Leonidas and religion (Pt. I)

I don't intend to make this a long post, and if I do, I'll divide it into several smaller posts, or maybe even a series, but I will begin by saying that I have a lot to say on the subject of religion and don't intend to bore you with all of it :).

But in this post, at least, I want to make it clear how I feel about organised religion in the world.

I come from a Christian family, but it's not the kind of Christian family where everyone is forced into church at practically gunpoint, or drilled into young'uns from the moment they can string two words together. No, I come from a family of very liberal Christians, which is something that I'm very glad of despite being the only non-Christian that I know of in my family. So I'll clarify here and now: I am an atheist.

It didn't use to be that way; I started off hating church, but eventually I got into it and became a Christian. It was over a year or two that I transitioned to atheism, for reasons that I won't go into here for the sake of brevity and relevance.

But I said that I was glad to be a part of a Liberal Christian family for a reason: it reminds me constantly that not all Christians are anti-progressive, conservative, narrow-minded, homophobic, bigoted arses. And in a society that's surrounded constantly by the travesties of religion, we really need that reminder. The people in my family are all good people, religion doesn't determine whether you're good or bad by necessity.

There are evil atheists, and evil Christians. There are good atheists, and good Christians. More of us need to realise this in a day and age where (seemingly dwindling) religion still features heavily in society.

What's for sure is that religion, like everything else, is the furthest thing from black and white, despite what people want to think.