Indianapolis Church of Freethought

Hi Todd

I need to respond to your statement above: "Nobody gets inspiration, meaning, comfort, etc. by NOT believing in a god."

I wholeheartedly disagree! I personally get inspiration, meaning comfort etc by NOT believing in a god. Absolutely!

Back in the day (in my late teens) when I went to church because it was the expected thing to do in my family I was constantly concerned about the the biblical messages because the messages were directly opposed to the things that I thought about rationally and logically. This caused quite a bit of discontent, disharmony, discomfort within me.

It wasn't till I became strong enough intellectually to reject Christianity and the church that I FINALLY found internal harmony. For me, peace, comfort, meaning and inspiration are found in the experience of being a rational and logical human being. For me, knowing that there is no god brings a comfort that is perhaps hard to explain. I find GREAT comfort in the being free to have an open mind and the pursuit for truth, knowledge and understanding.

Yes, I admit that sometimes I feel very much alone in the world (at my job, in the presence of my family, in relationships) in what I think....so there is a downside.

That naturally comes with being a non-conformist on any issue in my opinion.

Bottomline - there are people like me who find comfort, inspiration and meaning in NOT believing in a god.

I agree, Brian. The fact that "Most people don't want to think for themselves and want someone else to tell them what to do" is very scary. Certainly, history has shown that great caution (I believe you called it "fear mongering") is called for when dealing with the dogmatists who follow the likes of the Pope, Hitler, Stalin and Bin Laden. I can't believe you're not even a little concerned about extremists trying to get their hands on nuclear weapons, succeeding, and then using them?

I make no bones about using non-violent and non-repressive persuasion to get people to think about the welfare of the world using the best evidence, logic and reason available to them. How is that not moral/ethical? I spent too much of my life under the influence of naive wishful thinking that led to good intentions and dialogue without progressive actions; I called it "praying".

Churches, political parties, marketing agencies, etc. have all preyed upon humanity's dogmatic tendencies to accomplish their goals; when are freethinkers going to wake up and employ the same tactics for more enlightened ends? Or do you really think it's just a matter of time before everyone - even Joe Faithhead - just naturally "sees the light" on their own?

You better agree with me or I'm gonna come bust yer chops, buddy! ;-)