On Some Level I Think You’re Nuts

Ouch! That sounds awfully harsh, doesn’t it? (Mmmm. Not really.)

Approximately 93% of the 7 billion people walking this planet believe in a supreme being in one form or another, and I would never even imply that all these people are completely evil or stupid.

I know that there are countless Christians around this spinning orb who are much smarter than I when it comes to nuclear physics, organic chemistry, foreign diplomacy, tax accounting for multi-national conglomerates, medieval linguistics, impressionist art of the 1940′s, automotive repair, and porn video production – just to name a few.

But yes, I do think less of them on some level and do question their relative intelligence when it comes to distinguishing between fantasy and reality. God is imaginary and they think he’s real. Sorry, but you can be brilliant when it comes to one thing and deluded when it comes to another.

As far as I’m concerned, for as brilliant a scientist as he may be, Francis Collins is a moron if he believes in talking snakes, the parting of seas, or the resurrection of a savior god. Having a PhD from Yale and an MD from Chapel Hill doesn’t impress me if you can’t distinguish between fantasy and reality.

And here’s the bad news: You ain’t nearly as smart as he is.

Francis wrote:

“On a beautiful fall day, as I was hiking in the Cascade Mountains the majesty and beauty of God’s creation overwhelmed my resistance. As I rounded a corner and saw a beautiful and unexpected frozen waterfall, hundreds of feet high, I knew the search was over. The next morning, I knelt in the dewy grass as the sun rose and surrendered to Jesus Christ.”

The good Dr. Collins is deeply delusional. Sorry.

Side Note: Francis does have his moments of clarity though. He rejects Creationism in favor of evolution based on the DNA evidence alone and accepts a 14 billion year age of the universe. You could throw out the entire fossil record and it wouldn’t matter. DNA proves evolution beyond all doubt.

I’m Rubber and You’re Glue

I am no more or less moral than anyone else, including your average Christian. Like them I am a fallible human being. I am just as flawed and capable of wrongdoing. But the whopper of a difference is found in the fact that I don’t, as it pertains to morality, tell anyone how to behave or what will happen to them if they don’t do as my god says.

Intellectual Honesty Alert: You’re a lying sack of shit if you harp on the word “tell” (above) or draw some tortured distinction between holding those beliefs in silence, or standing at the corner of a crowded intersection and openly preaching those beliefs to others, or some degree of expression in between the two. What you hold in your heart and mind is no different than the words you speak.

And here is where your position falls apart.

Christians believe that everyone is born in sin and that if we don’t repent and accept Jesus as our personal lord and savior before we die, then we are headed for an eternity in hell. And again, whether any given Christian chooses to lecture, pontificate, preach, scream, or carve the words into their flesh is wholly irrelevant. There is ZERO distinction between believing the aforementioned and conveying the same to another in any way, shape of form. To Christians, PER THE WORD OF THEIR GOD, I am profoundly flawed, immoral, sinful, and on a very real level stupid – a total fool – for not seeing this obvious truth.

Once again, there is absolutely no difference between “telling me” and “believing that” what has been stated above is true. They are one and the same.

And this is where your position really falls apart.

You have no say in the matter. If you’re a Christian you have no choice. You must necessarily believe this to be true. Keeping your mouth shut doesn’t change any of this. And neither does your patently bullshit go-to defense mechanism: “Only god can judge you!”

[clearing throat] Because I can smell your feces from ten miles away, let me tender a preemptive fuck you. You know very well that this has NOTHING to do with judging. Nothing. This has to do, and only to do, with what you believe. And again, you have no choice. The bible is clear. There is no equivocation here. Per the words of the Christian god, I’m a fool:

“The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.” – Psalms 14:1

You need not judge anyone. Check your bible. It’s right there in black and white. And remember, god can’t lie. If your god says it, then you must believe it. If your god says that I’m a sinner (he does), and that I will burn for eternity if I don’t submit to him (he does), and that I’m a fool for denying his existence (he does), then you must believe it.

Given all this…

One obvious and irrefutable fact remains: Christians think less of me.

One equitable question must be answered: So why can’t I think less of them?

If someone walked up to you and called you a fool, an idiot, a gullible moron or any other demeaning name, you’d have a defensive right to respond. Now I hate to reduce this to a childish “Mom, he started it…” argument, but let’s be honest here. We all know who the proselytizing, name-calling antagonists are. Atheists generally don’t proselytize because there’s simply no religion to preach. (Don’t confuse debating with proselytizing.) Proselytizing is a sin reserved almost exclusively for theists, specifically Christians. Turn on a TV any Sunday morning and feel free to prove me wrong. Open any hotel nightstand and feel free to prove me wrong. Listen to your typical street corner pontificator and feel free to prove me wrong. And feel free to check out my hate mail.

Your Hand is Forced

Christian doctrine makes it clear that I’m destined to burn on the Eternal Lake of Fire. Even if it were true, I can’t think of anything more fitting for the most evil among us. In a world filled with murderers, rapists, child molesters, drug dealers and the like, I certainly don’t fit into that category yet I’m doomed to the same fate.

As previously demonstrated, by decree of their faith and the word of their god, Christians must assume, accept, and agree with my personal damnation because I reject and scoff at all that they see as holy. But mostly, they must assume, accept, and agree with my personal damnation because their god has labeled me a fool deserving of eternal hellfire.

If someone’s being unfair in their assessment of the other it certainly isn’t me.

My Hand is Justified

So, why do I think less of theists? While I believe in the great freedoms we enjoy here in the United States, one of which is the paramount freedom to follow the religion of your choice and to promote it with abandon, I have no respect for beliefs that I deem to be patently silly, such as the belief that Elvis is still alive, that the 1969 Apollo lunar landing was staged, that Bush brought down the towers on 9/11, that homeopathy works, or that the Judeo-Christian god exists. And I promote my opinions with abandon. That too is my paramount freedom.

You might ask why I have such beliefs or lack thereof. That’s a fair question that deserves an honest answer.

Well, I could give my simple tit-for-tat response that would stand on its own. But even more to the point, despite what they may say, theists do not respect atheistic beliefs.

Atheism, by its very definition, not only negates the deeply held sacred beliefs of theists, but it labels believers as gullible, weak, and delusional. I’ll question the genuineness of any theist who claims to respect the beliefs of a person who truly believes that the existence of their god (or gods) is a joke, that it’s a man-made bullshit story created to control the behavior of those who believe it. Any Christian who claims to respect the position of atheism is full of shit, and everyone knows it. You might as well admit to respecting the position that something thinks you’re a fucking moron.

Sugar-coat and euphemize the term to your hearts desire, but atheism undermines the intelligence of those who believe in any god, and that will never command true respect from those who are labeled as such.
 

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