So you found my thoroughly lame hidden page. Mazel tov.

Is there anything terribly important here? If you believe in god, it all depends. It depends on how honest you’re willing to be in this quite moment of guarded privacy where no one will hear and no one will see.

If you’re a theist, especially an evangelizing Christian, you’ve built an impenetrable wall around your intellect that likely can’t be reasoned with, and you’ll likely fight the simple point I’m going to make for a host of reasons that aren’t terribly important at this moment. I’m not going to ask you to reject or defend your beliefs. That’s a pointless endeavor. I’m asking for only the tiniest morsel of intellectual honesty, a simple acknowledgement, and a harmless concession.

But first, an explanation. Godless Bastard was created to serve two purposes: to entertain atheists and give proselytizing theists a brief moment of pause to think about their behavior and how it affects those who don’t share their beliefs. All of the bile and mean-spirited personal attacks were really just props to get under your skin and bring you to this question of intellectual honesty. And know that I don’t really care whether or not you’re willing to admit anything to me. My only care is that you admit this to yourself.

Simple Question: Were you offended by my website?

Of course you were. I insulted your intelligence. I questioned your inherent morality even with a god who tells you how to live your life, and then I labeled you a hypocrite because you didn’t follow all of the rules. I called you gullible, simple-minded, weak, and a total coward. And this was all on the first page of the site – the rest of which was peppered with a steady stream of god-mocking and religion-bashing rhetoric.

The bottom line is that I was shoving MY beliefs down your throat in an unsolicited manner. Well, technically, it wasn’t unsolicited. I didn’t come knock on your front door to spew my flavor of dogma. Technically, you can to me. But you get my point.

As certain as I am of my own name, I know that all this angered, offended, and insulted you beyond all definition of the words. Now of course your natural inclination will be to pretend that I didn’t. I get it. Really, I do. You don’t want to give me the satisfaction. And I wouldn’t either. Such a response would be seen as a sign of weakness, a sign of religious insecurity, and so you’ll kick and you’ll scream or you’ll play it real cool, but you’re not going to convince anyone, not even yourself – and especially me. You’re human. And because you’re human you’re angered, offended, and insulted. Your denial of the obvious will convince me no more than anything I’ve written on this site will convince you.

But relax. The good news here is that you’re 100% justified in being angered and offended and insulted. I was mean-spirited, and I sincerely apologize. While the fundamental beliefs expressed on this website authentically represent my position, all of the bile was just shtick to make a very simple point.

This site was created to give those who proselytize a better understanding of why unsolicited religious rhetoric is so offensive to atheists. It exists to give them a taste of their own medicine in the hopes that they’ll truly live by their “do unto others” maxim in the future and respect the disbelief of atheists and adherents of other religions.

So, would you like me to continue as I have, or would you rather I cease and desist?

Great. Now go do likewise.

That being said, think twice before you preach to others in an unsolicited manner or attack those who hold no (or different) religious beliefs.

And a final quick note to those atheists who kick and scream over my accommodationist (for lack of a better word) intro on the Meet the Bastard page. I get a fair share of critical feedback from my fellow freethinkers who object statements like:

• And for as silly as I think it is, from time to time religion does do a pretty decent job keeping the children in line. I have no desire to mess with the equation.
• The Godless Bastard wants you to be obedient to your god and fearful of eternal punishment.
• Being as religion enslaves easily malleable minds it’s to my advantage for theists to stay as unenlightened as possible.

Relax. I was clearly goading to anger. That’s all. Just a little reverse psychology. I would remove all traces of religion off the face of the planet with a snap of my fingers if I could. But I can’t. And so I do what I do.

Peace.
 

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