Being atheist doesn’t imply anything other than what atheism really means: a non-belief in god(s). Sometimes believers take us to be not just spiritual non-believers, but people that don’t believe in anything. Every time I hear that, I just shake my head: Are people really this stupid? That question was rhetorical.

Not everything in life is necessarily life changing. Some of it is planned. Some of it is accidental. All in all though, nothing we do or say means anything to anyone. What about religious belief? If we look closely, the spread of two of the three Abrahamic religions were by force (and force of law), not because people necessarily were drawn to them for any special reasons. People were content on believing, or not believing, in whatever gods or forces they had been comfortable with for ages. Suddenly, armies appear over the hill sweeping through towns and villages, leaving behind the Good News of death and destruction. Want to live? Live on your knees praying to our god.

Although atheism hasn’t been a crime in the United States, states did attempt to restrict atheists from public office, or testifying in court. The Supreme Court invalidated all such state laws prejudiced against atheists. I really believe there are some out there (just look on X!) that would like to not only have that decision reversed, but would like to see atheists prosecuted, along with other groups they happen to despise. I wonder what would happen if the reverse happened? What would it be like if there were actual laws passed against christians. Not as though they don’t cry enough nowadays about how persecuted they are – in the United States. I’m pretty sure there aren’t any cases of the government coming in and shitting down individual churches based on their belief system.

Of course, the government did intervene during the pandemic, and I was foolishly in favor of that in the beginning. But then they went too far and started banning people coming to church, sitting in their cars, listening over their radios. And when medical first responders cheered on the Floyd riots, I knew the whole “pandemic” was fake. It’s going be a long time before Americans believe their government in anything like that again.

If people truly want to believe in something that is existentially unprovable, then they should be able to do whatever they want in those areas. I really can’t force any time in humanity future where there won’t be some sort of religious belief. Remove the current ones, something will pop up to take their place. More than one, likely.