FFRF awarded Alison $1,000.
By Alison Farmer
My best friend is from a religious background that is the opposite of mine. She was raised conservative Christian, home-schooled, never once presented with an opinion other than those sanctioned by her church. I, to the contrary, had the good fortune to be raised in a freethinking family.
When we were first getting to know one another, we talked earnestly about a number of things, including religion. This was in middle school, a time when I first started seriously thinking for myself. I was speaking of the irrelevance of religion when she remarked that religion was necessary for morality. This was an idea I had never before considered, but immediately saw as ridiculous. Wasn’t I proof by my very existence that this was untrue?
I was raised without a shred of faith infecting my love of science and reason, but remained as good a person as any. This was explained (unsatisfactorily) away by suggesting that because I was raised in a religious society, the good morals from my Christian neighbors somehow influenced my morality. Curiously enough, this is roughly similar to the theory I have since adopted.
I am a moral human being for two reasons: empathy and society. From these we gain the most fundamental and universal of social contracts: the golden rule. While the idea to treat others as you would wish to be treated seems almost elementary, it provides the basis for an ethical society. This social contract is maintained by both an intrinsic moral compass and the external pressures of society.
Any human being capable of compassion and empathy is motivated to morality. If I can understand how my actions affect another person, and understand how I would be affected in that individual’s place, I will be guided by my nagging moral compass away from improper actions. Of course, as we have all experienced, moral compasses fail, or can be ignored.
While empathy creates a moral compass, society enforces it. If my moral compass should fail and I act wrongly —stealing, for example—the rest of society, quite content living without fear of thieves, will punish me for my failure to observe the accepted standards.
In this way, morality is established in only the most secular of fashions. While religion may act as a vessel for morality, it is not the source. In fact, religion is often detrimental to morality. Religion is certainly capable of acting as a force for good, but far too often is exploited by its adherents.
It is when religion is used to justify the degradation and exclusion of fellow human beings that it becomes counterproductive. It is a universal truth that human beings are afraid of the unknown. Why bother trying to overcome your fear of others when you can condemn and denounce them? Using very specific interpretations of a book from a supposedly infallible deity to declare your own superiority is by far the easier route.
While it may be true that humans are afraid of the unknown, the cure is luckily simple: become known. Counteracting negative stereotypes about atheists and nonbelievers simply requires that we are open to our communities. Overall, I have been pleasantly surprised by my fellow human beings.
Living in extremely religious western Michigan, I expected far worse reactions from people regarding my atheism than I ever received. Most people don’t know anything about atheists other than stories from their religious community, hardly an accurate source. The best and easiest way for us to counter negative stereotypes is just by being accessible.
I am an atheist because I want answers; not the evasive sidestepping of religion but the thoughtful analysis of science. I want to understand the world around me, to understand the connections between everything and everything else. I have never experienced anything in my life to suggest the presence of a deity.
I am not, and have never been, afraid of death. I do not need religion to comfort me. I am not the sort of person to take things on faith. I am an atheist simply because I see no logical alternative.
I am happy just to be in existence, a wonderfully complex arrangement of molecules enjoying a beautiful, fulfilling, moral life on this Earth — without religion.
Alison Farmer, 18, is from Grand Rapids, Mich., and is headed to Michigan State University. She graduated from Forest Hills Central High School and plans on majoring in environmental geoscience. She has been involved with the FHC orchestra, Science Olympiad and National Honor Society. “I’m interested in all things Firefly, steampunk, Jane Austen, feminism or DIY-related.”
