ao3sburbanite:

semitics:

The thing that I hate about atheism as a movement is that it doesn’t just want to critique the hegemony of Western Christianity, it wants to kill spirituality. There is no joy, there is nothing about it that isn’t founded in a pessimism that sees itself as so self-important that it cannot exist outside of destruction. The face of atheism is a white male disgruntled ex-Christian who decided that if he can’t find joy in religion, then nobody else can. There’s a leftover missionary sensibility to “enlighten” people to atheism that exposes itself as racist, antisemitic, and islamophobic, that’s ultimately not unlike the dominance exerted through colonial Christianity

Anyone looking to recruit people to atheism is doing it wrong in so many ways. To me, atheism is a weight lifted from my shoulders; the surety that nothing is watching me, nothing is judging me when I have a shitty day and I’m less kind than I ought to be. I already judge myself for it. It’s the feeling that terrible, awful things happen not for preordained reasons but because the universe is random. For someone with crippling anxiety, athiesm is a great comfort.

Atheism isn’t about hating religion. For those who spend their days worried to the point of panic about it can be a way to actually forgive yourself.

If you get your joy, safety and comfort from religion (and I mean a true, kind, strong faith in your god(s) and fellow humans, not “god tells me to hate these particular people”), if it makes you feel wonder about the universe, then nobody has a right to try and change your mind. It’s insulting and rude for them to do so.