I saw two things today that made me happy about religion and for the same reason: they were not done by pre-judgmental assholes.
I woke up and watched a History Channel documentary on Hell. (Nice way to start the day as any I guess…) It was discussing the possible origins and the different beliefs. We all know Hell is not a Christian concept but even within Christianity, the ideas of Hell vary from one denomination to another. But, the part that made me happy was when they inevitably discussed Anton LaVey’s Church of Satan. Rather than churn out the same tired footage from the late 1970’s, they have a new(ish) interview with Peter Gilmore and they explain that they CoS embraces the theatrics of religion and is in direct rebellion to Christianity. They don’t try to scare us with the Black Mass and the ‘Satanists are going to steal your children’ rhetoric. Members of the CoS don’t believe in a physical manifestation of Satan any more than they believe in Jesus Christ.
Along my journey from Born-Again Christian to Atheist, I did make a pit stop and was briefly affiliated with the CoS. (I wish I was as centered as the kid in this clip when I was) I liked their philosophy but I moved on when I just couldn’t get past all those costumes, rituals and dogma.Wasn’t that what I was trying to get away from? Anyway, the documentary actually kept things civil and fair and I like truth, even when it’s not pretty. I was very happy to see that.
So I jumped out of bed, made some coffee and read the paper. Why does hotel room coffee always suck? It’s just bad enough for you to want to throw it out but it’s just good enough to keep you from going downstairs and getting real coffee. Okay, enough about coffee…
On the Forum page of the USA Today they normally have some article on whatever religion is acting up this week and they say all kinds of nice things about how, as long as we all believe in a Judeo-Christian God, we should all get along. This morning it was an article titled: “Atheism, a positive pillar” and it was all about how we Atheists are just like the rest of you. We are law abiding citizens and we love our children. We help the community and we are positive members of society as well. I just couldn’t believe my eyes and ears.
A television documentary that did a fair piece on the CoS? An editorial in the paper saying what I’ve said all along? Could it be that I was still dreaming?
I registered with the USA Today forum to make a comment on the article and of course, within an hour it devolved into the usual name calling and mud slinging but I am happy to report that for once I did NOT take place in the mud bath. I made my comment and I left the ugly comments to the rest of the crowd. Some of you out there are still wondering at the Herculean efforts it must have taken for me to restrain myself from jumping in and drawing my sword?
Well, I’ll tell you, arguing with a fucking nutbag on the internet gets old real fast. It took me years to learn that but I’ve come full circle and I have experienced all their tricks. You can’t have an intelligent argument with someone who’s entire argument consists of sticking their fingers in their ears and shouting, “Nope, nananananaICan’tHearYounanananana”. When the only way they can trip you up is hammering you for a typo and alluding to your lack of education simply because you misspelled Jerusalem…
But I did end up spending much of my time for the rest of the day looking things up and watching videos and reading the various passages involved (it is so damn convenient that those Gideons provide me with a free Bible every room I check into…)
In case you are interested, here’s what I wrote on the USA Today article. Pretty much the same thing I just wrote here.
“When I read the Forum in today’s paper I just had to make comment on it. This is one of the few times I have seen Atheism shown in a fair light in a public forum. Some of the hatred heaped upon Atheists comes from the general public’s ignorance and fear. However, most of it comes well-deserved as many of the outspoken Atheists view believers as combatants or foes.
Arguing with zealous believers on Internet chatrooms until the wee hours of the morning, ridiculing belief as weakness. I was guilty of that way of thinking for a long time until I realized I don’t need to fight, I just need to lead. If I live my life as a good man, I am leading by example. (Something my Christian friends tell me Christ would recommend.) People around me know I am an Atheist and they see that I am no different than them.
I was delighted to see the article show that we really are just the same as believers. I’ll quote a thought by another author. Though I’m sure I’m butchering the quote, the idea is intact. “Christians are Atheists too. They don’t believe in Zeus, Odin, Jupiter or the thousands of other gods that man has dreamed up through the ages, we Atheists just added one more god to the list.”
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