Why is it that people have such a negative conception of the words "agnostic" and "atheist"? In our society today, it seems that people who do not have faith are looked down upon. It is understandable that our country was in fact founded on freedom of religion (which entails that people have a religion, and I am not sure atheism can be considered a religion), and therefore even after all these years, people are expected to believe...or at least act like they do anyways. I just wonder how many people would actually identify themselves as religious without the pressures of their families, friends, and society. I used to go to church every Sunday, and it was very clear who were the "Christmas/Easter" folk. In other words, those people who only show up to church two times a year out of a feeling of obligation. But, even those who show up every Sunday are not necessarily extremely faithful. As bad as it might sound for me to say this, I often enjoyed the feeling of family and camraderie within my church much more than the actual religious aspect of it. I just wonder how many people feel the same. As humans, everyone likes to feel as if they are a part of something. For some, though their beliefs might be questionable, they might go simply for this reason.
But still, why is a lack of faith or confusion seen as a negative thing? Somehow the word "atheist" has been associated with "pessimistic" and agnostic is not far from this either. Do people somehow feel threatened by those who do not believe? Perhaps even though people might be unsure of their beliefs, they still wish to hold onto the optimism that something does exist. I believe that in some way, humans have constructed religion because they needed to believe that not everything on earth is solely determined by their own actions. They might just like to entertain the idea of some outside force, which is somehow guiding their life, to take blame off of themselves.
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