You are an atheist, now what?

You have finally come to the conclusion that you are an atheist, and like many of us did/do you are asking yourself "now what?" Do you become a vocal atheist ready and willing to debate all theist? Do you hide the fact that you are no longer a believer hoping not to be shunned by family/friends? Religion, for all its faults, brought a sense of worth and direction in ones life, what does atheism offer?

The beauty of atheism is now, maybe for the first time, YOU get to choose what you do with your life! No Pastor/Preacher/Imam/Rabbi telling you what gods "calling" is for you. Only you can give your life meaning and worth and I think that's what makes this life better than the one controlled by dogma and outdated traditions.

You want to go out and debate theist? You can, but you don't have to. If you want to continue living your life the way you always have (minus of course that pesky guilt ridden god thing) you can do that too. Nothing and nobody tells you what kind of atheist you have to be.

I do however have some words of caution for you. Remember YOU are the one that changed your belief system, not your friends and not your family. Some (maybe most) will abandon you or pull back their friendship to lower levels. This is to be expected and really it is not unlike any other time in our lives where something significant changes. Remember when you left that job at (insert job here)? You and Johnny were the greatest of work friends and now you never or rarely see him. What changed why did your friendship fall apart? It is simple really the thing that brought you together was a common interest, the workplace. The same will happen now, friends that you may have had for years will slowly fade away, they may even say some nasty hurtful things. I am not excusing this sort of behavior, but try to look at it from their perspective. You changed and not only that you are saying their god isn't real, harsh reactions are to be expected.

Another problem we can find ourselves getting into is treating our new found atheism like a shiny new toy. It can be hard to remember that not everyone takes the same journey as us. They haven't read Dawkins, Harris, Hitch, or even the Bible. They don't know the same things you do. Remember your deconversion didn't happen over night, be gentle.

I don't say these things to scare you are push you from being a vocal atheist, I think more are needed to at least let the world know we are not baby eating, murderous, criminals. We are your neighbors, co-workers, friends, etc...

For possibly the first time YOU CONTROL YOUR LIFE, be who you want to be for the reasons you want to be it

p.s. If you need or are looking to get involved in some sort of community you may be interested in joining your local Humanist, SSA, or Free Thinkers club/society..... or you can find a great group of us on Twitter just tweet with the #AtheistRollCall and we'll find you and maybe even like you

Thanks for reading
remember you are never alone!

Moon Walking Unicorn