Watching a religion-themed movie this morning as I enjoyed some too-strong coffee, I had the thought that I can explain simply why I’m an atheist. The gods are too cruel.

If I’m wrong, and there is a penalty for not worshipping them, obviously I’ll pay it. But even in the face of that potential risk, I still think my deal is no worse than that of the righteous. The things they are expected to do, the beliefs they are expected to sustain…how tortuous. There is no cruelty that like born of following the extreme path of action grounded in imperative, religious reasoning.

The intellectual and um, spiritual cost of appeasing the contradictory codes, absorbing and processing the horrific histories associated with faiths, the seeming disinterest of the gods…these things and more make religion so completely unpalatable to me. I’m confused enough about the universe as it is, maintaining a pentultimate and insensible creed on top of that would be insufferable.

But mainly, I think it’s about the cruelty. I accept the world is full of it, but I can’t accept that I have to worship the author(s) of that cruelty. It’s the same attitude I have towards mean people- I don’t respect that as a human quality, and I certainly won’t for a superbeing.

You can tell I’m off to have a very long, and very wonky day and my poor right brain is howling in protest.