Someone wanted to know the following: Tell us about your understanding of God. If you are atheist, tell us why. Having not too long ago filled out a survey regarding this question. I am going to simply post my answers to it. There are a few attendant comments at bottom written specifically for this post, as a couple of things probably need clarification.
1. What is your religious background?
I was raised Roman Catholic, but failed to believe in God, and have also renounced the church - at least to family and friends. I doubt I'll go through formal renouncement. It's a very large load of hassle to get formally excommunicated, and it's really not all that important for me to do so. It makes my grandmother feel better to think I'm still part of the church.
2. What belief system do you currently follow?
I am an avowed atheist, and to me that encompasses both a distate for organised religions, and lack of caring about the existence of God. I try to follow Zen and Taoist teachings in order to deal with my moods and the world, but I don't see them so much as religions (though both have been turned into religions by some, and that's fair enough for them), but more as ways of learning to adapt to the world.
3. How often do you attend a place of worship?
I attend midnight mass once a year with my friend Diane on Christmas Eve. It's part of her cultural and familial heritage, and since they are good enough to include me in their dinner and celebrations, it certainly will not kill me to attend mass.
4. How firm are you in your belief system?
I don't think it's possible to be quite firm with Zen and Tao, since they are there to help me be adaptable, but... I am trying to be as firm as I am currently able. I find both those systems ultimately logical and sensible, so they aren't all that hard to follow.
5. Do you pray? If so, how often and for what purposes?
No, I don't. I haven't made the pretense of praying since I was still making the pretense of being Catholic. I meditate at times, it's a good tool to help one relax. Sometimes I ask the universe for favours, and do my utmost to be worthy of getting them afterwards, and to act well in order to show thanks.
6. How do you react when someone invites you to their place of worship?
I've only ever been invited to mass, never to a service of another faith, though I'd go if I were asked. I find Southern Baptist services fascinating, but I think it's the fervour of the music and singing. It's a gorgeous sound to listen to. I suppose, if I were asked, I'd go if I could and say thank you.
7. What are your thoughts on life after death? (Heaven, reincarnation, etc.)
I will worry about that when and if the time comes. I am in this living place now, and I feel it's my duty / purpose / etc., to make this living place the best that I can make it with the time I'm given, not worry about somehwere I'm not, and may not end up even if it does exist.
- - -
I am sometimes not certain exactly why I became atheist, I only know that I am, and why. My atheism, though, is not of the sort that negates or derides others' belief in god or reliigon. Some religions I find a tad repugnant, but a person's belief system is their own choice. Not mine. What I believe, or do not believe, in matters of religion and spirituality, have no bearing on what I think others should or shouldn't believe. The only exceptions to that are that I would like everyone to lead a good and honourable life - myself included. I would like them to be honest, compassionate, and more accepting of others. Those things, though, have nothing to do with religion - or at least they don't have to.
I don't need god or religion to answer the big question of where the universe came from, nor why it came into being. Frankly, I don't care. I don't care in the sense that those answers don't matter to me. I don't need them to sate my curiosity, I don't need them to make me feel complete. Sure, I'm curious, but only because I'm a curious person by nature.
Part of my repugnance about some religions, is their insistence that one surrender themselves to god, the reliigon, or otherwise. I do not like the concept of surrender in order to achieve salvation, grace, penance, spiritual satisfaction, or anything else. What I do, I do myself. What I am, I have mostly made myself. Good and bad. If I am to stand strong and firm as a person, I will do so myself. I don't want, or need, to thank a spiritual guide (in the sense of a god) for what I have clearly done on my own. I want to prove to myself, for myself, of myself - not because of divine intervention.
I find religions restrictive. I find that they want you to conform to what another's idea of right and wrong are. Considering this, it is no wonder to me that so many abandon the faiths they were raised with, because they are searching for what fits them and what they fit. To be quite frank, I was never so strong in my spirituality as when I finally threw off all pretense of religion and belief in deities, and embraced things that made me feel more whole and strong. It goes to what I said above, about doing for myself. The Tao and Zen have helped me to my own potential; they have no attempted to fit me into anyone else's system. That said, if another person feels they need religion, God, Allah, Mithra, Zoroaster, or any hundres of other deities out there, so be it. That is what they need. That is their choice.