As terms go, atheisim is the closest to describing me. Without god -- that's what the term means at its root. Yup, that's me. I don't need a giant, ineffable crutch for my life. I don't need someone to simplify things I don't understand. I live and abide by my own decisions and morality, and I make, as much as I can, my own choices; and while my ethical stances may marry closely with one religious cult or another, they are only informed by, not dictated, by others. I adapt and learn. I need no god.
Even if a god (or gods) was real, I would almost certainly deny it (or them). Why should I worship anything? For what purpose should I abase myself before any other creature, be it divine or mundane? Why should it care what I do or do not do? Why should I relinquish my moral position to another entity? I'd be as well to worship a hyper-intelligent alien with advanced technology (indeed, perhaps that's all religion is -- there is as much proof for that as there is anything) -- and I certainly wouldn't do that either. Not unless forced or coerced. Or, perhaps, tricked. I'd rather not be forced or tricked, and both are tactics used by many religions. Screw that, and screw any god that thinks it has a right to control me. My parents don't have any right to that, so I don't see why any god should over them, and my parents certainly had a more direct hand in my creation.
I've read too broadly and deeply on the subject to be taken in by religion, and that's a shame, as almost all good community-based groups involve religion to some degree, and I make a poor hypocrite. I like much of the trappings of religion (the good bits), I just don't like the core beliefs. I simply can't believe them. They strike me, in general, as absolute nonsense. What some people freely believe truly stuns me. Further, the level of ignorance regarding religion and its foundations also stuns me, especially from folk that claim they 'believe', without any real idea of what they claim to believe. But, I suppose, each to their own -- some people prefer ignorance to learning, and I can understand why. It's easy. It's comforting. The majority of religious texts, when studied for what they are and where they come from, do not bare up terribly well. I've read them. Most, if not all. And I've read the context of their creations. It makes for ugly reading, in the most part, if you happen to ascribe to the religion at hand. Still, ignorance, as hinted, brings a certain bliss, much like religion, and it can be far easier to blindly accept and hope rather than ask difficult, seemingly unanswerable questions.
Indeed, I envy people who can blindly have faith. Who can believe in heaven or similar. Who can support their grief or inner thoughts or actions with a solid framework of comforting theories. I really envy that. I have a far bleaker, emptier perspective. No less filled with wonder, emotion, or joy, but certainly devoid of other things, such as certainty itself.
