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{
    "title": "Grow Up, and Stand Up",
    "date": "2011-04-12",
    "tags": ["atheism", "growth"]
}

Recently I read these two posts on [ThinkAtheist](http://www.thinkatheist.com), and they hit home with me:



All of us who are thinking freely and have thrown off religion owe a debt to those who came before.
I probably would not be an atheist if I hadn't read a Christopher Hitchens book, one which made me
realize that it is possible (and moral) to point out that the emperor has no clothes.  Before this,
I had cognitive dissonance around science and religion, and yet I was almost completely unaware of
this fact.  For many people, such as me, it takes an outside voice to force the issue.  For others,
those who came before make it easier by not just showing the way, but by showing that it is
possible.  Robert Ingersoll is a particular hero of mine in this area.  He was an orator in the late
1800s (sharing many similarities with Mark Twain), who spoke against religion in ways that I did not
know were possible at that time.  Hitchens prodded me, and Ingersoll inspired me.

There is a debt here to be repaid.  I cannot let this stop with me.  Christians have a song in
Sunday school that has the line "This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine".  Well, that is
how I feel about reason and logic, and shedding of the fear, and reclaiming my mind as my own.
Others did me a favor by helping me get this far.  I must pass it on.

(I believe that this feeling of debt, combined with the Internet as an enabler, is a core reason for
the "New Atheist" movement.)

There are many ways to pass on the favor.  Writing this blog and interacting on atheist forums are
just some ways.  But another part is to not hide.  I now speak openly with my wife and her niece.  I
lend support (and receive it in return) to a Mormon-turned-atheist friend.  I connect with an
agnostic coworker, and trade stgories and tips regarding raising skeptical children.

And yet with some family I have been hiding, for fear of offending.  This is intellectually
dishonest, and it is very emotionally draining.  But why keep hiding?  After reading the blog posts
above, I see I have a debt which must be repaid with openness and honesty.  At the same time,  I
hope such honesty will lift a burden off me.  Hopefully such conversations will go well, but the
imagined result cannot guide me.  It's time to grow up and be who I am.