A friend asked me how people become atheists. I think underlying her question was a worry that the atheistic condition could be contagious; a lingering concern for the spiritual well-being of her young children. In my presence, that is.

Well, I was able to put her mind at ease. Becoming an atheist, I told her, requires work. It requires an active mind, and the willingness to face difficult and uncomfortable questions. Her children are quite safe for the next few years, and so I still have an open invitation to their home this Christmas.

Yet, after reflecting upon the question, I now believe that even though I correctly described what is involved, ultimately, my answer was wrong. You can’t become an atheist.

You just stop being something else.

When you stop believing that there is a great bearded man in the sky, and provided you don’t pick up some other supernatural ideology, you have stopped being religious. Coincidentally, you are now an Atheist. The first was incidental, the latter is the consequence. Neither was something you actively did. Being an atheist is being not something. It’s not something you can do.

Yeah, that totally cleared that issue up.