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Hello...

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Have you ever been there?

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Do we all start out that way?

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I mean it's like in school [br]when you're asked to take a test,

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where you uh... circle [br]the correct answer:

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Are you going to pick A, B or C?

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It has to be one and everyone [br]is only going to choose one,

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but not every answer [br]is going to be right.

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This is pretty straightforward

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and how a lot of people [br]start out taking tests.

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This is common to most if not all of us,

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but one day someone put [br]a test in front of you.

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There was another option:

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it was none of the above or some other[br]variation of the same reasoning.

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For the first time you're allowed to say: [br]"The answer is not there."

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You don't have to believe[br]in a certain choice,

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but that your choice now can be[br]that the answer was never there to start.

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So D could be your answer.

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Really?

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I mean you were told over and over again

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there were certain ways to do things [br]and there was always a correct answer.

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And remember that, [br]like in high school, A's, B's and C's,

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that's what you'd rather have [br]before ever trying to go for a D.

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And I like to tell people:[br]"D does not stand for devil."

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Just to make sure.

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(Laughter)

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So think of it this way: what if every day[br]you felt like you're in another world,

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didn't fit in and everything...

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and the only way you felt like [br]you could survive was to blend in.

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Makes sense that you might feel[br]awkward, anxious and invisible.

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I think we all agree that we feel [br]our best when we can be ourselves

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and be accepted that way.

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When I was younger, all I could do [br]was see things as black-and-white.

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So something was right or wrong, [br]it was this way or that way,

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there was no gray, no wiggle room.

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There was no questioning about it.

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The "D's" in life,

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they have a story, they have a face,

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they have accomplishments[br]and challenges too.

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So what's my story?

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Well, years ago,[br]I was in a Catholic Church

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saying a Creed along with everyone.

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Now a Creed, for anyone [br]who does not know,

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is a way to profess[br]your beliefs in something.

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At that very moment [br]I happened to be saying:

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"I believe in God, Father Almighty,[br]maker of Heaven and Earth,

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of all that is seen and unseen."

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And then -- whoa! -- [br]all of a sudden my head, my brain,

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it just said confidently and surprisingly:

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"No, I don't."

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And after saying this line [br]and every one after it,

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I started to like check it off [br]like a mental list of

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"No, I don't." to everything.

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Up until now, I had just said [br]what everyone else was saying.

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I thought that's how to do it,

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like anything[br]that you were told to memorize:

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to say over and[br]over again without questioning.

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So D actually ended up being my answer. [br]

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D in my case it was [br]an option called atheism.

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So let's define atheism.

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According to the Merriam-Webster[br]Online Dictionary,

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the first definition [br]is the archaic definition,

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and that's 'ungodliness, wickedness'.

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The current definition though is [br]a disbelief in the existence of a deity.

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There is no deity.

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So let me explain it this way:

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there's Up, I think that's where[br]most of us would think

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that people put a god, [br]a happy place, a heaven.

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For every Up there's a Down.

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So Down, that's where people [br]put a devil, bad place, demons.

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So where do atheists fit in?

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Right there: no god, no devil.

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Just surrounded[br]by all of the other human beings.

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So us atheists have nothing?

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No, we have each other. [br]We even count all of you.

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This is not saying that[br]we don't struggle with life issues.

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What I'm saying is that I have [br]to live up to my own mistakes.

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I can't conveniently say things like:[br]"The devil made me do it."

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or "It's God's will or plan."

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Since I have no answer, [br]there is no answer.

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So it all comes down to who I am [br]and how I choose to respond

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to any given situation.

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I want to be good. [br]I think everyone wants to be good,

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wants to be respected, appreciated.

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But life is hard,

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mistakes are made, people are hurt,

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even people that are loved. [br]

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My atheism does not change that at all.

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I screw up, I make mistakes,[br]certainly don't know everything.

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In fact recently I made a couple mistakes [br]-- more than a couple, but... --

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and I hurt someone I love.

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And I also hurt some other friends [br]and some other people in my life.

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And I need to take care of that myself

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because I didn't have[br]anything else to go to.

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And so I took care of it, [br]I looked into it.[br]

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Today I simply want to remind you

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that no matter what you believe,

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understand that not everyone [br]thinks the same.

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And just because we believe[br]different or think different,

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doesn't mean that we are different.

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First one was adopt-a-highway [br]that a group of us do,

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this is the soup kitchen, [br]these are the type of things we do.

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And sometimes we just have fun.

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As an atheist in the Bible Belt,[br]it's often hard for many of us

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to remind people thatwe are people too

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and we're here.

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There's... as I said,[br]there's more than probably you realize.

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There's people in your family,[br]there's probably people you work with,

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everywhere you go [br]and we're just the same.

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So what I like to say to you is:

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I'm not asking you[br]to change your world for me,

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but rather you realize, [br]I'm in this world with you.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)