.Love. .Acceptance. .Forgiveness.

are the three words by which I try to live my life. Self knowledge, acceptance and forgiveness becomes more and more important to me day by day, and I try to constantly self analyse in order to make myself a better, bigger and more forgiving person.

It always provokes me when people defend religion by saying things like;

"religion has given/ gives us morality"
"religion teaches us how to behave"
"without religion we would all be savages"
"Hitler was religious" (".......and a vegetarian" - but that is a seperate discussion all together)

I accept that there is such a thing as the 10 Commandments, and that they are pretty decent. But if you accept the Christian religion, and the Bible as it's Holy Book I feel that you also have to accept the Old Testament, which also tells us that it is ok to rape someone's wife if they rape your wife, to kill, and that one should not eat prawns (I am not an expert but I think the pink little bastards are in some way unclean...correct me if I have misunderstood).

We (as in humanity and the human race) had morals, laws and commandments way before Jesus was allegedly born. We have law systems, courts and morals going back to Romans, Ancient Greeks and much further back. Yes, religion has always played part in societies' moral system, and yes, there are good things with religion as well, but to say that morality and the Law comes from the Christian faith and the Bible is showing total disregard towards History and ancient wisdom.

That said I accept everyone's personal belief, as long as they don't try to enforce it on someone else, or their faith/belief means that they disregard other people's beliefs/faith and right to life. I have religious people in my family, most of my friends are religious in some way or form, so to say that I have a problem with Christian/religious people is ludacris, as it would mean that I have a problem with my friends and family.

All I am trying to say is that please don't try to enforce your beliefs on me. Or assume/indicate/say that my beliefs/morality/way of living my life is in some way inferior to Yours because I am an Atheist. I am an atheist and I am proud of it. Pondering life, love, acceptance and respect is central to my life, and something which I grow of every day - but there are other ways to discuss and understand life's big questions than in a religious/Christian context. Mamma has a wonderful saying which is "Var och en blir helig på sin sak" (something like "Each person finds serenity in their own way"), and I think if every person on earth would simply accept this and stop trying to enforce their beliefs/religion on others we would have a MUCH better world.

Being an atheist is to me a personal and well thought over desicion - one which I rethink almost daily and have accepted with as much love and serenity as most religious people have accepted and live with their faith. Being an atheist does not mean that I don't have passions, beliefs and life values- on the contrary. I have very very strong values and beliefs, and to a large extent they are very similar to a religious person's belief, I have just cut out the (in my opinion) bullcrap of organised religion - the oldfashioned, bigoted, sexist, xenophobic, racist and homophobic attitudes and convictions.

I try (and yes I am an incomplete individual, I lie, steal and dissapoint myself and others - not because I am an atheist but because I'm a Human Being) to live my life by the following lead words;

Love (loving myself, other people, Humanity, all living beings and the World at large)

Acceptance (accepting myself, other people, Humanity, all living beings and the World at large)
Respect (respecting myself, other people, Humanity, all living beings and the World at large)
Openmindedness (being openminded towards myself, other people, Humanity, all living beings and the World at large)
Forgiveness (forgiving myself, other people, Humanity, all living beings and the World at large)

So yes, I am an uncompleted individual, but so are you, and so are every other Human Being on the planet. That is why we have to contstantly ransack ourselves, the way we live, think, act, breathe, appear, speak and judge others. I am just as incomplete as most religious people, maybe a little less than some, and a little more than some. But we are all Humans, which mean that we do mistakes, dissapoint, hurt and cheat people.

BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN THAT WE CAN'T TRY TO BE THE BEST PEOPLE POSSIBLE - AND LOVE EACH OTHER REGARDLESS OF BELIEFS, SEXUAL/LOVE DESIRES, SKIN COLOUR, AGE, (DIS)ABILITY, SEX/GENDER (and there are a lot more than two - or none at all), AND ALL THE OTHER 'CHARACTERISTICS' WHICH SUPPOSEDLY MAKE US APART. THERE ARE NO 'RACES' - WE ARE ALL ONE HUMAN RACE, WE COME FROM THE SAME PLACE, FROM THE SAME SOIL AND EARTHMOTHER. SO LET'S JUST CUT THIS BULLCRAP AND START LIVING TOGETHER, LOVING EACH OTHER AND ACCEPTING AND RESPECTING EACH OTHER. GODDAMNIT!