I don’t believe in a God. More than that, I think it is extremely unlikely that there is a God or a supernatural realm out there. I am an atheist. In Richard Dawkins’ spectrum of theistic possibility, which ranges from 1 to 7, I am a strong 6: “I don’t know for certain but I think God is very improbable, and I live my life on the assumption that he is not there.”

I was not always an atheist. I was raised an evangelical and embraced a progressive sort of Catholicism before eventually letting go of my faith entirely. This process took years, and I’ve written about it here.

For me, atheism is largely about a lack of belief. I’ve wondered before whether anyone would even claim the identity “atheist” if we didn’t live in such a strongly religious world. Yet for all that, I do find a sense of commonality with other atheists in a desire to fight superstition, to value skepticism, and to work to maintain the separation of church and state.

Why am I an atheist? Click here to find out. Also, for more of my story read about my deconversion. Finally, while atheism describes what I don’t believe, Humanism describes what I do believe, and not believing in God does not mean that I lack a system of ethics.