On this lovely Sunday, as many of you may go off to church, some of you may stay behind, or some of you may have already been to church by the time you read this.  What better day than Sunday to explain a few things about those of us who see church and religion on the whole as a complete sham?  It has been made abundantly clear to me that religious people have numerous misconceptions about atheists and it’s time to address and discuss those misconceptions. Keep an open mind and don’t be threatened.  If you really are as secure in your beliefs as you claim, reading about that which contradicts them should be no problem.  Also, if you’re wondering, “god” is not capitalized for a reason.

Popular Misconceptions:

1. Atheists are just atheists because their parents didn’t educate them on religion.  That argument is probably the one with the least possible merit considering it can very easily be turned around on believers to say that “believers are only believers because they were raised that way.”  There are plenty of atheists from all walks of life.  Some may be from families that believed in God, but didn’t take the time to educate them on religion.  Some may be from families that were overly religious.  Some may be from atheist families.  Then there’s the group that people leave out: Atheists who are educated about religion, come from a family of believers, but came to the conscious realization that there is no god.
2. Atheists don’t believe in god because they don’t know enough about the Bible or its history.  There almost couldn’t be a more laughable statement on Earth for two reasons.  The first is that the more you learn about the Bible, the more you see its inconsistencies and observe how people cherry-pick the bits of it they like and throw out the ones they don’t, all the while claiming the entire thing to be the absolute word of God.  The second is that there are a lot of atheists who could capably enter a battle of Bible wits with their local preacher any day and likely win.  Whenever my atheist friends get in a discussion about the Bible, I feel a desperate need to take a theology course just so I can keep up.
3.  Atheists are people who’ve experienced some kind of emotional trauma and therefore have lost their faith, but will come back to it one day.  I won’t say such people don’t exist, but these people most likely don’t identify themselves as atheists.  They may say they’ve “lost their faith” or their “faith has been shaken,” but they usually won’t flat out say they’re atheists or deny the existence of god.  Again, a LOT of atheists have come to the conscious decision that there is no god, and it could be for any one of a million different reasons they came to that realization
4. Atheists are immoral people.  Wrong again.  Just because atheists don’t believe in any kind of god doesn’t mean they don’t believe in ethics.  The interesting thing to note is that even though atheists don’t have the threat of eternal hellfire or reincarnating as a homeless crack addict looming over their heads, most atheists seem to believe in goodness.
5.  Atheists are unhappy.  Again, I won’t claim such people don’t exist, but there is no direct correlation between atheism and misery.  There are miserable Christians, miserable Jews, miserable Muslims:  does that mean their misery is due to their faith?  There are plenty of happy atheists, dare I say, the majority of them are happy.  
6. Atheists have no respect for life.  Similarly to the statement above, these two ideas are unrelated.  Many atheists see their belief as there is nothing more to existence than the concrete world around us as a motivator to enjoy life and spread happiness because once we’re dead, it’s over.  Why lead a life of pain and suffering when it’s all you have?  Again, they don’t have the threat of damnation or negative reincarnation to scare them into living a certain way.  
7. Atheists hate religious people.  Some do, but more often than not, I find atheists hate hypocrites and shysters.  Many atheists have a general distaste for religion because they feel it’s little more than an indoctrination that most people were given from a very young age, and that it’s a waste of time, money, and life.  Atheists don’t appreciate people who make a very generous living off of other people’s tithes and contributions due to a claim that they are ministers of god because anyone who can read can become a “minister of god.”  The philosophy is similar to the Christian saying, “Hate the sin, not the sinner.”

So there you go, seven myths busted.  Whatever you believe, if it’s Christianity, Islam, nothing, or worshipping unicorns naked in your own back yard, it should be a conscious decision.  Never forget, when you are presented one side and told it’s the truth, it’s indoctrination.  When you are presented multiple sides and you choose the truth, its education.  Think about your faith (or the lack thereof), and ask yourself which one you have.