What does it take to be an atheist?

Many Christians claim they are persecuted. That simply is a lie, but then, Christians have always been excellent liars.

Atheists have been persecuted, are persecuted now. Atheists are outcasts of society, a society that has for the most part bought the fantasy of Christianity. To a smaller extent many in society have bought other various fictional ideologies as well.

What does it take to be an atheist? The singular qualification has been a non-belief in deities. To be clear, that would have to be all deities. Whereas, to the believer in the Abrahamic gods all other believers are atheists, and to those other believers, Christians are atheists, in reality none of them are atheists, in my humble opinion. It must be non-belief in any deity whatsoever.

It takes grit, strength beyond a Christian’s, to withstand the troubles resulting from making an atheist belief public. Atheists have been demonized to the point that many only see them as immoral monsters. Granted, upon becoming atheists, many atheists seem to endeavor to live up to the public’s derisive perspective. Then there is also the relatives that fear you are immediately bound for hell, hurtling toward your doom. You have to endure the most heartfelt pleading of relatives that have known you since birth. You’ve never been proselytized until the moment you declare publicly your atheist non-belief.

They pity you, plead with you, warn you, demonize you, and often shun you. Welcome at family events before, now you learn about such events after they have happened. When you do go, people of belief go out of their way to bait you, attempting to determine just how deep your convictions are. Friends you’ve known for years no longer react to your presence in the same fashion. They no longer come around as often.

There are still parts of the world where being an atheist carries the death sentence.