The image of oneself

Tonight I was told that all the great people in history arrived at the same conclusion. The implication of this line of benediction was to inform me that the 'Creator' had imbued life with souls and that to deny the force of such an historical collective of conscience was... stupid I guess.

Right now I don't feel that stupid. This could in fact be thanks to the reality that I am stupid and don't realise because of my average IQ. Being fair I cannot rule this out. Or perhaps more accurately my intelligence may not allow me to perceive some things which someone smarter than myself perceives. That is completely fair and I suspect entirely correct. If it weren't then I wouldn't have failed accounting at university and then indulged my creative side in arts.

However, arriving at a belief in souls and comprehending theoretical physics seem to me to be entirely different planes of thought - Einstein was one of the bricks the person I was talking to was fallaciously building her argument with. Either way I cannot take someone else's experience as my own otherwise I would have been indoctrinated a long time ago and this kind of postulation would be moot.

Why, anyway, should I respect intellectual giants at the sake of my own curiosity and enlightenment? Knowledge wasn't perfected before I was born and I don't know of anything other than a concept of 'god' that has a monopoly on knowledge either. Knowledge to me is something that is built upon and grows organically with new perspectives and insights. With this in mind I'll frame my atheistic tendencies in the ever growing and expanding universe of knowledge and my minuscule comprehension of it.

Ultimately I can't say that I know anything for certain, only what I know to myself. This is unfortunately somewhat small and so extrapolation occurs and I arrive at what I believe in. What I believe is this (some of the things anyway):

I have had no experience I can attribute to a god or gods. If I have had such an experience it was too subtle to recognise and therefore went unnoticed.

Life proliferates on this planet and is therefore not unique. My life is not unique.

My physical existence and self-consciousness are unique and wholly invaluable. I'm not sure what precipitates existence but I'm exquisitely fortunate to be here existing.

There is nothing to indicate in my experience or at an observable level the existence of souls.

If I have seen a ghost there has been nothing to differentiate it from the living and so I can't say I've seen one.

If my life was given to me by a god(s) or creator they voluntarily gave me this life, there is no expectation of compensation by definition.

Religious ambiguity disambiguates towards atheism.

I will not fawn at the heals of any deity for the sake of a better life. My life is my own to make of what I will. If I succeed it will be thanks to many things. If I fuck up then I've got no one else to blame.

I do not tolerate intolerance of difference. This can be expressed two ways:
Um) At an interpersonal level between humans and at a macro level between cultures.
Dois) If a god(s) or creator wants to judge me at the end of my life based on whether or not I conformed to their want or will they gave me this life with preconditions. That is not giving, nor is it fair. I live by what I deem right, not because I fear retribution or some concept of hell. And if that happens to be where I'm headed because I did not conform to a set of beliefs? The concept that there could be a god so selfish is something I cannot fathom.
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So where does this rant leave me and any of you unfortunate enough to still be reading (D-man)? Damned if I know. Whatever happens in life happens. I will not hedge my bets and pick a religion to ensure a comfortable afterlife (if indeed there is one). I will be judged for who I am, what I do, and that's that.