive myself as a slave to an omnipotent creator and then suddenly I remembered that I was believing this only as a favor to a group of kids I did not like. I wasn’t actually true! I looked up at the sky and happily saw nothing but stars.

I tried donning Christianity in a metaphorical sense a couple of times, because it hurt me to believe that all of my Christian friends were insane. The first time was when I was 10; the second time was when I was 14. It lasted less than a week both times. I met another atheist in summer school when I was 14. She and I started being very vocal about atheism. Then I asked this boy if he wanted to be my boyfriend and he said, “Well … you’re not a Christian….” That was the most life-changing thing that had ever happened to me, and it felt awful. First, I argued with him that his religion was a stupid reason to reject someone. He quoted things from the bible at me, and then I decided to prove to him that his religion was false. After just a few days, it was not about getting him to be my boyfriend. It was that he had opened my eyes to the existence of something very ridiculous and I felt the need to eradicate it. He and I would get into lengthy arguments about Christianity for the next two years. You know how a Christian will make this asinine argument and you make one point against it and then they respond to that one point with a pile of crap that would take hours to respond to thoroughly? He would do that all the time, and I finally got sick of it. I kept researching Christianity for a while after that, though. It was when I was 14 that I found Atheist Under Ur Bed, whose diary made a lot of things apparent to me that I had already subconsciously known or understood.

I’m wearing my outcampaign pin right now. I wear it every day. And I’m talking to that boy from my summer school on AIM right now. We’re still friends.

Oh, yeah, I’ve since learned of the existence of other religions and now I know that no god exists.

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I grew up in a particularly dysfunctional little corner of the bible belt. My parents were reasonably secular protestants, but made the decision not to raise my sister and I in a church so that we would be able to decide religious matters for ourselves. Ultimately, my sister became a Mormon, and I became an atheist.

I never believed in God, except very early in life. I had pretty much decided against religion by the time I was 10, which was about the age I realized that the kids around me (Arkansans) were completely psychotic and predominantly bigots. I voiced my views regularly and got a lot of shit for it, though I admit I could be a bit condescending at times.

To this day, I wonder how two kids (my Mormon sister and I), raised in the same house without any real religious influence diverged so greatly in terms of religious perspective. It seems to me that it was merely a desperate need of social acceptance on the part of my sister, and an overwhelming amount of social apathy on my part. Put into the context of a very religious community, it makes sense that she would be more likely to adopt the religious characteristics she did.

I sort of tend to think that this is the reason most people are religious at this point in civilization. Atheism simply connotes negativity in the U.S. today, and people don’t want to identify with the term. It is why an open atheist is unelectable in this country, and it is by this shallow mechanism that religious thought clings to the minds of people today. That, and the egotistical fear of a mind that doesn’t understand its own self, and what kind of being it actually is.

I literally never understood how people could hold such amazing contradictions as truth in their minds at one time, simply because I was never taught to think that way. Its always frustrated me when people tell me I should read the Bible before I claim to know it isn’t the truth or the word of God. I DON’T HAVE TO READ IT, BECAUSE ITS BASED ON A RIDICULOUS PRETENSE! I don’t have to read it because I know that it could have been written by the most brilliant minds (it wasn’t), based on the most recent scientific findings (thousands of years old), and constructed with the most sound logic possible (from what I HAVE read, not even close), and it wouldn’t be possible to prove anything.

George W Bush’s presidency is the fault of Christians and their values, gay marriage and abortion. I support gay marriage and a woman’s right to choose, but mostly I don’t care, because I’m not gay and I’m not a woman. His campaign was defined by those ridiculous issues, and they bought every ounce of it. Now hundreds of thousands of people have died. What a great understanding of morality! Of course it’s nothing for them to be “pro-life” and “pro-death” penalty at the same time, so why should this be any different?

Religion teaches a really LAZY way of thinking and ingrains it into the consciousness of its victims before they are old enough to choose, and then they look at us atheists like we are crazy for not believing in their wacko ideas! It’s SO annoying!

Think of all of the conflict in the world today. How much of it is religiously motivated?

All I have to say, is you religious people brought ALL of that shit to the table. No religion, no religious war. For those of us who simply don’t give a shit about your beliefs, you look like insane homicidal lunatics killing each other for no reason.

Now, I know my story doesn’t have any touching moments of revelation, and I hardly constructed a sound argument against religion, but debating specifics of the Bible and every little logical fallacy that its supporters argue from gets old fast. I figure anyone reading this is “the choir” so to speak, so I need not tell you why you are an atheist.

There is a lot of great philosophy out there, and lots of great arguments that are purely brilliant.

…but atheism is obvious. I don’t really think it requires any explanation.

You guys feel me?

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Mojoey over at Deep Thoughts maintains a great service to the atheist online community - the atheist blogroll. He has kindly added anatheist.net to this ungodly list. On my right sidebar, you can now find a scrolling list of every blog that is currently a member of the atheist blogroll. I heartily encourage you to scan through the list every now and then and check out a new atheist blog and give him or her some support.

If you are an atheist and have your own blog that deals in one way or another with atheism, then click here and find out how you can join, too, and help us get to 1,000 members!

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I just recently came across the OUT Campaign website, run by none other than Richard Dawkins. As the name suggests, the purpose of the OUT Campaign is to encourage atheists to come ‘out’ from hiding and let their atheism be publicly known to the rest of the world. This is obviously within the same spirit as this website.

How many of us are still hiding in closets or crouching under beds? Atheism will remain a distasteful or disdained position so long as we keep quiet about it. So let’s not keep quiet about it anymore!

Here is the full description of the OUT campaign from the front page of its website:

Atheists have always been at the forefront of rational thinking and beacons of enlightenment, and now you can share your idealism by being part of the OUT Campaign.

Atheists are far more numerous than most people realize. COME OUT of the closet! You’ll feel liberated, and your example will encourage others to COME OUT too. (Don’t “out” anybody else, wait for them to OUT themselves when they are ready to do so).

The OUT Campaign allows individuals to let others know they are not alone. It can also be a nice way of opening a conversation and help to demolish the negative stereotypes of atheists. Let the world know that we are not about to go away and that we are not going to allow those that would condemn us to push us into the shadows.

As more and more people join the OUT Campaign, fewer and fewer people will feel intimidated by religion. We can help others understand that atheists come in all shapes, sizes, colours and personalities. We are labourers and professionals. We are mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, sisters, brothers and grandparents. We are human (we are primates) and we are good friends and good citizens. We are good people who have no need to cling to the supernatural.

It is time to let our voices be heard regarding the intrusion of religion in our schools and politics. Atheists along with millions of others are tired of being bullied by those who would force their own religious agenda down the throats of our children and our respective governments. We need to KEEP OUT the supernatural from our moral principles and public policies.

It is time to step up and…stand OUT.

You can also read an introduction by Richard Dawkins here.

The symbol of the OUT campaign is the scarlet letter ‘A’ - a branding of course to be displayed with pride rather than shame. I am displaying my scarlet letter ‘A’ on the sidebar to the right. If you have a personal website or blog, I encourage you to do the same and link back to the OUT Campaign website: http://outcampaign.org

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I’m a teenager so of course I live with my parents. I have been raised in a very conservative Christian family. I was taught from the age of four that Christianity is the Way and the only Way, Christians go to heaven and non-Christians go to hell, the works. I didn’t see any other way nor did I know any other way.

The bulk of my indoctrination has come from my father. He is very hardcore. I’ve tried all my life to be good enough for him. I went on a mission trip and to various Christian camps because I wanted to be his perfect daughter. But there is no pleasing my dad. No matter what I did, I wasn’t good enough.

I was always one to ask questions. If there was a word said that I didn’t understand, I would ask what it meant. Growing up, there were so many times I wanted to question the teachings of my Sunday school class or my father’s after-dinner devotions. I held my tongue because I knew I wasn’t supposed to question the church and my dad most certainly wouldn’t approve. But some things just didn’t make sense to me. The Bible seemed to contradict itself so many times. I couldn’t stand it.

I used to care so much for animals and the environment when I was a kid. I wanted to be a vegetarian and recycle and do whatever I could. But the church teaches that God put us in charge of this earth, that animals are meant to be eaten, etc. I was taught to grow out of it. I began to make fun of those environmentalists. I preached to my non-Christian friends. I openly expressed my disapproval of homosexuals. The questions I wanted to ask were slowly shoved from the tip of my tongue to the deepest area in the back of my mind, altogether forgotten. I was a hardcore Christian. The church was always right. I was a servant of God. And I still wasn’t good enough for my dad.

Then, about eight months ago, my life was completely turned around. I found out that I had a mental disorder. I have missed this entire year of school to get medication and treatment. It’s been an absolute nightmare. But I’m so glad it happened because it made me remember those questions that were gathering cobwebs in the back of my mind.

I’ve always been ‘moody’. I grew to think that everyone went through what I did, but they all just handled it better than me. I had very low self-esteem. Again, wanting to please my dad, I did my best to get control of my emotions. I built a shell around myself that only allowed in what I’m supposed to feel as a Christian, what I’m supposed to be.

But in August of last year, I had what you may call a minor ‘mental breakdown’. I couldn’t hide my emotions anymore and each hour seemed to present a new one. (I was eventually diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder). My protective shell had shattered. I was open and raw and I could no longer make myself something I wasn’t. I had no control over what I felt or thought so I could no longer dismiss those questions and doubts that entered my mind. I began to ask them. I researched until my fingers were numb and my mind could hold no more. At the beginning of March of this year, I finally came to the conclusion that I don’t believe in God and that I want nothing to do with religion anymore. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

I stopped going to church January, much to my dad’s dismay. He tried many times to persuade me to go back and I always gave him a simple excuse. Such as that I don’t feel well or I can’t be around that many people. At the time, I still wasn’t sure what I believed. I tried my best to find the answers I wanted, but it is impossible to find them all. I knew I couldn’t truly worship God in church anymore and I refused to pretend and be a hypocrite. That is initially why I stopped going. I eventually told my dad that. He respected it for a few weeks and then began to try to persuade me again. I told him again how I felt, this time with a little more conviction, and he left it alone for another few weeks.

He started to show that he wasn’t pleased with me not going to church. I was so scared. My friend strongly advised me to talk to him before I go out of my mind (no pun intended). He was about to leave for his Monday night church group and I told him that we needed to talk. He said we could when he got back.

It was about nine thirty by the time we sat down together. My dad is very intimidating. I rambled on for about half an hour before really getting to the church subject. I pretty much chickened out. I wouldn’t have said anything about my now being an atheist if he hadn’t have brought God up. He got his fake godly face on (the one that makes you want to slap him) and gave me a speech about how my journey with the Lord isn’t over. How I’ve been on mission trips and to camp, but there’s more to it. He told me that all he’s asking me to do is to continue in the church until I’m eighteen and then I can say, “Dad, I’m done.”

-I’m wondering what he expects to happen from now until I’m eighteen that will convince me to stay with the church. You have to know my dad, once you agree to one thing, you agree to everything. He probably had various groups and trips planned for me so church would be my life twenty-four/seven.-

I seized this opportunity and said, “Dad, what if I’m done now?” It took him a bit to fully understand what I was saying. He started in on another speech, holding up his Bible and saying it is the Way, and all the religious statements you can imagine. He then asked me what my reason for living was and where I got my morals from. I went to answer but he interrupted me to compare my morals to that of Hitler and Stalin’s. “They made their own morals. They thought they were doing right.” So he’s comparing me to the slaughterer of the Jews and a totalitarian dictator? Thanks Dad.

He went on to say, “This will not affect Henry.” His name is Henry. Yes he used third person. “Henry will continue to believe in the truth.” He tends to take my issues and make them about him. Other comments that were thrown in there were “Your mind has been poisoned.” and “I’m going to spend the rest of my days or yours being an example and showing you that you’re wrong.” I listened to his speeches half tuning him out. I stifled laughter. It all seemed so ridiculous.

My dad ended telling me that he did not support my views and he will not respect them. I told him that I wasn’t trying to change anyone else’s views. I just want to make mine known. I also said that I don’t expect him to support or respect my views and that I do expect him to try and show me I’m wrong, with which he interrupted, “No. It is not my job to show you you are wrong, and you are. That is the Lord. The Holy Spirit.” He contradicts himself all the time. I then tried to end the conversation by saying that all I needed him to do was love me. He said he does. Then he said, “Nothing you do will make me love you less, nothing you do will make me love you more.” For those of you who don’t know, God says that in the Bible. But he wasn’t quoting it. He actually said it for himself. That seemed a little strange to me.

Well anyway, I told my mom the next morning that I don’t believe in God. She took it a lot better. She and I are really close and she told me she doesn’t want anything to come between us. She hasn’t treated me any differently. I haven’t told my sister, a devout Christian, yet. I’m rather afraid to. I’m scared she, as well as others, will think less of me, like I’m lesser of a person. I’m getting stronger and more confident, so eventually everyone will know.

My struggle now, besides avoiding what my dad may now throw at me, is to undo what I’ve been taught as fact all my life. When presented with a problem or situation that needs an answer, the Christian answer immediately pops into my head. I want to decide for myself now. I see these Go Green commercials and my first instinct is to roll my eyes, as my parents do. I’m starting to realize now that I think it’s a good idea. I want to be a vegan. I want to care about the environment. I want to be liberal.

I still don’t know what I think about so many things. It’s very frustrating, especially being surrounded by Christian conservatives. I know it takes time. I’m so excited to be able to think for myself. I love the freedom. Now that I’m out of the cage that is the Christian church, it seems so small. It once was my life. It seems strange now.

The church talks about that wonderful feeling of peace, that you get when you trust fully in Him. I experienced what they call the ‘peace of God’ in the church. What’s funny is, I’ve experienced the same feeling, without the God part, many times since leaving the church. It’s that feeling when something finally makes sense, or you realize how amazing it is to think for yourself or even when you ace that exam you studied so hard for. The church says you cannot be truly happy without God. I say you most certainly can.

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This is the first post in an on-going series that will highlight notable atheists, either alive or deceased. As far as I am concerned, a notable atheist is a person who has made significant contributions to advancing atheism or other forms of reasoned unbelief. This is not necessarily the same as a celebrity atheist. You may feel free to send me any notable atheists that you feel deserve attention. First up is Dan Barker.

Dan Barker is the co-President of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a non-profit organization devoted to “defending the constitutional principle of the separation of church and state.”

What is remarkable about Dan is that he became an atheist after many years serving as an ordained, Protestant minister and composer of Christian music. According to his biographical page:

Dan became a teenage evangelist at age 15. At 16 he was choir librarian for faith-healer Kathryn Kuhlman’s Los Angeles appearances. He received a degree in Religion from Azusa Pacific University and was ordained to the ministry by the Standard Community Church, California, in 1975. He served as associate pastor at a Friend’s (Quaker) Church, an Assembly of God, and an independent Charismatic church. Dan was a Protestant missionary in Mexico for a total of two years.

Dan maintained a touring musical ministry for 17 years, including eight years of full-time, cross-country evangelism. An accomplished pianist, record producer, arranger and songwriter, he worked with Christian music companies such as Manna Music and Word Music. For many years, Dan wrote and produced the annual “Mini Musicale” for Gospel Light Publications’ Vacation Bible School curriculum.

Over time, however, Dan “lost faith in faith.” Or, more precisely, “I did not lose my faith, I gave it up purposely. The motivation that drove me into the ministry is the same that drove me out. I have always wanted to know.” After an agonizing, internal conflict between his faith on the one hand and reason on the other, faith ultimately lost. “There was no specific turning point for me. I one day just realized that I was no longer a Christian, and a few months later I mustered the nerve to advertise that fact.”

You can read a short summary of Dan’s de-conversion story in his article, I Just Lost Faith in Faith.

A much fuller account of Dan’s story is contained within his 1992 book, Losing Faith in Faith: From Preacher to Atheist. Excerpts are available here.

Dan has participated in many debates and you can view a sampling of his writings here, which cover such topics as God’s existence, morality, freethought, and the Bible. See, for example, Refuting God and Bible Contradictions.

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I grew up in a Catholic household, went to church every Sunday, went to CCD (Confraternity of Christian Doctrine) every Sunday as well.

The CCD teachers were well meaning, parental volunteers.

I didn’t really question my Catholic faith at all as a kid.

It was obvious to me, that being Catholic meant “being good” — so it made sense to me to just be a Catholic.

I was a really good kid.

I remember reading the entire Bible just before going into high school. It was an odd thing. Catholics don’t generally read the Bible that much — something that was made very clear to me the summer before 6th grade when I went to a Baptist Vacation Bible school where we had competitions to see who could look up Bible verses the fastest. I got destroyed. These Baptist kids knew their Bible WAY better than me.

Anyway, after reading the Bible, I had some interesting questions for my parents and my CCD teachers. Turns out, that the troubling parts of the Bible can be glossed over in a somewhat convincing manner for Catholics. Essentially, the Bible is not of ultimate importance, but the church, its teachings, etc. were most important.

This, of course, is where many Protestants get kinda giddy and start saying, “yeah, not using the Bible as the ultimate! Crazy!” but… the Catholic Church can adapt, and sometimes in a positive way, to a changing reality.

I got confirmed in 10th grade, and I was totally committed to the Church and its teachings. The summer after getting confirmed, though, I started reading some Nietzsche. It is hard to explain just how…amazing it was to read some of what he wrote. The slave morality vs. master morality…. it was simply astounding to be reading that this guy actually thought that the morality of the Bible was stupid, dangerous and wrong. Not just that the Bible wasn’t true. I knew some people that thought that, but they all thought that Jesus was the best person ever. To actually think that a person could take issue with humility as a virtue, for example, was mind blowing.

I started to ask myself, ok, I believe that the Catholic Church is correct. I was born into a Catholic family, so it certainly was lucky of me to be born into a family that happened to believe the truth. I quickly realized that a Muslim kid would think the same thing.

But, I figured that if I had been born into a different family, I should be able to figure out which was the correct path. The first step, of course, is to doubt that you happened to have the right answer already. Start with a blank slate, how does a person come to have the right religious beliefs?

Tricky question to answer.

So I thought about it for a while on my own. I really really wanted Catholicism to be the answer. I wanted to believe, but I knew that if I gave it every test I could think of and it passed - that my faith would be that much stronger.

The toughest question that I felt needed to be answered was, Is faith a necessary requirement for salvation?

Here’s a rough example of one of the things I considered:

Let’s say that “A” stands for either Christianity or Islam, and the “B” stands for the other.

Let’s assume that we know that ONE (either A or B) is the true faith.

Both A and B say that a person must have the correct faith (at the very least) in order to get to heaven.

What I mean is, if Christians/Muslims think you need MORE than mere faith, that’s fine, but having the correct faith is a necessary condition.

Faith is - by definition - believing something without having conclusive evidence in its veracity.

In this thought experiment, a person knows that he has a 50% chance of being right, but doesn’t know which one has to pick.

Again, being that each requires a leap of faith in at least one point, and neither is provable, your choice is in part based on something besides reasoning, evidence, etc.

Perhaps based on “feeling” — but people on both side claim the “feeling” part…

So if the system is set up so that God judges a person based on whether they chose the correct faith, He is essentially randomly choosing how to reward or punish a person.

The idea that God would “JUDGE” someone based on picking the correct faith when by definition there isn’t enough evidence to make an informed decision - was highly troubling to me.

I’ll say that bit again, cause it’s important.

I rejected the notion of calling God worthy of worship, if he would damn a person for picking the wrong answer, when there was by definition, not enough information to pick the correct answer.

If this is the setup, then God is a tyrant.

If this is not the setup, and there is enough information to pick the correct answer, then you don’t need faith — there is enough information.

If this is not the setup, that faith isn’t necessary to get into heaven, then faith, clearly isn’t necessary to get into heaven.

This essentially convinced me that faith cannot be a necessary requirement for salvation.

I started reading a bunch of things in earnest… Lots of online reading, plus a lot of books on my own.

It was a long process for me to eventually call myself an atheist. And it was a bit longer before I felt comfortable calling myself an atheist.

As an undergraduate, I wrote a bunch on an online site that fostered a fair amount of religious debate. And I even participated in a few formal live and in person debates.

As a graduate student, I have continued informally challenging people as often as I can in person… still occasionally write online (and have been slowly developing a website of useful debate information), and have participated in a live formal debate.

I am currently a graduate student working toward my Ph.D. in physics, and I’ve had many interesting conversations with lots of different people. One of the more odd things is in talking with people who agree with my general outlook about reality: essentially, there’s no good reason to believe that anything supernatural occurs…I get a sense that religious sentiments should be respected. Religious beliefs should not be called into question. Or, at best, they should be ignored.

I whole-heartedly disagree with this approach. What people believe matters. There are consequences for allowing unreason to run amok beyond the fact that, as Hitchens put it, it is immoral to lie to children and it is immoral to lie to ignorant and uneducated people.

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I became an atheist when I was 17. In fact, that is when I first learned of the term and what it meant. For the first 17 years of my life I was, what I would now call, a theist by presumption. I presumed that some sort of god existed, however, I rarely gave much thought to it.

I was fortunate, perhaps, to grow up in a non-religious household. Both of my parents are believers with Christian backgrounds (Catholic and Methodist, respectively), but religion was not something that was ever discussed at home nor was I ever taken to church. Holidays such as Christmas and Easter were celebrated in an almost completely secular manner. Jesus barely seemed to be the reason for the season.

In fact, the only time that I ever remember going to church was when I was really young and my grandmother took me to her Catholic mass. To sit in one of those pews, to thumb through one of the Bibles that sat in the slot in front of me, and to stare at the statue of Jesus on the cross on the far back wall left an odd impression on me. I can’t possibly describe it in words, but to a small child, it was all a bit confusing, to say the least. I remember spending a long time staring at a series of artwork depicting the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus that ran along the walls on either side of the church in a combination of awe and puzzlement.

I first heard the “good news” when I was in fourth grade. It was during recess, and one of my friends gathered a few of us around and indicated that he was excited to share something with us. He explained how we are all sinners under God. He told us, because of this, the only way we could get into heaven after we died was by asking God for forgiveness. It was that simple, he said. All that I had to do was ask for God’s forgiveness every once in awhile and I’d be in good shape. When should I do this, I ask? It doesn’t matter, he replied. All that essentially matters, then, is that you do it. So, I did exactly what he had told me to do. I bowed my head, closed my eyes, and asked for God’s forgiveness.

Funny thing was, I felt no different than I had before. I may have been a child, but I felt silly. I felt like I was talking to myself. Needless to say, I stopped trying to talk to God.

I did not think much about religion or god again until I was 17. I was on a class trip to Washington D.C. and we were touring a cathedral. That must have got me thinking again. Once we were outside, I made some comment to a friend of mine that prompted him to ask me whether or not I was an atheist. I had honestly never heard the word before and asked him what it meant. When he told me, my immediate gut reaction was to quickly deny that I was an atheist - and so I did. However, in my mind I knew that I was, and in some way I was grateful to my friend for finally identifying, with a word, what had been lingering within me for all that time.

That was all that I needed. Sometimes that is just what many of us need. In the ensuing years I read whatever I could find on atheism or that was critical of religion. Yes, the logic and the arguments were all compelling to me, but the greatest revelation, for me, was discovering that there are so many other people out there who share my disbelief. That is the impetus for this website. I want to make it easy to share your story. So, I hope that this website will help give a voice to all of those atheists, agnostics, and unbelievers out there - especially the ones still hiding in a closet, behind a rock, or under a bed.

If you would like to participate, please learn how to contribute on the Share page.

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Hi! My name is James Tracy.

I am the creator of anatheist.net. I am an atheist. Are you an atheist or an agnostic? Can you just plain not bring yourself to believe in a god or any religious creed? If yes, then great! Not only are you not alone, but there are many of us out there and we all come from a diverse set of backgrounds. If not, then that’s okay, too. Maybe you are on the fence. Or maybe you simply cannot understand why anyone would be an atheist, agnostic, or unbeliever in the first place! In either case, I hope you decide to stick around.

Why anatheist.net?

I have created this website to allow anyone that identifies as an atheist (or an agnostic or an unbeliever) to share with the rest of the world his or her story of unbelief.

If this sounds interesting to you, please read more and learn how to contribute on the Share page.

I will, of course, be posting my own testimonial soon.