Friday,
May 30, 2008 at 5:35am
After
getting done reading this article (no longer available),
I’m sitting in awe wondering why people would take on the baggage
entailed with the Christian title. Let’s take something like
nationality first. My family is partly Serbian and therefore whenever
something happens in what used to be Yugoslavia, my dad and uncles
are compelled to talk up the Serbs and explain all the history behind
the conflict and ultimately rationalize why our heritage is on the
“right” side. Now it only takes a few news articles and common
sense to tell you that anybody in a war time situation who pulled off
shit the Serbs have done, would be considered assholes and
counterproductive. Does this mean that everybody who’s Serbian now
is violent or perpetuating conflict…of course not. Here’s the
problem though. I can listen to a story from my family and still say
“well ya, but the Serbs shouldn’t have done such and such” and
at the very least acknowledge the situation for what it is. I guess
I’m a “moderate Serb” because I’ll go to church functions
every now and then for the food, but the whole understanding the
culture or speaking the language….never really got through to me.
Now in some sense the whole notion of guilty by association still
exists, even though it would appear that I am so far removed from
that situation it shouldn’t apply. No, nobody is going to alienate
themselves from me or ignore the giant elephant in the room that is
my “Serb violence problem” but if there’s a joke to be made or
a conversation to start, I’m at least marginally expected to have a
few contributing lines if I’m asserting just how Serbian I in fact
am. (This is why I usually remain silent when I encounter someone who
I know is Serbian.) Now I can’t abandon where I came from, and
don’t want to, but on the other hand I do not have to jump into any
and every situation that would emphasize that part of me. I believe
Christians should follow in that groove.
Do you Christians
ever think about all the baggage you claim when “your people”
perpetuate some of the dumbest initiatives to plague the planet since
the Dark Ages? Like I stated above, in the obvious sense you are not
responsible for all the negative that comes from your religion, but
in a more important sense there is something you are responsible for.
You are responsible for flying the colors and perpetuating the name,
and yet you seemingly ignore that your spreading more than some
loving message. Christian takes on countless connotations, which for
me, is enough to hate labels and always inquire as to what the
personal is actually
talking about. How can you where the name proudly when millions of
people who would cheer just as loud would deny evolution and
persecute homos? Why allow someone to barrage you with jokes about
gay preachers and zombie like adherence to indoctrination? Some of
the common responses I get are “We Christian’s are used to being
persecuted for our views, we can handle it” or “We can’t help
that others believe differently than us, the devil works in
mysterious ways, and besides those people aren’t me
personally.”
You know the same “me” that is always going to be right and
conspicuously shows up in every religion. All of that crap completely
misses the point. As if I need two forms of ID to understand your not
a pedophile priest, you try to wash away all the real issues that are
trying to be discussed for the sake of saving your own skin. Quite
selfish. Is this not what we see time and time again though? How many
note comments have I gotten starting out with some spiel about the
devil, how terrible humanity is, why Jesus is so loving etc. and no
one saying “Wow, millions of Christians trying to hinder education
with creationism, maybe I should read, learn, or say something about
that.” I don’t understand why people should have to be spoon fed
the correct ways to think or react to a situation like that. “Hey,
another kid got a little more than he bargained for as altar boy?
Maybe I should write a letter asking for better background checks or
rally to allow these guys to get married.” My little contribution
of speaking out the silliness of all religion is what I consider
contributing to my part, but come on, you people act like there’s
you, and them, from which they can endlessly be thought of as lost
and crazy, and you’ll just sit back incubating in your faith. If
you want to associate, then feel the blunt of that association.
This girl I went to high school decided in her salutation to
say “good night and god bless” to which I inquired “which god.”
Her response, “The one that created everything.” It was a
foregone conclusion that 1. A god existed 2. It blessed people 3. Has
the ability to create and 4. Indeed created what we perceive as
everything. Nitpicky? Or maybe a god can’t stand under the
scrutiny. What actually bothered me more was her knowing my views,
and just blatantly ignoring them for the sake of her being able to
get the sentence out. I don’t know, after reading the article I
just feel like when your only goaded on by your inner circle who are
just as reluctant to forego their beliefs or ask difficult questions
as you, it’s time to get a second opinion. I wish I had someone as
anxious as I am to just copy one of my blogs and go through point by
point why they think I sound ridiculous. Then at least I’d have an
opportunity defend and discuss instead of just assert like I’m some
authority. Read the article about how easy it is, even for someone
who is dying on the inside of intellectual rage, to be swept along
with the motions and understand what it’s like to question whether
the outside Christian shell or the inside outrage is really them at
that moment. I don’t care how long and hard that shell has been
fought for, your head needs to exist outside of it. The many atheists
and atheist comments I encounter are people referencing books and
articles where people can learn more, comments about the plight of
humanity and organized email floods of protest to people threatening
intellectual sanctity. And as someone put it, organizing atheists is
a bit like herding cats, yet their common concern for humanity is
what motivates them. It doesn’t take fairy tales about demon beasts
and flying men to make them care. Is it some form of jealously
perhaps? These godless heathens are so smart and sincere, and all for
something you can’t feel and understand? This I certainly hope is
not the case because it’s too stupid and too easily fixable. It
isn’t portending to be intellectual or gleeful in sin that makes
them different than you. What makes them different and more
significant to me is their passion. Me, having all but forgone hope
for our extended existence, can experience things from these people
I’ve never felt in the presence of the faithful. I can’t help but
think that the faithful were always missing a certain pride or
sincerity because, by their own admittance, it’s all for and from
Jesus.
So what atheist baggage is there to take on? None. I
get to take on the free and clear position of just being an person
with opinions because atheism isn’t a group or rule. I have my
responsibility to people and nature, as we all do, but it will never
be “Group of conservative atheists” headlining anything crazy in
the headlines. This is not because the people in the news room
understand the logical absurdity in the sentence either. This is
simply because that is not how people who have a mind for critical
analysis and endless questions behaves when faced with something they
disagree with. There is no major stigma for caring or learning too
much. This is what I’m trying to convey to the Christians when I
refer to their baggage. If they simply stood for love, compassion,
inquiry, doubt, and so on, we effectively remove every potential for
bullshit like a creationism bill to move onto the Louisiana House
floor. We never have to pretend like stem cells are crying babies and
can’t be used to ease the suffering of the millions of people who
can and do feel pain. We no longer have to indulge Dinesh D’Souza
in debates to be attacked on grounds that pertain to absolutely
nothing of which the event was formulated. We need to cut away the
inculcated ideas lending praise to endless “respect” for people’s
beliefs. Actively search out opportunities to be humbled in your
ignorance and then you will find the opportunity to grow. Then you
can see what it is you should know and how you should behave in order
to expect respect. Getting dunked in a kiddy pool and pretending to
drink blood does not bestow this upon you.
Ok well I’m hot
and need to be up in three hours, peace.
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Brian
Morrow
(Indiana State) wroteat
7:05pm on May 30th, 2008
ummmm, stem
cells...
For real, I literally have to punch my chest to
swallow, but I CAN'T make a fucking fist!! Hoiw fucked up is
that!?
SCORE:
Nick & anti-Christian thought : 73
(how many notes have you written?)
Mainstream Christian
belief : (maybe seven-ish or so?) |
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''I just
feel like when your only goaded on by your inner circle who are
just as reluctant to forego their beliefs or ask difficult
questions as you, it’s time to get a second opinion.''
i
definitely agree with that statement. people always seem to run
from opposition to their religion or whatever. but i think, if
someone seriously and honestly believes something, why should
they be afriad of people arguing with them or asking something
they don't know? then they can investigate and see if their
beliefs hold up to reality.
and i wouldn't consider
christianity a ''rule'' and i don't feel like my life is
hindered in any way because of my beliefs. |
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im all for
just letting it be, let people do what they want. everyone
thinks theyre enlightened or know something grand that the
persoon next to them does not. why keep score? is it really a
competition? and i agree with cara. of course people who are
outside a collection of beliefs are going to see whats "wrong"
with it. and i agree with cara. but why isnt opinion enough?
since when does everything have to be proved or given reason?
if someone says they believe something but can and never would
be able to prove its existence in the physical world, why be
criticized for just believing in it out of faith? i am
completely going off topic. |
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like u told
me, people are responsible for making themselves happy. that is
such an excellent goal in life. if religion helps someone find
happiness, even if was theoretically completely fake and made
up and delusional and "wrong," if it makes them
happy, whats the big deal? its their life and their choices.
hostility just seems so counterproductive even though its
constant in life in general. i guess thats the end. peoples
lives are what they make of them. |
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Nick
P.
wroteat
4:51pm on June 11th, 2008
The problem
isn't "religion" making someone happy. The problem is
believing something without evidence. When we allow people to
take on views that they can't support or even barely explain
without referencing gut feelings or faith, we allow them to act
irrationally. Take racism. Someone says they hate niggers
because niggers are black. Any objectively reasoned person will
look at that logic and think of them as a retarded bigot. How
does "God exists because god exists to me" sound
then? People don't fight and waste time arguing about gay
marriage, stem cells, and evolution without they're baseless
religious impulses, and that cannot be accepted for the sake of
their happiness. I will always be hostile to people attacking
reason and scientific progress, not necessarily claiming a
religion. |
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no big deal
about not claiming religion, because thats u. i mean many many
religions are based on a god or gods or concepts that require
faith. that is the bottom line of many religions across the
globe. lots of people love the concept of being able to feel
something or believe in it without having to see it with our
eyes or feel it with our hands, senses and other means that are
limited by our human/physical bodies thats what makes some
people happy is trying see beyond themselves and whatever
existence we have. even the perhaps crazy notion of something
else or something greater comforts them. thats their
perogative. |
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