Had a disturbing discourse the other day.
An atheist woman I know was annoyed to find that a friend was a Muslim. Religion, she noted was a bad thing. Her friend was smart, couldn’t she see how stupid religion was? Her god wouldn’t make horrible demands, kill people and do bad things, she said.
But let’s follow the bouncing ball of logic:
How does she know that God doesn’t kill people and do, what we would think, are bad things?
Because if she had a god he would not do such things.
But then, that makes her her own god.
The god of her mind hasn’t fashioned her in his image so much as she has fashioned him into her’s. Therefore her god, or lack thereof, can never be greater than herself at her best.
That is dangerous because people fail themselves all the time (I know I do). And if your god comes from within instead of without, I submit that you are headed for some grave times when misfortune does come.
And it comes – man, does it come.
Everyone falls to their knees at some point because, life is cruel.
Now, I’m totally ok with the fact that I could be wrong about everything I believe; my religion is all about that (Matthew 26:41) but it bothers me that atheists are often so smugly certain that I am wrong.
I’ve actually never met more narrow-minded people than atheists (I’m not saying all atheists but most). This one, for example, has completely cut off communication with me because she disagrees with me.
And for those that say atheism isn’t a religion, I submit that it is because: we both believe in something beyond our abilities to prove.
I cannot prove to you there is a god but you cannot prove to me there isn’t.
It’s the zealots of any religion that drive people crazy. Those that are so certain that they are right that they just don’t want to hear any other possibility. She’s a zealot for atheism because, she’d rather tune out someone rather concede she might be wrong.
I do believe in God.
To believe otherwise would mean that I’m solely in charge of my life. And that’s far too much responsibility.
As Martin Luther said to his friend, Pray, and let God worry.
I respect what you believe, regardless if you are atheist, Muslim, Buddhist, whatnot.
I worry enough as it is.
Location: still in front of a stack of papers
Mood: bored
Music: worry, worry, super-scurry; call the troops out in a hurry