Yesterday I was at work having a discussion with two religious guys (both of a different religion), and we were talking about how people use their beliefs to find a good thing and use it to change. We all agreed that all three of us had done that, albeit in different ways. And both of the religious guys informed me very adamantly that I had a “belief” just like they did, really no different than theirs. This is where I disagreed. I don’t have a “belief” that there is no god; rather, I just refuse to postulate his existence without evidence. This is a method, not a belief, that we all use in every aspect of our lives (we don’t, for example, believe that the tooth fairy is real, or that computers work by a running hampster in them, without evidence). And as far as my moral beliefs, I may have them, but that sort of belief (in honesty, liberty, the dignity of all human beings, ethical behavior, etc.) is not the same as someone’s belief in an omnipotent creator god who casts spells and makes rules about menstrual blood. My moral beliefs are based on reason and the inherent principles of what it means to be a human beings, not on faith and fantasy.

Dan Turner
DOC# 767569