Separation of church and brain

I am an atheist. I don't believe in a god or a higher power. I don't buy it. I used to be agnostic before i really developed my own thoughts and opinions. I believed in something because I thought that you had to. Neither of my parents are religious. I do not preach my (lack of) beliefs. I respect people who do believe. That's great, if you believe in a higher power and it helps you to guide you in the direction of becoming a better person, then i couldn't be happier for you. I respect that, different people believe different things and who am i to say what's right and what's wrong? HOWEVER! Please do not turn around and try to convert me to believing.

So here's a little story: A few weeks ago, at work, i found myself in a discussion with the teacher and aid that i work with. We were talking about HORSES. (Horses happen to be repulsive to me. Don't like them. They're gross. They are beasts) My teacher mentioned how horses sleep standing up, and commented that she was curious as to why they sleep standing up and wondered if their legs ever got tired. I'd never really thought about that, but it was a funny little thing to think about. I was quick to dismiss it because, frankly, i don't care about horses or if they dislike the fact that they sleep standing up. The aid then said (verbatim) "God has a plan". WHAT?! ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?! HORSES SLEEP STANDING UP BECAUSE GOD HAS A FUCKING PLAN?! You mean to tell me that she is perfectly content in thinking that horses sleep standing up because GOD has a flippin' plan?! this gets a giant 'WHAT THE FUCK?!' I don't care who you are, or what you believe, there's got to be a little more to "God's plan" than that. I nearly fell off my chair at the thought. Of course, i had to jump on the wonderful interwebz and find out the real reason why horses sleep standing up. I'm not going to explain it, but you can feel free to click here and read a fairly basic explanation. And just as you (hopefully) expected, the reason has NOTHING to do with God or his fucking plan.

I'm not going to tell you to not believe in who/whatever you believe in. I'm not going to tell you to hate horses, even if they are the worst. But, I will tell you that you need to be able and willing to back up the things you say with a little more of an explanation than someone you're not entirely positive even exists has a plan. That certainly is NOT why horses sleep standing up.

I really don't even love publicizing my lack of faith. Billy and I have talked about this before. He doesn't believe either. Anytime the question of affiliation comes up, we'll say that we're atheists. every single time we get the same reaction, a look of pity and/or disappointment followed by a comment along the lines of "really?" or "aww, how come?" I don't ask you why you DO believe. i don't go door to door talking about scientific research that happens to explain the happenings of the world. leave us alone. there's plenty of information out there that we can decide for ourselves! I especially love the people who admit that they are unsure of the presence of a higher power, but believe "just in case" (Pascal's Wager). That's nice. Do me a favor and question what you know, because you could be missing out on a lot of information.