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Hello...

2
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Have you ever been there?

3
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Do we all start out that way?

4
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I mean it's like in school 
when you're asked to take a test,

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where you uh... circle 
the correct answer:

6
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Are you going to pick A, B or C?

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

8
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but not every answer 
is going to be right.

9
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This is pretty straightforward

10
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and how a lot of people 
start out taking tests.

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This is common to most if not all of us,

12
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but one day someone put 
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
variation of the same reasoning.

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

16
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You don't have to believe
in a certain choice,

17
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but that your choice now can be
that the answer was never there to start.

18
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So D could be your answer.

19
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Really?

20
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I mean you were told over and over again

21
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there were certain ways to do things 
and there was always a correct answer.

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

23
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that's what you'd rather have 
before ever trying to go for a D.

24
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And I like to tell people:
"D does not stand for devil."

25
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Just to make sure.

26
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(Laughter)

27
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So think of it this way: what if every day
you felt like you're in another world,

28
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didn't fit in and everything...

29
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and the only way you felt like 
you could survive was to blend in.

30
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Makes sense that you might feel
awkward, anxious and invisible.

31
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I think we all agree that we feel 
our best when we can be ourselves

32
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and be accepted that way.

33
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When I was younger, all I could do 
was see things as black-and-white.

34
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So something was right or wrong, 
it was this way or that way,

35
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there was no gray, no wiggle room.

36
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There was no questioning about it.

37
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The "D's" in life,

38
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they have a story, they have a face,

39
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they have accomplishments
and challenges too.

40
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So what's my story?

41
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Well, years ago,
I was in a Catholic Church

42
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saying a Creed along with everyone.

43
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Now a Creed, for anyone 
who does not know,

44
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is a way to profess
your beliefs in something.

45
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At that very moment 
I happened to be saying:

46
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"I believe in God, Father Almighty,
maker of Heaven and Earth,

47
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of all that is seen and unseen."

48
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And then -- whoa! -- 
all of a sudden my head, my brain,

49
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it just said confidently and surprisingly:

50
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"No, I don't."

51
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And after saying this line 
and every one after it,

52
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I started to like check it off 
like a mental list of

53
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"No, I don't." to everything.

54
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Up until now, I had just said 
what everyone else was saying.

55
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I thought that's how to do it,

56
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like anything
that you were told to memorize:

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to say over and
over again without questioning.

58
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So D actually ended up being my answer. 


59
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D in my case it was 
an option called atheism.

60
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So let's define atheism.

61
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According to the Merriam-Webster
Online Dictionary,

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the first definition 
is the archaic definition,

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and that's 'ungodliness, wickedness'.

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

65
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There is no deity.

66
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So let me explain it this way:

67
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there's Up, I think that's where
most of us would think

68
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that people put a god, 
a happy place, a heaven.

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For every Up there's a Down.

70
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So Down, that's where people 
put a devil, bad place, demons.

71
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So where do atheists fit in?

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Right there: no god, no devil.

73
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Just surrounded
by all of the other human beings.

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So us atheists have nothing?

75
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No, we have each other. 
We even count all of you.

76
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This is not saying that
we don't struggle with life issues.

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

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

79
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or "It's God's will or plan."

80
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Since I have no answer, 
there is no answer.

81
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So it all comes down to who I am 
and how I choose to respond

82
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to any given situation.

83
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I want to be good. 
I think everyone wants to be good,

84
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wants to be respected, appreciated.

85
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But life is hard,

86
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mistakes are made, people are hurt,

87
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even people that are loved. 


88
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My atheism does not change that at all.

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

90
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In fact recently I made a couple mistakes 
-- more than a couple, but... --

91
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and I hurt someone I love.

92
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And I also hurt some other friends 
and some other people in my life.

93
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And I need to take care of that myself

94
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because I didn't have
anything else to go to.

95
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And so I took care of it, 
I looked into it.


96
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Today I simply want to remind you

97
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that no matter what you believe,

98
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understand that not everyone 
thinks the same.

99
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And just because we believe
different or think different,

100
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doesn't mean that we are different.

101
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First one was adopt-a-highway 
that a group of us do,

102
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this is the soup kitchen, 
these are the type of things we do.

103
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And sometimes we just have fun.

104
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As an atheist in the Bible Belt,
it's often hard for many of us

105
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to remind people thatwe are people too

106
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and we're here.

107
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There's... as I said,
there's more than probably you realize.

108
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There's people in your family,
there's probably people you work with,

109
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everywhere you go 
and we're just the same.

110
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So what I like to say to you is:

111
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I'm not asking you
to change your world for me,

112
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but rather you realize, 
I'm in this world with you.

113
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Thank you.

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(Applause)