Sex, drugs and rock'n roll! Oh, and beer. But no stankin' gods!

I am finally getting around to telling of how my atheism came to be. I guess it really did begin as a child. I must admit though that I have grown up in church surroundings and have not been an atheist all my life (or maybe I subconciously have been). I was christened as an infant in to the Catholic church, attended pre-school at a church, and have attended many churches growing up. I think I was more in love with the buildings and the architecture than god, or the idea of god. I think I just like the gothic-ness of it all. I currently attend a Gothic style college complete with basilica, monks, nuns, prayer chapel, old books, crucifixes, rosaries, etc.
I guess I was the child who, while not admitting that she did not believe in god, did not believe in the bible, or the stories in the bible. They were always brilliant stories to me, fantastic and imaginative, but just that. I knew they weren't real. How could one man (we'll call him Noah) build a huge boat capable of holding two of every clean animal and seven of every un-clean animal (or vice versa), including his family? How was it that a man (we'll call him Jonah) stay alive after living in a huge fish? Was it true that Sarah was turned into a pillar of salt? Was there really a Jesus? And a vast amount of other questions, including the notion of god, Jesus, The Book of Revelation, the plagues, and everything else. I knew the bible was and is not the word of god. I have always been on a journey for truth. To me, the bible is not the word of god, but allegorical stories, tales.
While sitting in my Great Books class listening to Professor Mcveary (I call her Mcveary), we were discussing Oedipus Rex and prophecies, and gods. I thought: people in ancient times were sort of ridiculous with their gods, their believing in prophecies and trying to either make them happen or keep them from happening, which was usually to no avail, and would instead happen anyway. Why did they care so much? They should just live their life and whatever will be, will be. And then I thought: that is exactly what people are doing today. It has not changed. So for me to think that the ancient gods were ridiculous (though fascinating in their anthropomorphicy-to coin a strange adjective, and beauty) our god now must look pretty ridiculous, too. "Today's religion is Tomorrow's literary entertainment". And this is what really made me open my eyes and see truth. I still wonder what life is all about, but who doesn't? I just watch Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (or Life of Brian--which is my fave!) and everything is all right! People a thousand years or so from now (if the human species still thrives) will look at our books, journals, blogs, and think our god was silly, but entertaining. I enjoy the idea that gods lived on top of Mount Olympus just above the clouds, or in Hades (the chthonic gods), or the Valhalla, and our god now living in a great mansion and sitting on his throne in the clouds. It's fantastic! But you would think that during one of Doctor Who's great travels through Time And Relative Dimension In Space, he would have come across god somewhere in the universe, right? Oh, wait, god is outside the universe, how convenient! As Dr. Terence Meaden stated, "Religion is but a human fancy". And, I agree. I don't need doctrines, dogmas, and made up fear-tactics to be a good, intelligent person. We do not need religion, or gods to be good, moral, ethical people. We need reason, logic, ethics, morals, love, compassion, empathy, food, good books, pen and paper, Doctor Who, sex, drugs and rock 'n roll to be good, moral, ethical people! Oh, and beer! Or at least, I do!
That is all...good day!