In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is lonely and sad.
I read deconversion stories at exchristian.net on a regular basis, and they usually are quite sad. Oh, losing faith is only a little bit sad, but the joy of finding truth usually cancels it out. I’m talking about the sadness of realizing that your entire family and most of your friends are in a cult, and will now begin to exclude you from their lives.
What’s really strange is that I’ve been an atheist for most of my life, openly for most of it, but only now am beginning to feel excluded by family. I can partly blame myself for beginning to openly stand up for what I believe (isn’t that what you taught me, mom?), and partly I can blame modern “conservatives”. For the last 35 or so years (yeah, I feel old now), I have mostly ignored the strange antics of my Christian relatives, and they mostly ignored my lack thereof.
But, it is a problem now, ever since neocons started claiming martyrdom. That’s right, in case you haven’t had it shouted in your face endlessly on national TV, the claim is that Christians are being persecuted and forced out of the US government. Which is funny, since for the first century or so, we didn’t *have* any Christianity in our government. But, you know, Christians have been told for over 2000 years that they are being persecuted by the majority; it’s right there in the Bible. “You will be persecuted,” it says this very clearly. And, you know, if you shout something often enough on national TV, it becomes truth.
Of course, the claim of “Religion being persecuted by the majority” is doubly ridiculous considering the overwhelming majority of religious people in this country. But we can safely overlook this claim anyway, because we know what it really means: “we are in the majority, and we want a theocracy”. Yes, it very much is what Christians are pushing for.
So, if you’re voting on the basis that you want to stop the evil secular hordes from persecuting you, you’re really voting for theocracy. I can’t imagine any single change to our government that is less American. Any high school textbook will back me up here.
But again, I hear people claiming that I am wrong, that what they just want is the freedom to distribute federal money to nonsecular groups, the ones that do so many good works (and only ask in exchange that you allow yourself to be brainwashed). Well, sure, I guess I can kind of see that maybe. But, in the principle of fairness, I believe if you are going to give government money to faith-based institutions, you also have to start taxing faith-based businesses, which is to say churches. We probably should start doing that anyway, shouldn’t we? You know, the ones that tell you how to vote and openly talk politics from the pulpit. Don’t tell me your church doesn’t suggest how you should vote on the all-important issues like abortion, war, gay marriage and the like. The moment churches started pushing for pro-faith legislation, they ceased to be nonpolitical, and engaged the whole “no taxation without representation” side of things…
And it’s really all about money and power, in the end. Nonbelievers are a problem, because you don’t get their money, and you can’t tell them what to think or how to vote. Well, slander has always worked in the past, let’s just make up some more facts! “Atheists are demons who want you to go to hell, they are without morals, they want to tear down your churches. Atheists are arrogant!” That last one especially makes me laugh. In any war, it is essential to dehumanize the enemy so that your soldiers will not feel bad about crushing them. Fight on, Christian soldiers.
October 21st, 2009 at 3:26 pm
Get on youtube – and start watching “It’s Bad For Ya” by George Carlin. Covers a lot of the same ground you’ve got here – only it’s goes down with a laugh. Here’s a handy link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQLzwUXaeTs
Oh – and to enjoy fewer headaches in the future: Avoid Christians in love, politics, and all business dealings.
If you want to get serious about athiesm, and want to know why it’s rational to be an athiest, read _Atlas Shrugged_.
October 21st, 2009 at 3:46 pm
Well…the “avoid Christians” approach basically means my entire family. It was funny when they were just in a silly cult where my parents went to sing songs and feel like they were part of a community. The rally to “defend” Christianity is not funny; even if the goal was not the destruction of fundamental American values, it is making Christians more intolerant.
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:07 am
Everybody’s family is weird. I have a brother with no sense of humor whatsoever (born humor-impaired), and a sister who is embarrassing to be around due to certain physical histrionics (loud talker) – and other family members who did or do many strange things. Some religious stuff in there too – but they know better than to shill faith around me. So don’t feel like your family is 5 sigmas into the bizarro band.
I think it all boils down to being who you want to be – and letting others accept you (or not) as a person with those qualities.
I’m always drawn to little things that filmmaker Stanley Kubrick said. And one of the very best things he said with regard to work, relationships, or any personal endeavor, was: A person either cares about something, or they don’t – and that makes all the difference in the outcome.