Let me get this point across now: I do, in fact, believe in God.

So you may think me doing a small paper on atheism will be incredibly biased. Well, judge that for yourself. Though I do have multiple friends that are atheist/agnostic, and we seem to get along just fine. I’ve been noticing that atheism is on the rise, especially in America. More and more people are looking to science than to religion for answers about the world. I’m one of them, to be quite honest. I manage to find a balance between science and religion.

Now do not get me wrong here: as stated before, I have friends who are atheists. And I adore them. I don’t think they’re going to be eternally doomed or anything like that. Quite honestly I’ve only really discussed religious beliefs with a few of them. I explained to one of them, on her request, my position on God and such, and she explained to me why she is an atheist. I could understand her argument; it was just too hard for her to believe that someone created the whole entire universe and still lets awful things happen down on meek little Earth. I won’t really explain my reasons for believing in God here, since this wasn’t what this is about.

But I’ve seen many such things as ‘Atheism is freedom’ and ‘Atheism destroys terrorism.’ I don’t believe that’s the case, necessarily. My bone to pick really has to do with the latter of those two. I could see how, without religion, it might possibly rule out another reason for terrorism. But humans have this remarkable ability to find something to hate about each other. Usually it’s their religion. But if we take religion out, would that really do anything to stop hate? Some things would change, yes. But people would always find a reason to bicker and fight. The color of one’s skin, someone’s political beliefs, etc.

Some atheists make it out to be that religion is the source of all the world’s problems and strife. That it breeds hate, small-mindedness, and it’s nothing more than a collection of fairytales that do no good. Even when I detach myself from my own beliefs, I still see this as a very confused statement.

I’ve also come across some atheists, who think, because they are atheists, they can do no wrong. If someone who believes in God argues with them, it’s because they’re discriminating against them. These are the ones who purposefully seek out videos that promote religion in order to flame them, or comment on articles supporting religion to call everyone else an idiot for believing such lies. These are the sort of people that start fights on the comments of said videos/articles.

…so doesn’t that do the same thing as a Christian and a Muslim fighting over their beliefs?

I’m not trying to hate on atheism here, people. I’m really not. But just as people point out that religious people can be hypocrites: so can atheists. No group of people is perfect. No set of beliefs is perfect. Eradicating religion won’t do much to abolish hate in general.