Adopting religious beliefs can take a while, especially if you were an atheist for over thirty years…
By Steven T. Abell
You may recall hearing me say that I was an atheist for a long time, until I had to admit to myself that that wasn’t quite true. How long was a long time? Over thirty years.
There was an adjustment period afterward. How long did that last? It hasn’t ended yet. I often wonder what I’ve gotten myself into, and what to do about it. Not believing in gods is easier in many ways: there’s less to make sense of, and what there is has a particular character of directness about it that is appealing. Atheistic morality has to stand on its merits, without being propped up by old stories whose veracity and present utility are easy to call into question.
And there are the people I meet these days. They wear garb. Some of them, at least, if only at certain events. These clothes range anywhere from the simply cut, simply sewed, and proudly worn tunic or dress, to the carefully researched, highly detailed, and lovingly assembled period piece, to the completely inappropriate red lycra dress with “Viking” accessories that might have looked good on a woman with a figure, or even decent on a gay man with an odd sense of style, but not on the man who was wearing it with no apparent awareness of how silly he looked. What are these people doing?
What’s been said…