Labels

Back in 1996 when I realized I no longer believed in God, I briefly sought out a label for myself. If I was no longer a Christian, then what was I? The thought of accepting the label of Atheist bothered me. It sounded like a bad word. I had grown up thinking that either you were a Christian (someone who was good because they believed), or an Atheist (someone who was bad because they didn't believe). The thought that I was going from being a "good person" to a "bad person" didn't work well for me. So I avoided labeling myself at all. When someone would ask me if I was a Christian, I would simply say "No. I don't have a religion." Occasionally, the person would ask the follow-up "So, you're an Atheist?" Again, I would just simply say, "No. I'm not anything. I just don't believe in God."

I held this stance on my religious label for many years. In fact, it wasn't until this year that I finally could say that I thought I was an Atheist. When my husband and I actually started looking into our beliefs this year, he was the first to say that we were Atheists. I was startled. I actually had to go and look it up in the dictionary because if someone who truely knew me was able to classify me that way, then maybe that's what I was.

By one definition, an Atheist is "unbeliever in God or deities: somebody who does not believe in God or deities". Well, that doesn't sound so bad after all. There is nothing in the definition that isn't true for me. It says nothing about an Atheist being bad for having no belief in God. I realized that it was the Christians (and other believers) who give the term Atheist the negetive connotation.

Ok.... So I'm an Atheist. There I said it. It still didn't exactly sound "good" but it was the truth. My husband and I continued to work on our "label" and found that we identified more closely with a particular group of Atheists. (Yes, I was suprised to find that there were whole sub-groups below Atheism.) What we found was that we tended to lean pretty heavily towards the label of Humanist. That sounds a bit nicer, doesn't it?

By one definition, Humanism is a "belief in human-based morality: a system of thought that is based on the values, characteristics, and behavior that are believed to be best in human beings, rather than on any supernatural authority". I believe in people and the good that comes from people when they concern themselves with what is right and just and good without the need for religion to define those things. I dont need God to tell me that killing someone is bad; that lying is wrong. They just ARE! "Do unto others as you would have done unto you." That's not a religious saying. It's common sense! I don't want someone killing me.... So I am not going to go kill someone else.

So.... Humanist it is for now. I can accept that. And I am no longer afraid to call myslf an Atheist either.