Coming Out as an Atheist
I am an atheist, out and out. It took me a long time to say it. I've been an atheist for years and years, but somehow I felt it was intellectually unrespectable to say one was an atheist, because it assumed knowledge that one didn't have. Somehow, it was better to say one was a humanist or an agnostic. I finally decided that I'm a creature of emotion as well as of reason. Emotionally, I am an atheist. I don't have the evidence to prove that God doesn't exist, but I so strongly suspect he doesn't that I don't want to waste my time.
Robert Basil, Mary Beth Gehrman, 'Isaac Asimov on Science and the Bible' On the Barricades: Religion and Free Inquiry in Conflict (1989-12)
Notes
Asimov admits that atheism is not a rational viewpoint, but humans are emotional animals as well, and his emotional stance is one of atheism.
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atheist, Atheist Asimov, rational viewpoint, emotional stance, emotional animals, long time, atheism, humans, humanist, creature, reason, evidence