Atheist Faith

People think
When I say I'm an atheist
That I have no faith

I wish there was a term
Like 'atheist faith'
That could embody
What it is I believe
And believe in
So that people wouldn't see me
As some morbid figure
With a dark cloud hovering above
At all times

I am not devoid of faith

I have faith in family
My friendships
My work, my work ethic

I have faith in earning things
So that when people talk about gifts
Or talents
I compliment them on the work they've done
To cultivate those skills

Maybe they think these things are ethereal
That they're just placed in us
In some magical factory
Before we're born

But I have faith in people's ambition
Their ingenuity
Their determination

Believe it or not
I have faith in religion
Though I don't practice one

I believe that at heart
They mean well
But I choose not to identify with one
Because I feel I don't need instructions
For how to be a good person
For me it seems fairly simple
Even though I'll admit
Practicing it at all times
Is not

I believe in community
I believe that there's more good than bad in all things
I believe in compassion
And I don't believe
It's a religious principle
Just a human one

I believe in art
I believe in creativity
I believe in the unexplained
I just don't try explaining it

You wouldn't look at a masterpiece and say
Let's improve it or change it

So why look at something that's meant to be a mystery
And say--Let's see if we can solve it
So that it'll be something else

I prefer to let it remain a mystery

I believe in science, yes
But science is not my faith

Immorality is not my faith
Anti-anything is not my faith
I'm not anti
I'm pro

I'm pro all the things I've mentioned
I would say I'm a lot more pro-
Than most people would think
When they hear I'm an atheist

They think of it as a black thing
A negative thing
An absence

It's not

To be honest
That's how I used to view
The religion that was handed to me

It didn't mean to me
What it meant to others
And so I felt like a fraud

I looked at it
And I saw the absence
That people see
When I come out to them
And tell them
I don't believe in God

I see their disappointment
And I feel like taking them by the shoulders and saying--

'But it's okay, because I believe in you'

And as silly as it sounds
I mean it

But instead I just try to let them see
That their impression
Is not the reality

Because above everything else
I have faith in actions

I believe that you can believe something all you want
But if you don't act on it
You may as well not believe it in the first place
For all the good it's doing you
Or the world, for that matter

That's my atheist faith
And when I embraced it
I didn't feel a cloud descending on me
I felt something lifting
Lifting right off me

And it felt as close to spirituality
As I've ever come