Why Can't You Leave Religion Alone?

This is one of the best articles I've ever read regarding the rise of the atheist's voice in America.
It's short, elegant, and eloquent. If you don't get it, ... well ...
Click on the title to go to the original Facebook note.
Reprinted here, unabridged and unedited, with permission of the author.


Why Can't You Leave Religion Alone?
by The Thinking Atheist on Monday, January 17, 2011 at 10:34am


The protests come every day from the religious, and they go something like this:

"Why spend your time disproving God?"

"Why not just let people believe what they want to believe?"

"Why can't you leave religion alone?"

As one YouTube commenter said recently, "No one can explain to me why it is so important to convince theists to abandon their beliefs."

The answer is simple. Pages like this one exist because religion exists.

Religion permeates our culture, shows up on our doorsteps with literature, scriptures and threats of eternal damnation, influences our science books, contaminates our political systems, indoctrinates our children and postulates that its doctrine must be followed, lest we be destroyed in body, in soul, or both.

Non-believers are simply responding to the avalanche of religious messages that bears down upon us daily.

Religion gets carte blanche to be as vocal as it wants, to knock on our doors and accost us in our homes, in our places of work, in our personal and professional lives. Believers are charged with a life mission to preach, teach, disciple, shout it from the mountaintops and to "go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." Religion...is everywhere.

Ask yourself. When's the last time an atheist rang your doorbell with the Good News of Humanism? How often do you find Richard Dawkins books in the dresser drawers of your hotel rooms? When was the last atheist temple erected in your neighborhood? Have you ever attended an atheist revival? Has atheism demanded 10% of your household income? How many dedicated atheist television channels come through your satellite dish? How many atheist verses were you instructed to memorize as a child? When's the last time someone thanked a FARMER (or even the cook) at the dinner table instead of God?

On a more radical front, what's the name of the last atheist who sawed the head off of an "infidel?" Or sentenced a shrouded woman to death for displeasing an oppressive husband? Or strapped explosives to his belt in order to kill hundreds in a public square? Or publicly hung a gay person for his choice of lifestyle?

It's everywhere. Religion is a pounding drum that has gone mostly unanswered for a long, long time. And religion is not satisfied with merely existing quietly in the homes and hearts of the faithful. Its very nature compels the believer to proselytize, preach, promote, convince, convert and prevail. If you play on the team of the religious, your game plan is to stay, always, on offense.

Throughout our history, those who raise a simple hand of protest against these advances have been portrayed as the real problem. Religion has attempted to marginalize and defeat legitimate questions and concerns by indignantly portraying any resistors as misguided, immoral, rudderless, angry, miserable, lost and alone.

And when skepticism challenges wildly improbable (or impossible) stories found in the bible, the Qur'an and other holy books, the religious wail, "Why can't you just leave us alone?"

The irony is thick.

And religion impedes curiosity and inhibits learning, as the much-maligned Creation Museum proves. It stymies critical thinking. It stretches us to believe the unbelievable. And it poisons the foundational teachings we are using to train up the generations of tomorrow.

Pages like mine exist as a response... a counter-argument to ensure that the cacophony of superstition does not go unchallenged. And if your belief system is so undeniable, so factual, so provable, so real and so true, certainly it can withstand the opposing viewpoints presented here and elsewhere. Certainly, it can survive the acid tests.

Just remember. Religion began the argument. It amplifies itself before the world. And it threatens all mankind with punishment upon its rejection.

We are atheists. We are moral. We are reasonable. We are thoughtful, intelligent, compassionate, happy, fulfilled and well-informed.

And as long as religion insists on fixing human beings who are not broken, we will respond with the evidence that we are not the problem.

Vatican Blames Children for Molesting Priests

Actually, it's the priests doing the molesting but the Vatican does blame the children, more or less. Rats-ass-inger says that the Catholic priests are victims of a society that tolerates pedophilia and child pornography. Um, since fucking when? Click on the title to go to the article on Yahoo News.

Ewww! Maybe not "anything".  Even I had standards.

If I had known I could get raped by a priest (for free, even!), I'd have joined the Catholic Church ages ago. When I was 14, I was ready to screw anything with two feet. (The thought of four feet was just too yucky to contemplate, even for this horny fucker.) All you folks that think your little boys are such angels, let me assure you that the moment the initial surge of testosterone hits our system we turn into little sexual devils. It's just that some of us hide under our halos better than others.

Anyway, what do you expect from a former Hitler Youth except for a lack of ability to accept responsibility?



What's Wrong With Christmas?

I take a lot of lumps around this time of the year because of my open dislike of Christmas.



This is not to say that I am unappreciative of the cards I've received from a few very well-meaning individuals. It's nice to be remembered, even in a small way, and I know you well enough to know it comes from your hearts. I love you guys.

HOWEVER ...

Let's face it: Christmas is a toxic extension of a religion that has become spiritually poisonous.

I could go into all the tired ways that people have hashed out the problems with Christmas - the outright deceit of Jesus' December birth, the commercialism, the insanity of shopping, the constant bitching about it, stress and suicide, etc.
Right now, I'm gonna pick on something no-one has touched so far: Christmas carols.

Just for the record, I loved Christmas carols while I was growing up. L-O-V-E-D them. Even now, my favorite is still "O Holy Night". Whenever I hear it, it makes me want to cry. (I know, I sounded like John Boehner just then.)

If you pay attention, the traditional Christmas carol is the distillation of what is supposed to be the best aspects of Christianity. Let's use "O Holy Night" as an example. Here's the lyrics of the first verse and the chorus:

O holy night! The stars are brightly shining,
It is the night of our dear Saviour's birth.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining,
'Til He appear'd and the soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.

Fall on your knees! O hear the angels' voices!
O night divine, O night when Christ was born;
O night divine, O night, O night Divine.

Have you ever paid attention to what this song is about?
Re-read the words. Say them aloud. This song acknowledges that men live in sadness and misery. It's a call to look above and beyond. It says there is something greater than ourselves and we should be filled with awe, humility, and also ...  hope. C'est beau.

Here's another one of my favorites, "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen":

God rest ye merry, gentlemen,
Let nothing you dismay,
For Jesus Christ our Saviour
Was born upon this day,
To save us all from Satan's power
When we were gone astray:

O tidings of comfort and joy,
comfort and joy,
O tidings of comfort and joy.

Translation: Life sucks, man, but don't let it harsh your mellow. The Dude came and, like, died to help our sorry asses. It's good news. Don't worry, be happy. (Doo-doot-doot-doot-doot-doo-be-do ...)

CHEESE AND RICE! SO WHAT, ROB?

So what? Seriously?

If I presented myself to you in one way and then acted in a manner inconsistent with that, what would you call me? You'd call me a liar, a fraud, a criminal. You'd shun me and, if the situation warranted, you'd take me to court. However, the great majority of people voluntarily participate in something that puts on a ho-ho-holiday facade of love, hope, and forgiveness while extreme practitioners of the religion run rampant spreading an INEXPLICABLE doctrine of hate. Hate of women's reproductive rights. Hate of reason and rationality. Hate of homosexuals. Hate of Muslims. Hate of science. Hate of peace and fellow-feeling. Hate of everything and everyone that doesn't agree with them. You've watched FOX, haven't you?

Christmas has become the prime representation of a religion that has rotted from the inside out. "Tidings of comfort and joy" -  MY ASS. "Fall on your knees"? Yeah, and suck a big fat one. The current message of American Christians is one that lacks reasonable discourse and is filled with threats, ignorance, and violence.

Are you afraid of Muslims and Sharia? Heck, Christian Sharia is on its way. Every day you stay silent against the madness - the INSANITY - of injecting religion into politics, you willingly assist in the establishment of an oppressive American theocracy that will trample every citizen in a way that will make the Spanish Inquisition look like a little girl's tea party.

THAT'S WHAT'S WRONG WITH CHRISTMAS.

Changing The Language Is A Good Start

We tolerate smokers. We tolerate gays in the workplace. We tolerate everything that comes our way.
This guy says "How about mutual respect, instead?" AMEN, BROTHER!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rajiv-malhotra/hypocrisy-of-tolerance_b_792239.html

America's changing culture war | Seattle Times Newspaper

This is an interesting article on the difference between America then and now - how views on churchgoing, marriage, who is "liberal", who is "conservative", and how it's splitting along educational lines more than economic parameters, like it did in the '70s.

Opinion America's changing culture war Seattle Times Newspaper - loop