Atheism in the Bible belt | Joe Mercaldo | TEDxGreenville

Not everyone around us shares our own beliefs -- and that's okay. Open minds, open hearts, and a community where everyone belongs is Joe's wish.

Joe is currently the President of Piedmont Humanists and a member of the Interfaith Forum Board. Originally from Williamsport, PA, where he lived until the age of 30, Joe has been a resident of the Greenville area for nine years.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

Hello.

Have you ever been there?

Do we all start out that way?

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

where you circle the correct answer:

Are you going to pick A, B or C?

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

but not every answer is going to be right.

This is pretty straightforward

and how a lot of people
start out taking tests.

This is common to most if not all of us,

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

There was another option:

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

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

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

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

So D could be your answer.

Really?

I mean you were told over and over again

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

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

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

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

Just to make sure.

(Laughter)

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

didn't fit in and everything...

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

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

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

and be accepted that way.

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

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

there was no gray, no wiggle room.

There was no questioning about it.

The "D's" in life,

they have a story, they have a face,

they have accomplishments
and challenges too.

So what's my story?

Well, years ago,
I was in a Catholic Church

saying a Creed along with everyone.

Now a Creed, for anyone who does not know,

is a way to profess
your beliefs in something.

At that very moment
I happened to be saying,

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

of all that is seen and unseen."

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

it just said confidently and surprisingly,

"No, I don't."

And after saying this line
and every one after it,

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

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

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

I thought that's how to do it,

like anything
that you were told to memorize:

to say over and over again
without questioning.

So D actually ended up being my answer.

D in my case it was an option
called atheism.

So let's define atheism.

According to the Merriam-Webster
Online Dictionary,

the first definition
is the archaic definition,

and that's 'ungodliness, wickedness'.

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

There is no deity.

So let me explain it this way:

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

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

For every Up there's a Down.

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

So where do atheists fit in?

Right there: no god, no devil.

Just surrounded
by all of the other human beings.

So us atheists have nothing?

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

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

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

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

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

Since I have no answer,
there is no answer.

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

to any given situation.

I want to be good.

I think everyone wants to be good,
wants to be respected, appreciated.

But life is hard,

mistakes are made, people are hurt,

even people that are loved.

My atheism does not change that at all.

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

In fact recently I made
a couple mistakes -

more than a couple, but -
and I hurt someone I love.

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

And I need to take care of that myself

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

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

Today I simply want to remind you

that no matter what you believe,

understand that not everyone
thinks the same.

And just because we believe
different or think different,

doesn't mean that we are different.

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

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

And sometimes we just have fun.

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

to remind people thatwe are people too

and we're here.

As I said, there's more
than probably you realize.

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

everywhere you go
and we're just the same.

So what I like to say to you is:

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

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

Thank you.

(Applause)