June 8, 2011
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Someday
http://www.blogtv.com/people/grapplingignorance
https://twitter.com/#!/GrapIgnorance
With so much heavy dialogue and information flowing throughout the youtube god discussion, both sides of the issue have had multiple opportunities to clarify their positions. It’s easy to forget that in the world beyond that active discussion, many believers are deeply ignorant regarding what an atheist’s position actually is. In my experience, a believer’s typical reply to discovering that I don’t believe in god is a ghastly shock, especially if they’ve known me for long enough to understand that I’m actually a good person. That is usually followed by some kind of humorously ignorant question, such as- “so then you worship the devil?” If it’s not that misconception I have to clear up, it’s the far more typical mistake they make when they ask me, “so you don’t believe in anything then?” I consider this question the result of theists believing that their god IS everything, and therefor to not believe in it would classify me as a nihilist, with no need for any distinction. Because if I don’t believe in god, what could I possibly believe?
But someday that well of ignorance will dry and the paradigm will shift. It will be the intelligent people who still cling to ancient fairy tales who are regarded with shock when they share their beliefs- as that shock is far more justified than the shock of a good person claiming (s)he doesn’t need a celestial overlord giving threats and incentives to be moral. As each generation of our children become more exposed to genuine, refined, and tested information they will become more skeptical of their parents’ religion until it is accepted as nothing more than the mythology that it is.
Someday our children will come home from history class and ask us why our presidents were elected so much more for their religious commitments and “family values” than they were for their political savvy and leadership skills. They will ask why we built so many churches and jails instead of more schools and universities. They will ask why so much financial support and community attention went to pastors, priests, and war chests rather than educators, scientists, and those less fortunate. Someday, they’ll ask why so many kept their disbelief silent, like shameful secret, in the midst of otherwise rational people forcing their irrational beliefs into public education, and government buildings.
Someday the churches sprinkled across our country like blemishes of intolerance and misinformation will be converted into homeless shelters and soup kitchens, and the funds that people used to drop into black hole collection plates, will instead go to helping their fellow humans.
Someday passages of the bible will be read in school as ancient literature tantamount to The Iliad or The Odyssey today, and the students will ask why people ever took such absurd works of poorly written fiction seriously. How such stories so full of plot holes and contradictions could ever be revered as the result of divine inspiration from a flawless author.
Someday people will wonder why atheists using the internet to come out of the woodwork in droves and lay waste to the long unchecked claims of religion ever even needed to happen. And someday I will look back, ashamed that I was once part of the problem, but proud that I became part of the solution.
Someday the light of reason will beam just brightly enough to pierce the darkness of mythological obsession, and shine clearly enough to expose our attention and care to the things that really deserve it.
That’s what I believe in.
Comments (8)
I love pipedreams!
Gets a bit hyperbolic and general as it goes on, but the beginning I agree with.
WOOT! Very well said, and you couldn’t possibly be more correct.
I love your phrase “black hole collection plates.” Indeed, might as well throw money out the window of your car as you drive around. What a pointless waste of time, resources, and money most churches are.
History will not look kindly upon the religious zealots of today and the last several decades. You’re right in that just in a few generations people like Bush Sr. and Jr. will be looked at in shock by our children/grandchildren. They will wonder how leaders of the most powerful nation on Earth could’ve been so ass-backwards.
In short, Christianity’s days are indeed numbered. Those in the far right and in the fundamentalist camps will diminish in numbers, and will become the laughingstock of the MAJORITY – which will by then be comprised of far more reasonable people than it is today.
KUDOS!
This is beautiful, and absolutely also how I feel. Wonderfully written.
YES! Great blog. Hopefully we will reject mythology and embrace reality…hopefully.
I am sorry that many “Christians” have belabored you so. Although I am a believer one of the beliefs I have is to speak truthfully about ME and answer any questions if you have any. Too many christians forget that the conviction comes from the Holy Spirit. Face to face I can give you my testamony in less than 10 minutes….what you do with it is up to you. You have a right to believe what you want, i have an obligation to tell you that I am Christian no more. If you want to learn more I will be happy to DISCUSS it with you and if I don’t have the answer…you can buy the book. Like you, I don’t understand people that try to cram it down your throat.
I am so sick of either you believe as I do or you can not come and play in my sand box. So I made my own sandbox and everyone who is accepting of others beliefs are welcome to come and play.
I am proud of you that you are voicing what you believe.
I also agree with a lot of what you said in the beginning. Not all obviously bc I still believe in the ‘fairy tales’ despite the holes and such from a humanly written set of texts.
Toward the end, yeah it may be a tad insensitive for religious ears but I do understand where you are coming from and glad that you feel safe and free to express your views.
(( hugs))