The world dances through the sky all day, it must be having fun. The clouds put on costumes and act out what might be, they must be having fun. The stars shine with an optimism unparalleled, and must be having fun. The birds sing sweet songs of promises yet to be made. Of poems yet to be written. Of dreams yet to be dreamt. Surely, they must be having fun. Can you say the same?
Aug
20
“If I wasn’t right, I’d value what you said a lot more.” – James Golden
Where do you think that quote is from? I’ll give you a minute to come up with something…If you said an argument with a Jewish kid, then you’re right! Yup. You heard it. He’d value what you said a lot more if he wasn’t right. But he is, so, too bad. It started as him telling us his conversation with a rabbi about kosher living that he’d mentioned on facebook (I asked him) and he proceeded to explain. It was pretty long. Oh, and my brother was there to. It was a back and forth thing after a while. You know, we say something, he say something. My bro and I had really different approaches. That’s what I think is sometimes bad about more than one nonbeliever in the same argument – there’s so many things wrong with each religious statement, there are so many ways to disagree with it. And we covered a lot of topics too. All the classics. You know, determinism, purpose, creation, the Old Testament, all that good stuff. I have a harder time staying calm during these things than my brother. He’s awfully good. I think a way me and my brother are different is that, my brother doesn’t need to do all my research and study and findings. Because he can just look at the basics. “What was the purpose of religion, originally? Why do people believe the things that they do?” And so forth. Tis fun times. Near the end of our talk, James said, and I’m paraphrasing, ‘You know what, you guys are right. And I totally agree with what you are saying. It would work for every religon, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, whatever. It just doesn’t work with Judaism, because we’re right.
So remember that, if you are ever in doubt. Atheism is the right choice, unless you’re talking about being Jewish. Because they’re right. They are the chosen ones! He says that sometimes too. Reminds me more than a little of Anakin from Star Wars. “I AM THE CHOSEN ONE!”
Aug
16
Given the urgency of the present, and the suspense of the future, how can you hold on to the past’s troubles?
Aug
03
The world neither begins nor ends with the changing of the seasons. It just changes.
Aug
02
Two things.
1. About a week or so ago, I woke up and came into the kitchen, where my mom was doing her crossword. We talked for a bit, you know, small talk and all that, when she told me that she had forgotten to wake up my brother. He was to do some work for one of my uncles (I’ve called him Tom before), who lives somewhat far away. Mom was going that way anyway, for a farmer’s market thing, so she said she could wake him up and give him a ride. Well, the time came, and she didn’t. Went to the farmer’s market, got back, and remembered. Oops. So she wakes him up and he has to go all the way there on his bike, through pouring rain. She couldn’t take him, had to go to work.
Anyway, she asked me to text him that she was sorry. I laughed, and sent it, while at the same time sarcastically commenting “Oh, yeah, I bet that’ll make him feel so much better.” Light chuckling from my mom.
“Okay, I’ll do a few “Hail Mary’s and Hail Father’s”.
Sorry about the long setup, but it’s all been leading up to this.
“That’s something that always bothered me. Do something bad? It’s okay, show us that you believe what we believe enough and it’ll all be better.” And then, in a little funny voice I did a little acting skit. Short, barbed, and somewhat mean.
My mom, who as I said grew up a catholic, was uncomfortable with this. She asks me what she’s asked numerous times before (all have been answered with good sense and reason that she can’t help but agree with), “Why do you have to make fun of it? Just because you don’t believe what they believe doesn’t mean you shouldn’t respect them.” I explain that I make fun of things, not just because they’re ridiculous, not just because I think they’re wrong, but because they’re immoral.
“Immoral?” She asks. Yes, immoral. It’s punishing people who have done nothing. Saying “You will go to hell. You will be burned and tortured for eternity. You are a BAD person.” All you have to do to fix that is say, “I accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.” That, by itself, is not a moral statement at all. It has a neutral moral value. Nada. None. It isn’t good, it isn’t bad. And yet it is made out to be the ultimate “Good” thing. That’s what is wrong. It is wrong to assign moral value to something that is totally neutral in that area.
2. The 99: The Ultimate Near Death Experience. If you’re under 10, you can’t go see it. If you’re under 11, you can’t go on the website. Not recommended for pregnant women or people with heart conditions. They use a whole bunch of strobe lights. Sounds like a pretty scary haunted house-type deal, eh? Well, it is. There’s even a theme to it! From the website:
On average, 99 young people between the ages of 10 and 25 die every day in the United States.
THE 99 is a walkthrough theater that graphically reenacts the five leading causes of death in teenagers and young adults. Many of these deaths are influenced by drugs or alcohol and a vast majority of them can be avoided.
THE 99 is a state-of-the-art production designed to portray the very real consequences of poor decisions that claim almost 37,000 young lives every year. The production is not based on fear or scare tactics, but rather is based solely on reality with each room designed from real life situations.
The catch? It IS based on fear and scare tactics. At the end, you are basked in a holy light, and JESUS SAVES YOU! WOOOOOOOOOOOOH! That’s right. Run by a church. My guess is the Catholic Church, but I could be wrong. Anyway, before I knew this, I had two tickets, and my cousins like being scared, so I asked them if they wanted them. It was only afterwards my brother told me about it, and I did some more research.
Jul
19
If you’re going to make a decision, even a bad one, make it yourself. Never let indecisiveness make a choice for you.
Jul
18
So, my uncle…have I told you about my uncle? He’s called Dave in this post, “Religious Debate”. Pretty much everyone on my mom’s side of the family was raised Catholic, but of all his siblings, he’s the only one who stayed with the church. Actually…my aunt (his sister) is catholic as well. Forgot about that. Ah, well. That’s still three out of five (two uncles and my mom) who are now something else. Anyway, he’s quite devote, and usually never even thinks of questioning anything. He’s not a hateful or spiteful person in any way. He’s very caring, despite never being very involved in my upbringing like some other family members. I see him as your average, middle class joe. A supervisor at GM, a nice suburban house, a wife and two kids (both grown and gone now). He lives a sort of 1950s American dream. But anyway, he knows that my family and I aren’t “believers”, and he worries. When he was a child and even a young man, Hell seemed a perfectly acceptable idea. Certainly no one he knew was going to hell. Hell was a place for the other people. Different people, not like normal people. Faced with reality however, he is frightened. His own sister, burning in hell! Two young boys, his nephews! So he tries to convince us sometimes, as evidenced by the first post I introduced him in. I feel kind of bad for him, so wanting all his beliefs to be true, while desperately trying to save us from the very punishment they created for us. I saw him almost cry once. And yet, at the same time, I’m a little angry at him. Frustrated. I know I shouldn’t feel that way, but I do. Still, he’s my uncle, and he’s a good man.
He dropped off a book today, filled with Christian apologetics. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of it, “The Case for Christ”, by Lee Strobel? I’ve read it before. It’s complete and utter drivel. Strobel has written several books in this same vein, with “The Case for Faith”, “The Case for a Creator”, and whatnots. They’re all very similar. I haven’t talked to him yet, but I was thinking about what I might say to him. This is what I’ve come up with: Strobel was a Christian when he wrote this, for more than 20 years. He’s a pastor who’s authored a bunch of pro-Christian books, and he has a son who’s a biblical studies graduate. When you go on a search for the truth, you shouldn’t be convinced you already have the truth. Then, I plan to point him to what Strobel says in part of his conclusion, after insisting the Jesus is our Lord and Savior for a few pages.
“maybe questions still linger for you. Perhaps I didn’t address the objection that’s uppermost in your mind. Fair enough. However, I trust that the amount of information reported in these pages will at least have convinced you that it’s reasonable — in fact, imperative — to continue your investigation.”
I will then ask him, “How about you? Have you investigated? Or just accepted what you’ve been told? Ask questions. Maybe the answers will surprise you.”
I’m positive that he has not actually read this book. He doesn’t need to. He already agrees with the premise. My uncle’s never been a reader.
Jul
16
Well, it took me a little while to figure it out, and I’m a little unsure if this is better than Blogspot, but I’ve imported “Maybe a Blog?” into WordPress. I’m still debating on whether or not I should still use Blogspot. You know, update them both with the exact same things. It’d take a little extra effort, but hey. I really love my inverted color Starry Night title on Blogger, though. Wish there was a way to put it on WordPress. Eh, I can’t have it all.
Jul
09
Stories never really end, we just stop telling them.
Jul
04
So, got back from two weeks in Australia today! Well, technically yesterday, I suppose. It was absolutely amazing. I can’t even attempt to go into details here, there’s just too much to say. I did keep a pretty detailed journal, though, so I think I’m good with not forgetting anything. I was one of forty-two students on this trip, 31 of which were from Texas. Another 7 from Florida. Only 4 of us, including me, from up in the the midwest. So, needless to say, I have a few interesting stories. For example, this awesome kid who wants to be a doctor, and gave little lectures on evolution at the wildlife sanctuary, who is also an ultra believer that’s going to get a barbed wire cross tattooed on his neck. Nice contrast, huh? Or the Republican Buddhist Asian supremacist, who yelled very loudly on the first day, “Abortion is murder! It is not a right!” And he has this annoying habit of blanking out whenever anyone disagrees with anything he says. You’ll start to speak, and after you’re done he’ll say something like “I’m sorry, what did you say? I kind of blanked out there.” It’s willful blocking of any opposing viewpoints. Oh, yeah. That was just heaps of fun. But at least I was told I was going to hell only 3 times that trip! Thought it would be a lot more. Yeah, I was aiming on making friends and having fun, so I pretty much tried to dodge every bullet I could. There were a few other things. Huge, blatant racism. A poor understanding of basic politics (from a kid whose dream is to be a senator – eek!) But on the most part, I met a lot of cool people, made a lot of good friends. I enjoyed it.
Oh, and Happy July 4th! I’m going to a party sometime this evening, firecrackers and all that.
Jun
18
The chains men bear they forged themselves. Strike off their chains and they will weep for their lost security.
- John Passmore
100th post!
Jun
17
Oops. It seems I broke my promise. 11 days ago, I said I’d post this the very next day. Real life caught up with me. I’m leaving for Australia in only two days. I’ve been busy packing and repacking and rushing around seeing what I’ve forgotten. Anyway, on June 4, late at night, and possibly the morning of June 5th (it was a sleep-over), a kid who has been my friend for a little less than a year exploded. It’s odd. I had another argument very similar to this one at this very same house, on New Year’s Eve. It was over a poker game. I won both the game and the debate. But I digress. It started as these things often do. We’re all laughing, and having fun, and then…BAM! “So you’re an atheist?” Uh oh. You know this is bad news by the accusing look he has in his eye. “How can you not believe in God?” I wish I had posted this sooner, it would’ve been fresher in my mind. More detail. To be honest, it was excruciatingly frustrating yet somewhat refreshing. I suppose I must simply love the thrill of conflict. I forget the exact exchange, but at first he simply insisted that he was right. He told me that he knows God exists because of the Bible. Further questioning (I saw this a mile away) revealed that he trusted the Bible because it’s God’s word. He knows it’s God’s word because the Bible says so. This went on for some time, with me becoming more and more infuriated as time went on. Eventually we got out of that spiral of stupidity. The next thing he tried was the Divine Cause thing. “You believe in the Big Bang theory, right?” Don’t you love how that’s phrased? As if it’s a religious belief, that the actual Theory created the universe. “You believe that the Big Bang Theory made everything? Well, what made it bang? What made the planets, or the stars?” This goes on with alternate wording for some time as well. I argued that the truth is, I don’t know. I never claimed to know. I don’t know how things came about. He was fighting a straw man. The comparison was made between accepting that you don’t know and just making stuff up. Being a young adolescent arguing with other young adolescents, I may have used some slightly unsavory analogies…involving such phrases as “talking out of your ass” and “making shit up”, and a couple others. Not directed at the other kid, but more in a humorous way at the origins of religions. Later he tried the Only Option card. This is when I introduced this sheltered, suburban, Jesus-loving kid to the thousands upon thousands of other world religions. First I subjected him to a few thought experiments. For example, “Suppose The God of Israel is the One True God…how do you know he sent down his son to die for all of our sins? I mean, what if the Jews are right? Maybe he’s still waiting for the right time.” To show him that there are other possibilities. From there, I went a bit more abstract. “Try to stay with me here. Let’s say, for the sake of the argument, there is no God. Instead, there is a gigantic, invisible bird flying around me. He grants wishes. The bird is undetectable by all human means…” etc. etc., basically the Invisible Teapot argument that Dawkins likes to use, conceived of by Bertrand Russel. It’s not a particularly novel idea, substituting God for something just as equally impossible. But hey, for 1952, I suppose it’s pretty good. Anyway, the first thing he had to pick on was that the bird grants wishes. “I know that’s not true. I can make a wish right now and it won’t happen.” I invited him to do so. Something easy, like asking for a PB & J sandwich. He did, in a very mocking tone, with a smug little smile. That smile disappeared when I asked him to repeat the wish, but this time praying to Jesus Christ. Guess what? He told me Jesus was too busy to do stupid stuff like that. When asked to pray for something more worth his while, he said that it takes time. Even he could see how much of a cop-out this was. When I called him on it, his rebuttal was that, well, God is cooler than a big bird thing. “It doesn’t make sense. There’s no reason to believe it.” Have you ever noticed how religious people are perfectly reasonable at picking apart other beliefs, but not their own? I wonder why. From there, I went on to describe many of the world religions, using his own arguments. “If I went to India, they’d say ‘How can you not believe in Lord Shiva? Who created the Earth? The Sun? Who else will end the world? Who else watches over us?’ If I went back 5000 years ago to Ancient Egypt, they’d say ‘What do you mean you don’t believe in Ra? Who else guides the sun across the sky? Who else grows our crops and keeps us safe?’” I just went on and on, going into great detail about the Epic of Gilgamesh, especially. He had never put any thought into it. I explained how religion was an attempt by primitive people to understand the world around them. That we understand now. That what we don’t understand, we shouldn’t rely on religion to provide.
Looking back on this post, I definitely make it seem like this was a God vs. No God argument. But I realize I left parts out. It was less a debate over God’s existence and more a debate of what religion’s role in our society should be, and specifically, is it right to condemn people to Hell? All throughout our debate, whenever I said something he didn’t know how to respond to, he would just mumble “You’re wrong, no, you’re wrong” over and over again, or he’d chuckle a bit and say “you’re going to Hell…” It shocked me whenever he said that. How okay he was with that. We had another debate over the morality of Hell. Is it right that I should burn and suffer and be tortured and die again and again for eternity simply because I didn’t say “Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior”? What sort of Supreme Being would be so slighted at not having his ego stroked that he’d require eternal pain for recompense? I told the kid that I wouldn’t even want to go to heaven and spend eternity with such a horrible, evil thing. This is a kid who is convinced that being gay is wrong, wrong enough that anyone who is gay will go to Hell. I asked him about this. “Do you seriously think that’s okay? Homosexuals aren’t evil people or anything.”
“Well, yeah, but…why would you want another guy’s…thing in your ass?”
“So they get to go to hell and get tortured until the end of time? It’s not a question of whether it makes sense to you, or whether you find it disgusting or not. Personally, I do not like pecans. There are a lot of people who do. Do I think they should be tortured forever? No!” The whole idea of Hell is not in the least morally acceptable, nor should it ever be considered morally acceptable. Those who are comfortable with the idea of Hell are, in my opinion, either ignorant of the implications, or amoral people. The same kid who I’ve laughed with, hung out with, stood by, is also the same kid who said he would smile with satisfaction when he was in heaven and looking down at me in hell, knowing that he’d been right…it makes me both horrified and distressed. It was a bit of a comfort when I looked at the other people for support, asked who else believed in God, and got only two hands. One of those is sort of a Unitarian (all religions are perceptions of an ultimate being we can’t understand) and a weak Christian-because-his-mother-is type deal, with no real conviction. It was cool when they were backing me up at certain points.
But hey, a lighter note! I made a joke today. Some of my friends were complaining about chain texts they’d get on their phones. You know, asking them to pass it on to their friends or they’d get bad luck, or their true love wouldn’t kiss them, or something like that. “Oh, sure,” I said, “I get those all the time. I mean, I may have just gotten my phone recently, but chain letters…emails…all sorts of stuff. I’ve even gotten chain people before.” This obvious drew some confusion for around the room. “You never got any? You know, people will come to your door, and tell you that if you get 10 friends to pass this on, you’ll get a big reward! But If you don’t you’ll be punished later…” My friends were shocked. That really happened? No way! “Yeah, definitely! But then I found out they were Jehovah Witnesses.” Heh. It’s funnier in the original telling than the reproduction. Almost one of those “You Had To Be There” things. But honestly, being a Jehovah Witness is like being part of a huge pyramid scheme. That’s all it really is.
Jun
06
Wow, quite a bit has happened in the past few days. Don’t know where to start. I’m really bad at keeping up with all this stuff. Well, I suppose I’ll start at the beginning. One of my brother’s friends is Jewish (both ethnically and religiously). He wanted my brother to watch the Fiddler on the Roof, a Jewish musical set in Russia 1905. He said no. I was interested, so I said I’d watch it. Well, the very first scene started off the movie with the song “Tradition”. Singing about how in the village of Anatevka, tradition guided everything they did. And all of the traditions were centered around their religion. Not the best beginning. But anyway, the movie continues, and I see a picture of a very backwards people. “But,” you say, “don’t be too hard on them. This was set in 1905!” And I say, “Indeed. I cannot blame them for being a backwards people. It’s what life was like back then. But I can blame people of today for taking the centerpoint of the backwards people’s culture, and trying to change it to be compatible with today’s society. God shouldn’t change just because we do. Back then, girls did not need an education. They did not need to love. They had an arranged marriage for the benefit of the parents, and then worked at home. They did not go to school, they did not go out just to have fun, they were not treated as equals. And this was because of the role Judaism played in their lives. You cannot take Judaism but change everything it says just because times are different now. Just accept that it’s wrong and move on. There are, however, a few in the movie that dare to go against the norm.
The main character, Rab Tevye, is a large supporter of the Jewish way of life, and yet, in the movie, he makes concessions and changes because it’s the right thing to do. Huh? So God is infallible, except for when he isn’t.
Or the tailor, Motel, who at one point cries out with great passion, “Times are changing Reb Tevye!” So that he might marry Reb’s daughter without the matchmaker setting them up, because he loves her. And that’s great! But after they get permission to be married, he sings a song praising God and calling it a miracle. I thought times were changing, huh Motel? The reason marriage is set up that way is because that’s how it is in the Bible. That’s the way they’ve been told to do it by their lord and creator! Was God wrong? Maybe they just misunderstood him? Maybe they just thought that’s what he would’ve wanted, but didn’t really know? You’re doing the same thing as them, Motel! Praising God for the way of life you see as right. So who’s right? How about no one?
Or the university student Perchik. He participated in the Russian Revolution. The one that failed to remove the Tsars from power. They wouldn’t succeed until the revolution of 1917. But anyway, he is hired by Reb Tevye to be a teacher to his daughters (another step against the norm), and study the Good Book. Sure, Perchik does indeed use the Bible, but to preach his communistic ideals. He alone saw the backwardness of Anatevka, which can be seen clearly spoken in the wedding scene, where he breaks up the argument between Wolf and Tevye.
I saw this as just the opposite of what the person who gave it to me probably meant for me to see it as. I was also going to put in this post a debate I had with a creationist yesterday, but I have places to be and things to do. I haven’t the time. But I promise – tomorrow.
May
28
I bought a book over the Memorial Day weekend, Revelation – Its Grand Climax at Hand. Firstly, I must obey my young, crude humor. That’s what she said. Now that that’s done with, I can explain. It’s a Jehovah Witness book, and I’ve got to tell you it’s both funny and scary at the same time. If you’ve ever seen any sort of Jehovah literature, you should know how fond they are of their pictures. I’m not sure if they have some sort of Official Jehovah Artist at their main temple, but it all looks to be the same sort of style. The most common images are without a doubt the representations of all of the everyday people hanging around in Heaven or whatever after the Rapture, or when they’ve been led to the Fountain of Youth or whatever. But to get back on the point, this book didn’t fail to uphold this frequent use of emotionally charged artwork. But this book was different. After a few chapters of Bible verse…it goes on to talk about the Apocalypse, its meaning and causes, its execution, and its aftermath. What truly startled me was, you got it, the pictures. I have always said that religion is simply modern day mythology, and I think this book illustrates this point beautifully. I’ve never seen any religion that seemed to admit the mythology behind it so readily as this book did. It seemed so obvious to me. I’ll try put the pictures up here. Really, awfully odd rendering of the Beasts of Satan the Bible describes.
May
25
The world is upside down,
How else should it be?
The world is upside down,
It’s the perfect way to see.
May
17
My Soul is Sunburned
Three things mashed into one post.
1. Sometime during this week, I don’t know when, I met another atheist. He has never heard the word atheist, and has pretty much told no one else of his lack of belief. He comes from a really religious family, and so I understand why he pretends to be religious most of the time. He confessed this all to me on learning that I, too, hold no religious beliefs. How did this come about? Well, we are reading the Diary of Anne Frank in Language Arts class. Someone made a Star of David in art class and gave it to the teacher, who put it on the wall. Before class started in the morning, the kid to my left (Christian, but against organized religion) said to me,
“They’re not actually allowed to have that up in the classroom. It’s a religious symbol.” Then the kid to my right said,
“But the Star of David isn’t just a Jewish symbol. It’s God’s symbol. So it’s okay if you believe in God, and it’s not like anyone around here doesn’t.” To this, I raised both of my arms slightly and smiled at him.
“Tada!” I said. He turned and looked at me, almost not believing it.
“You really don’t believe in God?”
“Nope.” I saw relief flood into his face.
“Neither do I! I thought I was the only one.”
So that was a really great experience. Felt sort of bad for him, that he’d have to hide it like that.
2. I was at a track meet earlier this week, on Tuesday (I sunburned my right shoulder so bad), and I happened to overhear this conversation between a mother, her son, and the son’s grandfather. It started with the mother asking her son to tell his grandfather what he got for his birthday.
“Sweetie, tell Grandpa what you got for your birthday.”
“Huh? Oh, yeah. I got a Bible.”
“Oh, that’s great. Have you read it yet?”
“Of course not, Grandpa! I got it yesterday! Besides, nobody reads the Bible any more.”
Then the grandfather started telling him the values the Bible teaches, but then my event was called and I didn’t hear the rest. Anyway, the whole point to this is that the kid seemed totally incredulous at the idea that the Bible should be read. That it has the religious beliefs his family has subscribed him to within. To him the Bible was a symbol. An idol, if you will. He gives no thoughts to the ideas accompanying it. It’s sad, really. If you’re going to believe something, you should know what you’re claiming to believe.
3. A girl had a conversation with me about raising children. She was wondering, since I was an atheist, how I would raise my kids, if I ever had any. I told her I really wasn’t sure, but I had thought about it. It seems like a delicate situation. I’d hate to have my kids be unknowingly indoctrinated into a religion without having any sort of chance to figure things out for themselves. She agreed, said it was probably best to let them decide. I pointed out that I wasn’t raised as an atheist. I was just raised without any religious context. They let me figure stuff out completely on my own, and I really owe them for that. I forget how this fit into the conversation, but I know that at some point I mentioned that I owned four Bibles, and had done extensive studying of them. So it’s not like I didn’t know about religion. She thought that was pretty funny, and then asked me about the rest of my family. I told her that my dad just says he doesn’t know, my brother is pretty much like me, and my mom believes god is in everything. These are all, of course, very oversimplified statements, and I told her so, but there’s not a lot of explaining you can do when you’re just walking in between classes.
May
05
AAAAUGH! I hate it when people ask me if I’m an atheist. Because its never really an honest question. An accusation, more like. And always out of the blue. I’ll just be nearby, or talking about…I don’t know…kites or something. And then, BAM! “Are you really an atheist?” Like its been bothering them for a long time. I was at a track meet today (did I mention I’m in track?) when this happened:
“Hey, are you an atheist?”
“Yeah.”
“So you don’t believe in anything?”
“I wouldn’t say that. Not God, but I-”
“What do you believe in then, huh?”
“I believe in everything that you believe, just without the religious parts. I believe in equality, and friendship, and love, laughter, even stuff like anger and hate. That’s all real. That’s all right there. I’m a person too!”
That may seem awfully weird, but it was something that was on my mind, so it was like I was saying it before I even realized it. This is when another kid butted in. A big kid, racist as hell too. He told me before election day that he really hoped McCain would have won, because Obama would make white people his slaves. Because of payback. Reverse psychology, he called it. Later he told me he misspoke, and that he really meant revenge psychology. Whatever that is. That’s not racism, he said, because white people did it to them first. But I digress. Anyway, at this point he shouted “He believes in Allah! Like the Arabs.”
Looks of shock crossed the faces of those nearby. “Really?” one girl asked me. Obviously, I’m not a Muslim, but it still annoyed me how much that would make a difference to them. Then I got into a big argument about racism and what it means, and all that. It didn’t really go very well.
Earlier that day, one of our best runners told me he wouldn’t be at the meet today. When I asked why, he told me he was having his confirmation. I might have a few pieces to say on child indoctrination, but for the most part, I would be okay with this…except…this kid doesn’t know what it is that he’s confirming. An example: He’s Catholic and doesn’t know what a pope is. No, I don’t mean who the pope is. Really, who’s keeping track now anyway? Pope Benedict the Bajillionth? Eh, whatever. But no. He doesn’t know what a pope is.
My history teacher had the job of explaining Buddhism to us a couple of days ago (I bet you can see where this is heading). He had already been going over Hinduism and the Abrahamic religions, including events like the Crusades, but not Buddhism yet. It was pretty bad. After reading straight from the book about The Eight Fold Path and the giving up of desires, reincarnation, karma, all that. He then got up and started explaining to us that Buddhism was a monotheistic religion. He said he was fuzzy on exactly what Buddhism is about, but that he knows “They think Buddha is God…” I promise, it didn’t get any better from there.
And, to end with a bang, guess what I heard someone say today. In all serious, not joking around, “Ignorance is Bliss.” That’s right ladies and gentlemen.
‘I realize that I don’t know what I’m talking about, and that I don’t know the truth after all, but if I pretend like I do, it won’t make a difference! I’ll be happy!’
Why do I even bother? My brother doesn’t understand why I care about any of this stuff. He says that today’s world is breeding mainly two different types of people. Those who don’t care, and those who don’t believe. And when those who don’t care have kids, they won’t do a very good job at brainwashing them, will they? His claim is that given two generations, three at the very most, and religion will have all but completely lost influence in people’s lives. I think he’s overly optimistic, and too apathetic as well.
May
02
So, I officiated a wedding today. Not a real one, but a mock. Two kids from my school were dating and wanted to get “married”, so they went down to the local park, called up a couple friends, and waited. Well, on my way home from track practice, some of my friends invited me. It was basically a second-hand invitation. After dropping off at another kid’s house, we walked down. One of the girls insisted on picking bouquets of beautiful flowers. I picked a small purple wild flower, but that’s it. Well, besides some grass, a stick, and a dead dandelion. Anyway, when we got there, the friend they wanted to be the officiant showed up late, so I was elected (I was told it was because I’m “smart”) to hold the wedding. Everyone went down to the gazebo (did I mention the gazebo? There was a gazebo) except for the couple, who said their “vows” in private. Meanwhile, the gazebo was filled with flowers and people from all over the park were recruited as witnesses. It was a wonderful ceremony, with all the good parts. I did the classic lines, “We are gathered here today to celebrate the union of two people in marriage.” Blah blah blah, “Till death do you part” “Speak now or forever hold your peace.” We had one “I OBJECT!” But it turned out to be a false alarm. I also asked if the “family members” would like to say anything, which was also a great spectacle. All of the kids pulled out their cell phones and played short songs and little funny clips. I heard The Beatles’ “Blackbird”, something that sounded like Hootie and the Blowfish. Then the ringbearer came in with two flowers, one of which was the purple flower I picked, and gave to to the couple. Some more ceremonial stuff, and then “You may kiss the bride”. Hurrah!
It was odd, actually. To participate as what everyone called “the priest”. Several of them pointed to the irony. It was nice, though. I can understand the draw of tradition and ceremony. It was pretty odd though. Like we were six year olds playing grown up. All in good fun though.
Apr
25
I love it when a religious person comes to my door, or proselytizes me on the street. Giving me some literature or asking to talk to me about the Kingdom of God. Occasionally I’ll thank them, read their pamphlets, and maybe call up the priest later and ask him some questions.
If I’m in a particularly nasty mood, though, I’ll do something a little different. I’ll point out specific Bible verses and then ask them about them. My favorite three:
Matthew 12:30-32
“He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters. And so I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.”
I then loudly proclaim my disbelief in the Holy Spirit, and tell them it’s too late to save me. I do the same thing with
Mark 3:28-29
“I tell you the truth, all the sins and blasphemies of men will be forgiven them. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin.”
The Bible is quite clear on this point, that’s 3 times right there! It was obviously a very important idea. Another one that these people often seem to “forget” is
Deuteronomy 13:6-10
“If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers; Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you … Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him: But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die.”
I ask why they’re busy trying to convert me, rather than stone me to death? Do not consent, hearken, pity, spare, or conceal nonbelievers. Kill them. That’s what the Bible says. And not just nonbelievers. Anyone who doesn’t worship your specific god. That’s a sizable chunk of the world.
