I believe...

Our final project in English class consists of a 4-5 minute speech about what we believe. I absolutely hate assignments like this. There are just some things that I can't share with anyone, yet Mr. Wong expects us to 'tell it all' in front of a class of people whom I barely know.

Well, since I probably won't see these people ever again, I'll say what I always wanted to say on the issue of religion. Here's the beginning of the speech:

I view the world in a different way than you, for I am a free thinker, an atheist. For answers to unsolved mysteries, you turn to your God, while I use reason, logic, and science in search of answers to the unexplained. I am not bound by the rules established thousands of years ago. My future is shaped by the choices I make...

And I will end it with I am an atheist and this is my manifesto.

I plan to bring in a bible as a prop and read one or two passages from the bible. I especially like these two about women:

Corinthians, 14:34-35: "Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience as also saith the law. And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church."

Genesis 19:30-38: "And Lot went up out of Zoar..., and his two daughters with him; ...and he dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters. And the firstborn said unto the younger, Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in unto us after the manner of all the earth. Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father. And they made their father drink wine that night: and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose. And it came to pass on the morrow, that the firstborn said unto the younger, Behold, I lay yesternight with my father: let us make him drink wine this night also; and go thou in, and lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father. And they made their father drink wine that night also: and the younger arose, and lay with him; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose. Thus were both the daughters of Lot with child by their father. And the first born bare a son, and called his name Moab: the same is the father of the Moabites unto this day. And the younger, she also bare a son, and called his name Benammi: the same is the father of the children of Ammon unto this day."

Thanks to ethicalatheist.com for finding these.