Reality

I’m a person of faith. Not one of those obnoxious, in your face, evangelizing people, just one of the many, many people in the world who believe in some higher power. This is not an entry about what I believe, because seriously, who other than me gives a damn?

This is an entry about reality.


I’ve spent a not small portion of my time lately around atheists, which is something I enjoy. The debates are often edifying. But I’ve noticed something that I find rather amusing. Many of them are massive hypocrites.

Lots of people are, so they shouldn’t feel bad about that but it is a fact nonetheless.
If you spend time on any atheist website you’ll see what I mean. Essentially the rhetoric is all the same. Religion is responsible for all the evil in the world, it dulls the mind, religion is malicious malevolent and unworthy of respect. It is irrational and atheists are rational. Atheism is the only logical religion. By extension, people of faith are not rational. As religion is not worthy of respect, people of faith are not worthy of respect either. Silly little religious people, believing in things they can’t prove. Atheists know there is no god.

And right there, that last sentence? That’s where the wheels come off the wagon of this argument and I start laughing. Because seriously, guys, it makes you look silly. Totally aside from the condescending arrogance which makes you sound like nothing more than the most fanatic of extremists there’s something you need to understand.

You don’t know shit.

Really. You don’t know anything. You believe. You believe that there is no god but until you can prove it you should stop pretending that you can because it really cuts the legs out from under the rationality song you guys are singing.

I’m a Christian and I know that there is a god.

I’m an atheist and I know that there is no god.

These two sentences are fundamentally the same and there’s nothing rational about either of them. There's a point where any school of thought, including atheism, can veer into fanaticism and the point is right about the time people start using unsupportable blanket statements.

Unless and until someone can unequivocally disprove the existence of god you really need to shut up. And since you can’t disprove the existence of god, please shut up. You sound foolish.

I was originally planning to write an entry about knitting or hoop dance. (I knit. I hoop dance. Periodically you will read about these things. Deal with it.) It was going to be light and funny, very funny. Trust me.

Then some nutcase shot up his fellow soldiers at Ft. Hood.

I’m not in the mood for light or funny right now.

There’s not much I can say about the soldiers themselves or the senseless tragedy that happened that hasn’t been said by some author or pundit or the president himself, much more eloquently than I ever could.

However, I can damned well say something about the racist, ignorant, fact-free idiocy that’s coming out about the shooter.

Fucking stop it you dumb sons-of-bitches. You’re embarrassing yourselves and me. The blatant anti-Arab, anti-Muslim hate that is casually being spewed in the wake of the Ft. Hood shootings needs to fucking stop. I mean, people should feel free to be ignorant bigots but they shouldn't use dead American soldiers as an excuse.

Rant on Motivations and Reactions

Fear.

“He scares me because of how smart and smooth he is.” He, being the president.

Fear.

Elderly citizens screaming against government run health care while still demanding protection for Medicare.

Fear.

The accusation that the president is a racist.

Similar accusations that now Justice Sotomayor is a racist.

The Birthers.

Not linking them. Find their agenda if you must.

I’m not here to lecture, at least not right this second. I am here to ask a question. I know it’s easier and everything but, I need someone to explain to me please why it is that people choose fear over facts, lies over logic, profit over public good. It honestly confuses me.

Everyone knows that there are still racial issues in the United States, right? No one is unclear on this. The nation was predicated on racial inequity. It’s enshrined in the Constitution. And yes, times have changed, but not that much. Racism is still a major issue in America, mixed race president or not and the stuff I linked, that’s all based on and attempts to encourage fear of the “other.”

(This part is the lecture) So, people who allow their fear to make their decisions for them, people who fear the president because he is too smart.
(Oh look another parenthetical aside. WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE? Seriously. He’s too smart? You are just ridiculous. What? You want a stupid President? We had one of those just recently and see where that got us.)

You people who believe that the president is racist because he acknowledges that there are still serious problems of race in this country, you who stampeded to point the finger at Justice Sotomayor because she very logically pointed out that experience informs point of view, you who leap in front of the accusation of racist behavior and then play the victim, you in the tinfoil hat, yeah, you who insist that the president was born in Kenya despite all logic and evidence. Stop it. Stop it right the hell now. You’re pissing of Ms. Potamus.

This is a time for serious people to have serious discussions and you are clearly not capable of having a serious discussion. Saying something racist and having your racist statement pointed out to you is not an opportunity for you to play the victim. It is an opportunity for you to grow the fuck up and examine your behavior.

While I’m on the subject and I’ll need you to lean close for this one. Come here. Are you listening? Good. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS REVERSE RACISM! Never use that term again. It’s moronic. The antonym of racist is accepting, impartial, non-racist. The reverse of racism is respect. The use of the term “reverse racist” makes it impossible for anyone to take you seriously and frankly insults my intelligence.

Oh, and all the people in America who are not white? You, you who are nodding and feeling smug, don’t think I don’t see you sitting there. When someone says something racist, and that someone may or may not be White because let’s not pretend that White people have cornered the market on ignorant fuckery, that is not the time to play the victim either or to score social points or to play the victim in a larger sense yourself. That’s what we call a teaching moment, a moment for you to help your fellow citizen, your fellow man get over their fear, not a moment for you to win.

Or you could just watch this.

And then work through your fear because this is a serious time and we need to have serious conversations. Your fear hiders those efforts.