Why Mike Bermudez is an atheist...

Mike Bermudez pens a guest post on Pharyngula on why he's an atheist. His post, with my commentary:

Why I’m An Atheist – Mike Bermudez


I perhaps had it easier than most. Actually, I’m quite sure I did. While my father took me to a Roman Catholic church when I was little- at least from the ages 7 to 10 -I never paid attention.

Unlike most young kids, who listen in rapt fascination to Mass.

Quite frankly at the latter stages, I was quite uncomfortable with the whole thing.

Unlike most kids, he fidgeted.

Bored out of my mind for one and having to dress up in cloths that I never cared to wear. In fact, one time I asked my dad if I could bring a book on dinosaurs to read. You know, in case I got bored.

I let my youngest read books on dinosaurs. It's hard to sit still for any reason for an hour when you're a kid. Unless you're playing video games...

I later figured that my father was doing this solely at the behest of my grandparents. I’m not sure why he stopped going and thus my not going, but it was quite nice. The nightly prayers stopped too- what a bore those were.

Mike's life is centered around evading boredom...

My mom on the other hand had become Buddhist or perhaps had been for some time- I’m not sure. She would take me to weekly meetings and would have me sit with her at our home alter. Not only was I already bored with religion in general, but now it’s in a different language. Oh joy.

Children should never be asked to participate in things that don't entertain them...

The weekly meetings were much more fun than the Catholic church.

Whew!

There were kids to play with, I could read whatever I brought with me, sometimes if it was held at someone’s house, they might have dogs for me to pet! Oh and I often had to do my homework. Never seemed to escape that. This too stopped being a common occurrence. Again I’m not too sure when, although I believe I was in the 6th grade. It was also around this time that I started to slowly learn about religion, but it wouldn’t be until High School that I really got into it.

Notice how nearly all "Why I'm an atheist" posts consist mainly of atheists telling us how boring church was to them when they were kids. P.Z. should expand his selection of posters beyond 12 year olds.

My “indoctrination” into mocking religion came in the form of “No-God.com”. If you’ve never been and wish for a 90s flash-back, I highly recommend it. This website had a great mix of humor and facts. Very dark and twisted humor. Perfect for a high school student engrossed in all things Metal and GWAR.

Mike put a lot of thought into his rejection of God. A "90's flashback" God-mocking website, Metal and GWAR. I'm waiting for Mike's views on Marilyn Manson's take on the cosmological argument and Jesus' atonement for our sins...

GWAR, along with Marilyn Manson, led to some new websites and interesting people/ideas.

Mike reasoned that any universe that spawned Marilyn Manson couldn't have been intelligently designed.

The “Church of the Sub Genius” is one of them as well as the “Church of Satan”.

Nice bit of candor there...

Satanism is just as boring to me as Christianity,

Satan bores Mike. I doubt that Mike bores Satan.

although at the time was certainly something fun to heat people up with in a hurry. Aside from cheesy websites and religions, I didn’t much pay attention to it all. In fact, I’m not sure I was too familiar with the term “Atheist” at the time.

It doesn't seem that Mike was familiar with anything except GWAR, Metal, and Satanism. Time to expand your horizons, Mike...

I believe my standard reply to the question of my religious affiliation was: “I don’t have time for any of that.”

Why do I have the feeling that Mike's problem with Christianity was that it told him that there were some things he shouldn't do?

After discovering Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and PZ Myers, it became quite clear to me that Atheism was here to stay in my life. Not only that, but it helped me gain confidence in what I believed in and a confidence to be open and expressive about it. I feel very free about life and much more excited about the natural beauty of the world because of it.

Mike Bermudez
Fnord

Mike's pablum is common in Myers' "Why I'm an atheist" series. A kid is bored to death by church or is exposed to fundamentalist views that are in conflict with accepted science. At that point, thinking seems to stop. The dejected tween declares himself a skeptic or atheist or whatever, and his mind closes like a trap, never coming to grips with the serious arguments for God's existence or with genuine encounter with God in prayer. Atheist fundamentalism is a good word for it, except that it is an insult to Christian fundamentalists, who are far more thoughtful and perceptive and who are right about the things that matter.

Myers of course fosters all of this callow atheism. You'll notice that his own arguments against God are merely the same arguments as the bored adolescents use.

New Atheism is intellectual degradation.