This “Broken-Beat” video is a audio/cinematic tribute to evolutionary theory at a time when it seems to be under constant attack from a growing international trend of “creationists” who are convinced the Earth is a mere 10,000 years old with humans and dinosaurs coexisting in some sort of harmony. It features audio from prominent academic/author Richard Dawkins who is known for popularizing the gene-centred view of evolution (and is commonly referred to as “Darwin’s Rottweiler”) during a recent book tour reading promoting his new book “The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution”, as well as video clips from a recent NOVA documentary on the subject “Becoming Human” produced by Graham Townsley. I’ve spliced these clips along with footage I took myself and re-mixed it with my music using Ableton Live in an attempt to remind people that evolution is not just a theory; it is being proven everyday before our very eyes and more and more understood as the origin of our existence. “It is no accident” as Dawkins reminds us.

There have been a lot of inspirational words spoken by our relatively still new commander and chief over the past couple of years since he began his campaign, words that have affected almost all of us in one way or another, despite what you think of the job he is doing or agree with his governing philosophy. For me, however, a little slice from this one quote from his inaugural address “and nonbelievers” is the single thing that has most significance for me. I am an atheist, and quite proud of it. I have known it pretty much my whole life but could almost refer to myself as a “born again atheist” being that there have been a few times in my life where my faith in lack of “faith” has been re-affirmed, much like an American Evangelical is re-baptized despite the fact that they were already raised as Christians. I have issues with the concept that a child can be considered of a particular faith before they have the maturity to decide for themselves but that is another matter.

By calling myself an atheist, I simply mean that I don’t buy the existence of a god as we primitive humans understand it. It doesn’t mean that I dislike those who do not think as I do. Nor does it mean that I am immovable in my own beliefs, just that the only things I have “faith” in are reason, life experience, and the general tendency toward decency of most people, especially in times of crisis. I saw this first-hand living blocks away from the World Trade Center on 9/11. This tendency of decency towards one another I believe is an instinctual trait that has allowed us to survive throughout the millennia of our existence on this Earth.

The logic of religious theory simply has never added up for me. One of the most confusing aspects of the faith community is their claim that religion is a necessity in teaching us morals. To me there is no more helpful a tool for understanding morals and basic human decency then a good understanding of reason. Most of those I know who are atheist live their lives according to moral codes that are completely consistent and decent, even without the promise of being saved or absolved of our sins through repenting. We have to live with them and learn from the mistakes and successes in our lives using logic to help provide some navigation through a confusing and often difficult world.

Being a self proclaimed atheist can be a lonely experience, not because of a lack one feels by not having a belief in a helping hand of faith or in a higher power like everyone else appears to, but by the isolation one feels by being portrayed as part of the “far left fringe” of belief in modern America, as well as not reaping the benefits of being affiliated with a publicly recognized community of “like-minded” people. We are considered almost non-existent and are almost never mentioned in the vast dialogue on faith in America. So when Obama just threw in those two words (after loads of religious based language which I think he uses primarily as a tool to communicate to this perceived highly religious country) it moved me, and still does nine months later.

The fact is, according a study by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public life as well as a recent USA today poll there are more “nonbelievers” in this country then there are Jews, Muslims and Hindus combined, all of which are groups with voices in the public sphere. Self-proclaimed atheists do not encompass all of those in the “nonbelievers” group, but this I believe has a lot to do with the stigma associated with merely stating that one is an atheist as opposed to saying something more vague like “oh well, I’m just not religious”.

I am completely comfortable with my beliefs and don’t feel that they are meant as a threat to any of my friends and family who are “of faith”. My mother happens to be a Unitarian Universalist Minister who preaches every Sunday, and I was brought up in the UU church. For those who aren’t familiar, being a UU is about as close as you can get to being an agnostic while still being able to call yourself Christian, it is basically up to the member to find one’s own relationship with God, and Jesus is not believed to be the literal son of god as is the case in all other Christian based faiths. Still, even after growing up as a part of this community, for which I have respect, I found it was not for me.

For all this talk about how religious our nation is supposed to be, consider the facts:
- The Pew study found that “people who say they are unaffiliated with any particular faith today (16.1%) is more then double the number who say they were not affiliated with any particular religion as children. That means that approximately 8% of Americans drop their childhood religious affiliations when coming of age.
- Among Americans ages 18-29, 25% say they are not currently affiliated with any particular religion…That contrasts with those age 70 and older who say they are not affiliated with any particular religion (8%). This means as this time passes the faith-less are sure to become and even larger portion of the public.

This is leaving out the untold story of the scores of people who go to church every week but don’t really “believe” what is being preached to them 100%, as faith in nearly all religions is required to be considered “moral” or “truly religious”. Most of these people find comfort in the community, and enjoy re-connecting with their peers weekly and value having time set aside to reflect on things of “higher meaning”. However, if you ask many of these people privately and press them on the certainty of everything that was said in their respective religious ceremony, you will find that a vast amount of them aren’t as “faithful” as they might let on at first.

My point in saying all of this is that atheists are far from alone in this country, and do not occupy some “far-left fringe” space in this culture. It is hypocritical and self-incriminating of the general populace to not recognize this sizable group that makes up a significant portion of the population and to not confer to it the same sort of legitimacy and respect Christians, for example, have the luxury of “deserving”. I blame atheists as much as anyone else for allowing this status-quo to go unchallenged and to continue this denial of public recognition. If we apologize for our beliefs, and willingly hide who we are, we are surrendering rights everyone else in this country is given, all the while giving more power and influence to those who do not employ reason in approaching understanding existence, especially the intolerant religious fanatics who can only accept things the way they are being preached to to see them. If atheists do not have a voice, there will be no one out there saying what the premise of atheism is. It doesn’t simply mean “I don’t believe in god”, it means I am pretty solidly grounded in my belief that no one can claim to know with absolute certainty anything about the nature of existence.

Interesting references:

A USA Today interactive graph of the religious demographics broken down state by state

A link to the Pew Study