I don’t understand militant atheists
Spent yesterday in church because it was Palm Sunday and also because I had a meeting. I still volunteer there after all these years.
I don’t think of myself as a particularly devout Christian in the big city. I merely am one
It’s a bit like when I wrote about being left-handed and proud – not exactly since one can choose to be religious or not – it’s similar in that it’s merely a state of being.
At least for me.
I do take issue with the number of people that – particularly on Facebook – feel it’s their duty in life to shame those that are religious. Moreover, I don’t think they would ever sign on and mock Muslims or Jews but Christians seem to be fair game.
A Salon article sent to me this morning by my Columbia University educated wrasslin coach sums up my thoughts on the matter whereby militant atheism has itself become it’s own religion.
And that’s precisely why I find it all so puzzling.
I am not 100% that there even is a god, let alone my god. But in my moments of doubt and belief, I find myself more often than not siding with my belief.
After all, if there is a god, he exists completely separate from my belief in him.
Yet a day doesn’t go by where I don’t have someone post something about their love of Atheism. Atheism, by definition, a rejection of all religions. It is the absence of religion. This is also different from Agnosticism where one is neither certain there is or isn’t a god.
Yet the people I run across are so smugly sure that there isn’t a god that it’s elevated to it’s own belief system.
“As one philosopher put it, being a militant atheist is like ‘sleeping furiously.'”
And with any belief system, there is that sense of superiority that I detest so very much.
The thing that jumped out at me from the article is the line that went: Dogmatists have one advantage: they are poor listeners.
In the very last tiff that I got into regarding someone bashing Christianity, this young fella that goes to my gym engaged me but only to tell me his beliefs and then write: “I will not be further commenting on this thread.”
At which point, I also stopped; partly because I found him childish, partly because of his sloppy grammar, and partly because trying to discuss anything with a militant – any militant – is a waste of time.
It’s like trying to teach a pig to sing: It’s a waste of your time and annoys the pig.
Speaking of my gym, there are dozens of really dangerous people that walk around. But you’d never know it because they know they’re dangerous. They don’t need to prove it to anyone else.
And if asked to prove it, they would and not simply say, I choose not to engage.
Again, that’s why I find militant atheism so peculiar.
If they were so sure of their beliefs, they wouldn’t feel the need to constantly prove it. I don’t.
Moreover, why would they care what I or anyone else believes?
I can assure you, my wrassln coach doesn’t care if I think I can beat him in a fight or not, he knows he can beat me in a fight. I know he can – that’s why he’s the coach.
As for my needing to say something, I read something by Elie Wiesel in junior high school where he “swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere.”
That is a good thing to swear to, I think.
Someone should always say something.
Location: getting dressed to see my pop
Mood: devout(ish)
Music: I have to climb Up on the side of this mountain of mine
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