Sustaining One's Atheism, Skepticism, and Freethought
September 14, 2016
Posted by Jack Vance
When I first started the process of coming to terms with the fact that I no longer believed in gods, I remember that it involved some degree of effort. Prior to about age 14, I had believed in gods without question. As it gradually began to dawn on me that there was no evidence to support the existence of gods, I fought against this realization and tried to maintain my religious belief. That is to say, I expended effort toward the goal of not becoming an atheist. Of course, I failed miserably. I no longer believed in gods, and no amount of effort was successful in changing that. Within a couple years, I'd finally be able to admit to myself that I was an atheist.
Since that time, I don't think it has taken any effort to sustain my atheism. There is nothing I have to keep doing in order to remain an atheist. There is nothing that if I were to stop doing it might return me to god belief. In short, I can't think of any way that I've needed to expend effort to remain an atheist. Atheism is something I am; it really isn't anything I have to do.
What a sharp contrast this is with skepticism and freethought, both of which do seem to require sustained effort! Without vigilance and hard work, I could drift out of skepticism. As I have become more practiced at it, it has become somewhat easier for me. The odds of my abandoning it now are much less than they would have been a couple decades ago. Still, it is not something I'd call easy. I do slip out of skepticism from time-to-time. Sustaining skepticism takes effort in a way that sustaining atheism never has.
As for freethought, it is much newer to me than skepticism. I came to it much later in life, and I have not reached the point where it has become second nature. I'm not even sure there is such a point. It takes even more effort, and it is something I could drift out of much easier. It has really been only in the past few years that I have been able to catch myself doing just that on occasion. I think it is fair to say that sustaining freethought requires even more effort for me than sustaining skepticism. In fact, it is something to which I have to make an active commitment.
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