Danielle Alberti

"There's probably no God": Why I'm ashamed to call myself an atheist

I don't believe in God and I don't believe in Adonai or Allah. I don't even believe in Vishnu, the Triple Goddess or Jupiter. I'm an atheist.

That isn't to be confused with the agnostics, who believe that the concept of God cannot be proven or disproven. Nope, I simply don't believe that a God exists. But I won't judge you if you do.

My nontheism hasn't always been embraced by the people I've met. I learned early in elementary school to hide my lack of religious beliefs as a secret. I would ignore kids who asked me if I believed in God, and make up excuses as to why I didn't go to church; children can be so nosy.

Growing older, I found that friends' parents would immediately dislike me if I admitted my dirty secret. So I would keep it hidden until I was close enough to a person to trust them—close enough to make it hurt when their parents decided they wanted me out of the picture.

It wasn't until I hit my rebellious "I don't give a damn what people think" stage in high school that I began confessing more openly. I still got the same response as before. Parents thought I was a bad influence, and I was ignored when I raised concerns about a prayer being read at my graduation.

CU is different. I feel comfortable in admitting that I'm a believer in science alone. I believe in the physical world, and I celebrated Darwin's birthday. I can't say those words in my hometown, but in Boulder, I feel like I'm the norm. While I love seeing that I'm not alone, I can't help but be disappointed in my religion, or lack thereof.

Atheism has made a lot of progress in America in recent years. We now have a voice that wouldn't have been conceivable only a generation ago. We still have a long way to go as a minority group, but in trying to escape the intolerance that plagues members of all religions and many atheists are harvesting the same attitudes.

I constantly hear anti-Christian rhetoric on campus as "enlightened" nontheists look down upon religious students. Students in a University of Texas at San Antonio atheist group made news in 2005 when they started a "smut for smut" stunt, in which they offered to trade porn for religious texts. A group in London began a campaign in 2008, running ads on the side of buses claiming, "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life."

Why must the atheist community combat hatred with more hatred? Their actions are hypocritical—not to mention rude. As a minority group, we deserve to have a greater voice in American politics and we deserve more respect from religious communities. But this intolerance won't get us anywhere. Offending large groups of people in retribution for injustice is simply counter-productive.

When confronting my religious beliefs, I try to remember the Golden Rule. Knowing the damage that intolerance brings, I will never tell someone that their beliefs are wrong. I will never disrespect holy texts. I will judge people not for their religion, but for their tolerance of others. Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.