Atheists believe in NOT believing in the existence of “God”. This is an adult, a grown-up and a mature decision.  After living with those who believe in the existence of a supernatural deity and being subjected to teachings about or hearing expressions of the existence of “The Lord”, “God”, “Architect of the Universe” etc., atheists would rather not hear or think about it. Most people prefer to leave it alone. They are troubled when a judge intervenes because many years ago by an act of an executive the phrase, “under God”, was added to the pledge of allegiance. An atheist, on behalf of his child, objects to this mention of a “the” deity to the pledge.

“Official” or an administration’s directed prayer or sentiments avowing submission to the authority of “GOD” are a reminder of the intrusion of “government” into private lives.  This is an important point and article of faith of conservatives of all stripes.  They want to get government out of the lives of ordinary citizens.  Yet, they want that government to intervene and proclaim on their behalf the existence of impossible things.  I will get back to this later.

Conservatives happily accept the political stalwarts who speak out of both sides of their mouths.  These insist that government is bad while supporting government approved beliefs.  There is this commonly accepted belief that one can hold two contradictory convictions simultaneously.  This is also a strange belief.

I have gone so far as to state that people believe in impossible things.  Yet there is the possibility (for we should never say never) that impossible things can actually exist.  This would prove to all and sundry that these impossible things could exist. We have been cautioned by Rene Descartes, a 17th Century mathematician and philosopher, to remember if a thing is thought of it must exist in order to be thought of.  He summed it up by pronouncing, “cogito, ergo sum”, I think, therefore I am.  Or, in other words, I exist.  He used this argument to appease the state/church (or is it the church/state?) authorities who were closing in on him questioning his beliefs and submission to the government/church.

Atheists believe in something and that should be sufficient. With so many different cultures and histories it would be difficult to impose a single belief on everybody.  The official atheistic non-religious authorities of Soviet Russia tried to get everyone not to believe in anything except communism and the communist government.  When walls came tumbling down and former soviets could believe once again they neglected to build a wall between church and state.

In America, in defiance of reason “Government” exists to deny the beliefs of atheists and support fundamentalist religious beliefs.  This current government wants to impose these beliefs on ALL Americans.  Here is yet again the belief in government while wishing that government would go away.  This is another example of impossible beliefs.  Atheists believe in what their REASON tells them is real.  Belief can work in two ways.

Belief can actually work in many ways.  A sunny, warm day with salubrious breezes blowing can tell the atheist that “NATURE” is pleasant today.  The believer in the “Supreme Architect of the Universe” gives thanks (to him/her/it) for the bounteous blessing of weather that makes living things grow. The pagan believes his gifts have propitiated the gods – and so on.

There should be room for all without an official oath or test in favor of a narrow minded religious creed dictated by narrow minded politicians accepting directions from narrow minded authoritarians.