Godless does not equal Immoral

If you look up the word moral in the thesaurus, the first synonym listed is Christian.

A University of Minnesota survey indicated that in terms of distrust, atheists are at the top of the list, followed by Muslims, terrorists, and homosexuals. In the US, 75% of the population belongs to some sort of Christian denomination. 5% are self proclaimed atheists. If a US presidential candidate did not believe in God, he would lose 50% of the vote on that alone.

These statistics come from Morgan Spurlock, the guy who gave us "Super Size Me." He has a television show called "30 Days." The concept is pretty self explanatory. He used to be the guinea pig, but now has enlisted the public to go inside a completely foreign world; from a minute man living with a family of illegal immigrants to a white collar computer tech who lost his job due to outsourcing who goes to India. I happened to catch an episode about a woman who was an atheist. A completely normal, stay at home, suburban mom who felt the Christian community had demonized atheism, and in turn, her family without really understanding it. So, she was off to live with a conservative Christian family in Texas for a month, who she hoped to enlighten, while they wished to save her.

From the start, the Christians were preachy and judgmental. One woman actually said, "I'm glad I'm not you- I wouldn't want to be." The host family tried to apologize for the behavior, saying they believed in loving your neighbor, and so on. When this woman tried to explain that to her, atheism was simply a lack of a belief in any god(s), and she could still be moral, the Christians just could NOT fathom that. They couldn't grasp the concept that one can develop morals without the aid of the 10 Commandments or some other biblical scripture. Her attempts to defend her simple right to disbelieve garnered blank stares. She said she didn't push her beliefs on anyone, while Christianity was shoved in her face. For example, during a 'biblically correct' tour of a museum, a creationsist attempted to discredit the evolutionist theory, using undeniable facts like man and dinosaurs were created on the same day. He could in no way, discredit science, yet he used the bible as a reference at every turn. It was laughable. I was impressed by how calm she remained during debates, while the Christians lost most of their composure trying to defend their faith.

But, it was a happy ending! The Christians came around and realized maybe this lady was not the devil's spawn, and that she posed some interesting and reasonable questions. They vowed to find the answer in their prayers and Bible study. She simply smiled, and went on her quiet way home.

I wouldn't call myself an atheist, but my leanings are more towards science. I do wonder if there is some sort of life or force out there, but I don't believe in the God of the Bible. I think the notion of an all knowing god who put us here to test us is more of a children's bedtime story. If we're good, we get eternal life in the heavens, but if we're bad, well, look out for that fiery hellhole we're sentenced to forever. It seems preposterous that anyone would be permanently rewarded or tortured based on his or her 75.2 years of life on earth. My personal opinion is because humans have an innate need to find their purpose, they've created religions and god(s).
Having said all that, I still fear that one day I'll come face to face with Yahweh as Armageddon comes crashing down, and think, ' oh shit...'