I wanted this to be a reply to the last post, but blogspot says it was too long. Please ignore it if you aren't interested in my rantings about religion.

Thanks for the speedy and thought-provoking responses.

I suppose just throwing out there the "I consider myself an atheist" thing without defining what I mean by the term "atheist" was probably a poor choice. So for those who are interested, let me explain a little bit more.

Here's the deal. When I call myself an atheist, I mean it in the literal, linguistic sense of the word--I live without theism, without the belief in an external higher power or powers, usually referred to as God or gods.

When I say "external higher power," I mean something totally separate from the amazing powers already imbued in us mortal human beings. Those I believe in. There is incredible power within humanity, some of which we understand and lots of which we don't, some of which we've explored and lots of which we haven't.

Like you said, Martina, I agree that something awesome put those words in my head at that moment and for a good reason, but I think that awesome thing was not external; I believe it lives inside my own being.

I think it was Rabbi Josh who first explained to me the Jewish concept that we all have a "breath of God" in us, giving us "souls" and thus making us human. My personal belief system is along the "breath of God" lines, but minus the "God" part. I believe that human beings have souls. I believe we have consciences, we have voices inside us that tell us when we've done wrong. Some people are better at ignoring those voices than others, and many people would call those voices "God," in which case I guess I am forced to admit that I do believe in that particular conception of "God," but I don't think the term really fits since it traditionally implies external-ness and what I'm talking about is entirely internal. I believe we humans have incredible capabilities. We can love and forgive and create and destroy and comfort ourselves and comfort others. We can do good things and we can do terrible things.

Yes, Dad, I am willing to accept that there is something more than the placebo effect at work here--I am willing to believe that human beings have the power to use our minds to heal our broken bodies. That's awesome, but it's not God.

Why should we let some being we can't see or speak with or prove the existence of take credit for our own incredible abilities? I just don't see the point in that.

The only time I see that the external higher power argument is absolutely necessary is when we're trying to take the blame off of ourselves, like when expansionist Zionists try to use the Bible as a real estate document. (I know that's a low blow for some people who may be reading this, but it's a real and sad example.) The "an external higher power says it's the right thing to do" argument has been used over and over again to oppress Christians, Muslims, Jews, Pagans, Africans, Native Americans... the list goes on. It is as long as human history.

Dad, you say that "belief in a supreme being has been a force for many great things." I agree. But here's a question, and I really do want an answer if you can think of one: When has the "an external higher power made me do it" argument really been *necessary* in the creation of something good? During my time here I've seen missionaries doing some really great work, and they are doing it for Jesus. But would they not be taken seriously if they were doing it for another reason, like the love of their fellow man? Of course they would. Here I am, doing similar work but without the religious pretext, and I'm taken just as seriously as they are. But if the people who killed the Native Americans because they believed they had the God-given right to do so had used a different argument and let the blame fall on themselves (in other words, if they had been honest and said "we want your land"), they'd have been in a pretty tough spot.

I don't hate religion. I don't think it is only a force for bad--but I don't think it is necessary if what we're doing is truly good.

I've had plenty of interactions with Christians who say that they believe in salvation and heaven for people who spend their time on Earth doing "the Lord's work" without doing it for the Lord (as in, people who are "good without God"). My belief is like that, but backwards. I don't care why people are out there fighting for justice--whether it's because the Bible tells them it's a good thing to do or because Marx tells them it's a good thing to do. We're all on the same team.

Many people fight for justice and peace and equality because a religious force tells them to do so. That's great for them, but it doesn't work for me. I fight for justice and peace and equality  because a little voice inside me tells that it is the right thing to do, the only acceptable thing to do. You may want to call that voice God, and I'm not going to stop you. But I, perhaps selfishly, prefer to think of that voice, my conscience, as inextricably a part of myself.

So, no, I don't think that my particular brand of "a firm belief" that there is no external higher power is as "irrational" as the firm belief that there is. It is in fact a belief I came to through what I hope you'll now realize is rather rational thinking. I am indeed denying outright the possibility of "something greater than ourselves," in as far as that something is external. What I am not denying, and what I passionately hope is true, is that we humans are ourselves greater than we have thus far shown ourselves to be. By "greater," I mean willing to own up to our responsibility as sentient beings with the ability to create and preserve and destroy. We've spent generations exploring all of these abilities, but I think the many crises my generation has inherited suggest that our fore bearers explored that ability to "destroy" more than the others. I hope that we will not make the same mistake, and I know that the fate of the planet rests on our decision.