As I write this, there’s quite a lot of talk regarding prayer and professional sports. Specifically about Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow, who’s schtick is to get down on one knee in prayer on the field. Known for printing bible versus on his eye black and uniform, which both the NCAA and NFL have now banned, Tebow seems to be the current poster child for public prayer. And up until last night, the believers had no reason to doubt it was working (despite the fact that he doesn’t seem to be a very good player).

But last night, in their AFC divisional playoff game, the Broncos got their asses handed to them by the New England Patriots, 45-10. Hmm. Something’s wrong here. Could Tim Tebow have somehow forgotten to pray? Surely not. Had Tom Brady, QB of the Patriots, have prayed better? Or harder? Maybe Tebow just messed up the prayer. You know how picky the almighty can be.

All sarcasm aside, I honestly don’t think it’s that big a deal if a pro sport player wants to pray or thank God for winning a game. I’m more interested in what makes people pray at all. I mean, surely before (and during) this game, there were copious prayers on both sides. And no doubt there were thousands of prayers being sent via mind-wave from fans. Is it purely a religious arm wrestling match, where the one with the most prayer power wins? Surely it has nothing to do with actual skill, or even blind dumb luck. And what happens when you lose? Have you ever heard a pro athlete diss Jesus after a loss? Maybe they should start. I’d love to have seen Tim Tebow go into a press conference afterwards and say, “What can I tell you? Jesus really let us down.”

I’ve never really seen the point of prayer, for any reason. No matter who you are, prayers seem to come true at about a 50/50 average. I use the words “come true”, because I equate prayers to fairy tales believers tell themselves in order to not feel so helpless and alone. When you get what you prayed for, God heard you and He is good and yadda, yadda. When you don’t, well, it was God’s will. He does, after all, have a plan. So what’s the point again?

“What’s the point of being God if every run-down shmuck with a two-dollar prayer book can come along and fuck up your plan?” - George Carlin, on prayer

Here’s another aspect of prayer I simply don’t get. Recently, a friend of mine from a former job revealed he has lung cancer. Personally, as a guy that’s about to turn 40, this has scared the living crap out of me. This guy is 35 and has never smoked. It all seems so random, which is exactly the point. What I observed, though, was 9 out of 10 comments on Facebook and his blog all had variations on the old “We’re all praying for you” line.

Assuming they all will really say a prayer for him, what’s the point again? I guarantee you every single person that dies of cancer TODAY (about 1,500 in the United States alone) had dozens of people praying for them. In the end, a fat load of good it did them. As my late grandma used to say, “Shit in one hand and wish in the other, and see which one fills up first”.

A popular argument is what does it really hurt, if it makes people feel better? Who exactly feels better? The person suffering the pain of cancer certainly still feels like warmed over crap. But it’s nice that people without a horse in the race, at home in their comfy beds, can feel better about it as they fling prayers at them from afar.

Folks, prayers don’t work. Period. If it makes you feel better, fine, but wouldn’t you rather believe in yourself? I could pray all day for a better job or more freelance work to come in, or any number of things. But if I sit at home in my jammies waiting for it, what are the odds it will happen? You’ve got to do it yourself. God’s not listening, so you’d better take some initiative.

To lighten the mood, here’s one of my favorite bits from the late George Carlin on God and specifically prayer (starting at the 4:50 mark). Here’s a direct link on Youtube to where he talks about prayer.

PS: Anyone else see the irony in prayer-book-Tim getting stomped on by a team called the “Patriots”? After all, the founding fathers fought very hard to keep religion out of things. Maybe I’m the only one that got a chuckle out of that.

On his blog, actor/comedian/writer Ricky Gervais posted about the idea of “respecting” the religious beliefs of others. When you hear that, it at first seems fairly reasonable. I may not believe in what you do, but I should respect your beliefs.

But after reading this, I realized that’s not quite the way to look at it. 

“There seems to be this weird misconception that it is wrong to disrespect anyone’s religious and spiritual beliefs. Some take this so far that they suddenly start seeing it as an infringement of their rights. This is ludicrous.” 

The takeaway is that I can certainly respect your right to have whatever belief you’d like. Believe in Jesus, Thor, Zeus, or the flying three-legged donkey that lives in your sock drawer. Be my guest. But to ask me to “respect” that belief is, frankly, ridiculous.

Read Ricky’s blog post here.

“Happy New Year. I am an atheist. There, one resolution down already. Let’s see how many followers I lose.”

I posted these words to my Twitter account at 12:08am, January 1st, 2012. My first tweet of the new year.

For some time, I’ve struggled with the concept of belief in a god. The struggle wasn’t over whether to believe or not, which I’d already decided long ago, but rather whether to finally just admit it and move on. I decided what better way to start a fresh, new year than by laying my cards on the table and going forward.

So far, my little announcement, both on Twitter and my personal Facebook account, hasn’t gotten a lot of reaction. At least not to my face. And I’ve not really made an effort to see if anyone actually did un-follow me. Because frankly, I don’t really care. I was honestly expecting at least a few nasty retorts, at least on Twitter. But the only responses thus far have been those of kudos for “coming out”. Like I said, some may have silently removed me from their lists and didn’t bother to say goodbye, but that’s okay.

I think the only response that’s kind of rattled me was from my mom, who simply said I’d broken her heart, but that she’d keep trying to convert me. Like I told her, and others, I’m willing to listen if they are. I’ve also been asked by more than one person what had happened to make me “suddenly” become an atheist. I think my answer was equally baffling…nothing.

How did I get here?

I was born in 1972 in Zanesville, Ohio. None of my family was particularly religious, and I don’t recall going to church much. I think the occasional Easter service or wedding was the extent of it. I also don’t recollect religion, or god, being discussed at all. I think there was an unspoken understanding that everyone believed in something, but it wasn’t a regular topic of discussion. I had friends whose families were fairly religious, but it never really concerned me much either way. The worst that would happen is I’d have to go to church with them the morning after a sleepover.

I’ve thought about it a lot lately, and I honestly can’t remember any time during my life when I could say I believed in a supreme being. If I did, I must’ve been way too young to remember it now, as I’m pushing forty. I think I may have come closest during periods when I really wanted something and may have faked a prayer for it. You know, just in case. But deep down, I know I didn’t believe.

“Exceptional claims demand exceptional evidence.” - Christopher Hitchens

As I got older and found myself less and less convinced, I found that friends and family were becoming more and more religious. Some people I’d gone to school with had become downright fanatical. I could not figure out how that could happen to them, nor why I didn’t see what they saw.

I’ve always tried to avoid religious discussions, and on occasions where I couldn’t resist, I felt like it never really went well, for either party. I couldn’t understand why people weren’t asking the same questions I was. I recall a discussion with someone where we were debating that the bible was the infallible word of god.

I asked several questions, including, “Do you really believe the first humans were Adam and Eve, who looked like modern-day humans and could speak?” Answer: “Yes.” “And there was a talking snake?” “Yes.” “And this guy Jesus turned water to wine, healed blindness and rose from the dead?” “Yes.” “And an old guy built a boat big enough for two of every creature on earth?” “Yes.”

By that point, I didn’t have much to say. I mean, what can you say to that? Sometimes you have to know when to back off for the sake of a friendship. Still, I couldn’t understand how I was so far off course from many other people in my life.

“We are all atheists about most of the gods that societies have ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further.” - Richard Dawkins

So for years I’ve laid low on the subject. At least in this country, few things get people riled up like a lack of faith. Especially if it’s their faith. I’d argue that by now, there’d be less stigma attached to coming out as a gay person, provided of course, you were still a christian. But holding it in was becoming too much to handle. I was seeing religion starting to poison too many aspects of our lives. Everything from politicians using their faith to guide them, to prayer in school, to adding “In God We Trust” to our license plates, to outlawing alcohol sales on Sunday (which has only recently been lifted here in Georgia, by the way). And don’t get me started on pedophile priests or the protesters at funerals with “God Hates Fags” signs.

“We want to be open-minded enough to accept radical new ideas when they occasionally come along, but we don’t want to be so open-minded that our brains fall out.” - Michael Shermer

In the last couple months it was seriously starting to eat away at me. I had to not only just admit, even to myself, that I was an atheist, but also start doing something about it. That’s where this blog comes in. I have so much to say that’s been bottled up for years. Nobody may read it at all, but that’s beside the point. I want to write about why I don’t believe and why I think religion is so damaging. And while I’m going to be harsh at times, I’m still willing to listen to intelligent counterpoints.

The other point of this blog is to start to address a lot of the hocus-pocus, pseudo-science bullshit that’s perpetuated around the world. I’m talking about the anti-vaccine people, people hawking magic bracelets, conspiracy theorists, ghost hunters and more.

I may not make much of a difference, but I already have felt like a tremendous burden has been lifted from my shoulders, and I’m ready to get started on this new chapter of my life. Stick around, I might actually make you reconsider some things.