One of the common misconceptions about atheism is that people think you choose it as a way of evading responsibility. Especially if you’re in prison. “Oh, you just want to avoid ultimate judgement,” they say, “so you refuse to believe it.”

Nonsense, of course. I have no problem taking full responsibility for what I did; it’s what started me on the road to change. Atheism is not about some emotional response. I’m simply an atheist because I haven’t seen any good evidence to support the idea of a god. And if you make the claim about an omnipotent creator who answers prayers, you need some pretty impressive evidence.

And on the contrary about ultimate judgement, Christianity seems to me a way of avoiding judgement. Everything is forgiven if you accept Christ. I think being an atheist, living with the guilt and burden and responsibility of what I did, knowing that it will be never be made right in some afterlife by a loving forgiving deity, is much harder. And it should be hard.

Dan Turner
DOC #767569