Why Atheism?

I thought it would be a nice idea to begin my blog about atheism with why I am an atheist. I know this isn't my first post, but the last one didn't count. That was just for me.

First off, I'm not an atheist because of some misplaced anger for God, or Gods. I didn't have a traumatic event that led me to deny the existence of a supernatural caretaker, or even some extra-terrestrial revelation. I just stopped believing one day. The realization came on, almost suddenly, one day when I was thinking about Santa Claus. That's right, jolly St. Nick held my hand and led me down the path to godlessness.

On the fateful day my thoughts
flowed chaotically with no discernible order until I was hit with a great eyeopening gestalt. I realize that If I want to express how Santa Claus led me to my atheism in any coherent way, I must disassemble the entire formless concept and arrange it in an order that wasn't really there. Best I can tell, it went a bit like the following.

Children all over the Western Christian world are brought up to Believe in Santa. They are told they must behave to receive their rewards at the end of the year, that Santa is always watching and judging them whether asleep or awake. He performs the miraculous task of imparting all his gifts, made by a horde of imaginary woodland creatures, to every deserving boy and girl in the entire world in one night with the help of equally implausible flying reindeer. And, as children we believe this. Believe! Capital B! We are bombarded with movies and stories that tell us that if we do not believe, we will either not get our rewards, or the even more guilt laden, make it so that Santa doesn't have the power to fulfill his Christmas promise to the rest of the boys and girls of the world. Throw in some random involuntary thoughts of Muppets, bologna sandwiches, and degenerate sexual fantasies and you get a clear idea of my thoughts that day. The latter had nothing to do with the former, mind you, it's just safe to assume that at any given moment I'm also thinking something unrelated, and something else filthy.

After all the above mentations danced around my head for a bit, another thought barged it's way in and made everyone else sit down, shut up, and take notice. The thought was, 'Just like God'.

It was a simple, but powerful idea for me. I had long since thrown off the last vestiges of Christianity, studding biblical history will do that for you (read Bart Ehrman's 'Misquoting Jesus' for starters), so I didn't have the fear of damnation to dissuade me from jumping on the train of thought Santa showed me.

So, how is believing in God just like believing in Santa? Both are taught at a young age. Both judge based on behavior and award accordingly, at least in the Big Three monotheistic traditions. In fact, I began to find so many mired and complex ways that they were alike I felt started to feel like a conspiracy theorist. The only leap I didn't make was rearranging the letters of Santa to make Satan. Mostly because I can't spell to save the soul that I don't have.

Okay then, I could find many ways they were alike, but for a true comparison I would need to find the ways they were dissimilar. That stumped me for a time. How is belief in God not like belief in Santa? Both are okay as children, but only God as an adult. Why? Is God more plausible? The more I thought about it, the less I thought so. Santa is a man with supernatural powers. We know men exist, even if not the supernatural aspect. He is pulled by reindeer that fly. Reindeer are real, even if they don't fly. He is assisted by a horde of little people, we know achondroplasia and dwarfism exits, even if it's highly unlikely any live at the North Poll. Seems the Santa myth is founded about half in reality.

What about God? What in this world, other than people, points to God? Other than the historical weight of acceptance, I couldn't think of any reason for it to be okay to believe in God. At least, not in this day and age. Creationism is for those that have no understanding of evolution. Saying God is a simpler explanation than the Big Bang is for those that have no understanding of probability, or perhaps how complex an answer God really is. God may only be one word with three letters and a single syllable, but God is HUGE! IMMENCE! A being that is nearly or completely transcendent to our universe, yet has the power to create everything in it, is COMPLEX! Incomprehensibly complex. The more complex a thing, the more unlikely the thing to simply be. A single point of near infinite mass is simple. It's BIG, but simple.

I don't reject God. I don't deny the possibility. I just think God is unlikely. Really, really bloody unlikely.