I enjoy philosophy. I know not everyone does, but I really get into it. I also play Magic: the Gathering. I also lift weights, and run, and practice martial arts. I enjoy sports, and I especially love basketball. I grew up playing streetball in Chicago. I love music, books, and art. I enjoy cooking. I have tattoos. I'm a writer. I'm not really a movie guy, but there are a few cult favorites I feel are essential to my personal collection: Fight Club, Boondock Saints, Serenity, Planet of the Apes (the original), et cetera. I am a huge advocate of science.
I'm also into religion, and the thoughts and arguments pertaining to freethought and skepticism. All of it fascinates me.
However... religion is different. Religion is the one thing I oftentimes wish I didn't think about. Everything else is an interest, and, in varying degrees, has an effect on my worldview and lifestyle. The topic of religion is the same, except where I stand on religion has a distinct effect socially. No one really cares whether you play Magic or chess or basketball or Tetris. But everyone cares what you think about religion; rather, what you believe or don't believe about religion. Atheists are a mistrusted minority. The difference between an atheist and just about any other minority is that the atheist can hide his atheism. It's a negation: "a-theism" or "no theism." It can be pretty easy to hide. I don't surf. I don't ski. It's pretty easy for me to hide these facts about myself if I felt the need. In fact, I inadvertently do hide them because I don't talk about them.
Except for now, obviously.
But I can bring up the fact that I'm an non-skier or a non-surfer because I have no fear of backlash. Nobody cares whether I ski. We tend to find people with similar interests so we can talk about how awesome our interests are. We don't start clubs in which we trash other people's interests. "Hey Bill, see you at the I Hate Bird Watching Club meeting later?" "You bet, Ray! See you there. Watching birds sucks!"
Ah, but now we're getting somewhere. Isn't this what atheists do? Isn't "atheist" short for "I'm opposed to religion and talk about how much it sucks"? Well... sorta. Some people will feel the need to clarify: "Those people are 'anti-theists,' not necessarily 'atheists'." That's true. Not all atheists are anti-religion. But it seems the more vocal atheists are, at least, speaking out regularly against the ills and potential dangers of religious faith. The question is... why? You don't see atheists running around talking about how people shouldn't believe in unicorns. You don't see any a-unicornists out there (usually). Why all the talk about god and not about the unicorn? Atheists lack belief in unicorns as much as they do in any gods.
And it's a damn shame, too.
The difference between religion and unicorns is that unicorns aren't an issue in our society. There aren't Unicornists trying to push laws biased toward Unicorn believers. They aren't promoting prejudice against non-unicornists. They aren't starting wars against the Pegasusists (try saying that five times really fast) or the Minotaurists. There are no Unicornists attempting to indoctrinate other people with their unicorn orthodoxy. No one's running around claiming America is a "Unicorn Nation."
If there were Unicornists, and these Unicornists were doing these things, you better believe there'd be a bunch of A-Unicornists there to speak out against their nonsense.
That's the difference. No one cares whether you surf when you're not shoving your surfing down their throats or judging them because they don't surf. When I said I oftentimes wish I didn't think about religion, it's because of the judgmentalism so prevalent among religionists, and the "black or white" "right or wrong" mentality: "If yer not fer us, yer agin us!" Jesus said, "Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters" (Matthew 12:30). In the film "Beauty and the Beast," Gaston tells the citizens of his village that "If you're not with us, you're against us," and then locks up Belle and her father so he can go after the Beast.
Yes, a Beauty and the Beast reference. You're welcome.
When it comes to religion, I don't see two sides of a fence, or two opposing camps: Israelites versus Philistines, Cubs versus Cardinals,
pink sweetener versus blue sweetener. I mean, yes, I see it. People on both sides have drawn their battle lines.
NO!!!!! You must believe in the Apostles' Creed!!!!
I'd like to think that we're all on the same side. We're all pilgrims on a journey, searching for truth. The only difference is that some people aren't looking for truth. They're comfortable just accepting what they already think they know. I don't look at someone who believes differently than I do and look down on that person. I don't care what people believe as much as why they believe it. Everyone starts somewhere, both geographically and ideologically. I only want to encourage people to not settle, and not be complacent. I want to help people wherever they are on their own personal journey, and I want to learn from others while I'm on my journey. It's easy to attack and tear down. It takes strength to build up and encourage. It's easy to fall back on our weakness. It's much more difficult to lean on our strength. All I want to do is get other people to journey with me. We don't always have to agree. None of us has complete knowledge, so we will naturally have different thoughts and ideas at times.
I hold my ideas with an open hand. If something better comes along, I'll set down the old idea and pick up the one I think is better. And I'll hold that idea until something even better comes along.
