*Warning: This is going to be a rant. It's probably not going to be cohesive or grammatically correct. It's probably going to be offensive and have a lot of curse words. I realize that my posts are few and far between lately, and with the holidays approaching they should be more lighthearted and focused on the kids, but I'm mad as hell right now and I'm about to let loose. So. You've been warned.*
I don't know how anyone can call themselves an intelligent human being and believe in any god. There, I said it. I know I have friends who are religious. I know that they are intelligent. But I think that when it comes to the whole "god" thing, their brain is being affected by something that's making them stupid.
Obviously my comments are stemming from the recent tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut, where the lives of 26 people (20 OF THE CHILDREN) were cut short by a mentally ill person with guns.
I keep seeing posts of "angels being called home" and "god is hugging those babies now" or "prayers for the family". Seriously? Shut the fuck up. Shut up with that idiotic, pedantic, bullshit. There are no "angels", there is no "hugging" and what the fuck is praying going to do now? You think maybe if this Great and Powerful Oz, oops I mean, God, DID exist that he could have PREVENTED this disgusting event from happening? Maybe jam a gun? Maybe stall the car the shooter was driving? Better yet, maybe NOT let the shooter be mentally ill with access to an arsenal of weapons? But no, for some reason, the religious will rationalize that "Satan" was at work. Really? Well then this would logically mean that "God" is weaker than "Satan". Or that they're working together? Or that they're one in the same. Or better yet, THEY"RE BOTH NOT FUCKING REAL!
How come "God" is always there when Bubba wins the lottery or when Cletus wins on the Price is Right, but strangely absent say, when a fucking psycho shoots up a school? When children are hacked to pieces with machetes for "being witches"? When terrorists fly planes into buildings? Oh wait, "God" WAS there on September 11th, except his name was "Allah" and he was granting the wishes of Mohammed Atta, Osama Bin Laden, and the other 12 terrorists.
Don't even get me started on the fucking asshats who are blaming this tragedy on the fact that "God" was "removed from school". Again, shut the fuck up. Shut your idiotic piece of shit mouth. You're in the same group of assholes that is now going to blame "teh gayz" for this tragedy. You're a Westboro Baptist fuckface without the sign.
And now I'm reading all these news pieces about church vigils and prayer rallies. Really? FUCKING REALLY?!?! You're going to go to CHURCH and pray to your little sky friend, AFTER he allowed this thing to happen. You're going to subjugate yourself to this (and I'm speaking as though "god" were real) misogynistic, baby killing, genocidal, slave endorsing, egomaniac, who gets his rocks off on killing kids (for the Bible tells me so!) and then you're going to look to "him" for answers. Are you fucking mental?!?!?!
So let's approach it from this angle. Either "God" is real or he isn't. Simple. BUT! If he is real, then one must concede that he allows murder, rape, disease, cruelty, injustice, and all these horrible things. If he doesn't exist (the more reasonable option), then one can be satisfied in the knowledge that LIFE is unfair, that human beings can really be horrible to each other, and that this fraction of a second we have on this planet is fleeting, unstable, but also worth a million trillion zillion lifetimes.
"But Alessia, God gave us free will! He can't step in!". Oh really? So he can't step in when children are being murdered, but he CAN step in when you get a promotion at work? He can't step in when a woman is being raped but CAN step in when Extreme Makeover renovates your house? And speaking of the woman being raped, WHOSE "free will" is being exercised here? The rapist?
Oh and I LOVE the idiots on the message boards blaming atheists for this tragedy. According to one genius on HuffPo, responding to my comment about being confused as to why people flock to church, I have no capacity for love and compassion and I have no concept of helping others because I don't go to church. Yep, absolutely right (eye roll). I *totally* need to go to church to know what love and compassion are. That love and compassion sure overflows for gays and lesbians, for nontheists, and the like. Going to church to learn about love and compassion is like going to a fucking steakhouse for a vegan meal.
In the days following this tragedy we are going to face a barrage of images of fresh-faced children whose lives ended violently and tragically. We are going to see images of distraught parents whose own lives, in a sense, ended yesterday. And I'm going to have to listen to the same bullshit over and over again about "god bless them" and "prayers for them". I'm going to have to have some asshole of a parent in an interview on TV claim that "by the grace of god", THEIR CHILD SURVIVED. That, by far, is the most disgusting thing anyone can say. "God" saved your kid but not the others. How nice for you, you smug piece of shit. What kind of bullshit self-rationalization is that? Your kid lived because "god" loved him more? Because you prayed harder? Because that kid talked back to his mom?
I was sobbing yesterday but today I am mad as hell. I'm pissed that a mentally ill person had access to weapons. I'm pissed that this person thought it necessary to kill anyone. Just kill yourself and be done with it, why take out a school? I am mad as hell that people look to the sky for answers instead of focusing on REAL solutions to REAL problems. The mental health system failed this man. It failed and continues to fail on so many levels. We have soldiers who fight for this country coming home and murder-suiciding their entire families because they're not getting the care they deserve. We have disgruntled workers shooting up malls because they got laid off.
Let's ignore all that and pray for answers. Yes, let's just do that.
Showing posts with label shootings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label shootings. Show all posts
Saturday, December 15, 2012
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Reality Bites
With the recent violence in Aurora and Wisconsin, the secular community has once again come under attack for our godlessness and our insistent stance on separating church from state. Congressmen and women have claimed that "god is angry" with America because the "atheists" have taken "god out of schools and our lives". The always jovial and friendly televangelist Pat Robertson, you know, the guy who spews this kind of crap constantly, has now blamed "satanic atheists" for all that's going on.
Lovely right?
And, of course, the Twitterverse and Facebookland are filled with the whole "it was probably an atheist that committed those crimes because they don't have any morals or ethics and they eat babies and hate god and punch old ladies and kick puppies and think killing is awesome". Maybe not in so many words but that is the general gist of the comments and conversations I have been witness to.
The most common statement I have come across lately is the "how easy it is to be an atheist because you just don't care about anything and don't have to worry about god judging you". To this statement, I cry a loud and resounding "BULLSHIT". Being an atheist is fracking hard and trust me when I tell you that I have tried with every ounce of my body to "believe" but simply cannot find the logic behind it.
"Ha!"You say. "The atheist wants to believe because deep down they know there is a god!" No. Sadly, deep down inside I am 99.999999999999% sure there isn't. There reason I try to believe is because, face it, reality bites sometimes and I don't have the lovely cushion of security and comfort religion provides. When a 6 year old is gunned down in a movie theater I don't have that "she's with Jesus now" mentality. I have reality telling me that a 6 YEAR OLD is dead and her parents will never see her again. She will never grow up. She will never have a boyfriend, smile, eat, play, hug or kiss anyone, and she will never have the luxury of being alive that everyone seems to take advantage of. The theist has the blissful advantage of being sad for this tragedy, but then actually believing that this little girl is now crowned with a halo and fluttering around Heaven with Jesus and all of her dead relatives and pets. Her parents are comforted in their beliefs that when they die, they'll "meet up" again and everything is hunky dory. How nice. Really, I don't mean that in a snotty way. There is no snark behind that statement. To have that belief that someone you love is "waiting for you" in the next life, makes these horrible things well, a little less horrible.
Let me tell you. If one of my children were killed or died of a disease or something horrible like that, I would die myself. Because, as an atheist, I don't have that belief of them "watching over me" or "in Heaven" or that I will "see them again". My reality is that my child is gone. Forever. And I will never, ever, ever, be with them again. So when tragedies like Aurora and Wisconsin happen, or I read about a baby with terminal cancer, or children starve to death, I'm not thinking they are in a "better place". I cry because they are dead and gone forever. And that is a hard pill to swallow. A very very hard pill.
There have been only a handful of times that I tried very hard to put myself in the place of a religious person and try to "believe". The biggest one for me was my grandmother's death. I couldn't fathom that one minute she was here and the next not. I would give both my arms and legs to see her for just 5 more minutes. The theist has the comfort in believing that they actually will. The reality that my grandmother is gone forever is devastating, even after almost 20 years. Death, at least for this atheist, is terrifying, and I don't want to face it. The reality that my life, my parents' lives, my children's lives, my husband's life and all the lives of the people I care about are fragile and temporary frightens me to no end. There are nights I wake up out of a sound sleep so afraid that I am going to die that I can't fall back to sleep. It's horrible.
It frustrates me to no end when people say they are "living for the next life". Why? Life is so amazing and wonderful, why would anyone waste it waiting for the afterlife. It boggles the mind. And it frustrates me even more when I'm told I "have it easy" with "no responsibilities or consequences" for my actions because sky daddy doesn't exist. That's a scary statement. It implies that the speaker is only decent and good because they fear repercussions from "god". That, if in fact they did not have god in their lives, they would be on murderous rampages. How absolutely frightening.
So let me tell you, an atheist doesn't have it easy. Apart from being blamed for all the crap that goes on in the world, blamed for corrupting the childre, and moral fibers of society (I think we are tied with gays and lesbians on that one), blamed for being "intolerant" and general "meanies", we also carry the huge burden of seeing things as they really are. There's no "he's dead but...." in our little world. There's no "satan", causing people to do evil. There's no "god's will", determining who lives or dies. There's no notion that we are this amazingly special creature created in the image of a deity who rule the planet and the Universe. As the amazing Bill Nye, the Science Guy said, "I'm this guy standing on a planet. Really I'm just a speck. Compared with a star, the planet is just another speck. To think about all of this, To think about the vast emptiness of space.There's billions and billions of stars.Billions and billions of specks".
It's pretty humbling to be a speck.
But reality as an atheist isn't all doom and gloom. I have the wonder of the Universe to marvel at and realize how absolutely amazing it is to be here at this moment right now. The landing of the Mars Curiosity puts everything into perspective on how marvelous it is to be a human being. No deity or supernatural forces needed. Reality may bite when dealing with "the hard stuff", but in the end, it is really awesome and it is what makes this little trip around the sun so much more worth it. I don't have the promise of an afterlife running around my head. I have the promise that this life is all of I've got and I've got to make it worth something to myself and the people around me. What a waste to do otherwise.
Lovely right?
And, of course, the Twitterverse and Facebookland are filled with the whole "it was probably an atheist that committed those crimes because they don't have any morals or ethics and they eat babies and hate god and punch old ladies and kick puppies and think killing is awesome". Maybe not in so many words but that is the general gist of the comments and conversations I have been witness to.
The most common statement I have come across lately is the "how easy it is to be an atheist because you just don't care about anything and don't have to worry about god judging you". To this statement, I cry a loud and resounding "BULLSHIT". Being an atheist is fracking hard and trust me when I tell you that I have tried with every ounce of my body to "believe" but simply cannot find the logic behind it.
"Ha!"You say. "The atheist wants to believe because deep down they know there is a god!" No. Sadly, deep down inside I am 99.999999999999% sure there isn't. There reason I try to believe is because, face it, reality bites sometimes and I don't have the lovely cushion of security and comfort religion provides. When a 6 year old is gunned down in a movie theater I don't have that "she's with Jesus now" mentality. I have reality telling me that a 6 YEAR OLD is dead and her parents will never see her again. She will never grow up. She will never have a boyfriend, smile, eat, play, hug or kiss anyone, and she will never have the luxury of being alive that everyone seems to take advantage of. The theist has the blissful advantage of being sad for this tragedy, but then actually believing that this little girl is now crowned with a halo and fluttering around Heaven with Jesus and all of her dead relatives and pets. Her parents are comforted in their beliefs that when they die, they'll "meet up" again and everything is hunky dory. How nice. Really, I don't mean that in a snotty way. There is no snark behind that statement. To have that belief that someone you love is "waiting for you" in the next life, makes these horrible things well, a little less horrible.
Let me tell you. If one of my children were killed or died of a disease or something horrible like that, I would die myself. Because, as an atheist, I don't have that belief of them "watching over me" or "in Heaven" or that I will "see them again". My reality is that my child is gone. Forever. And I will never, ever, ever, be with them again. So when tragedies like Aurora and Wisconsin happen, or I read about a baby with terminal cancer, or children starve to death, I'm not thinking they are in a "better place". I cry because they are dead and gone forever. And that is a hard pill to swallow. A very very hard pill.
There have been only a handful of times that I tried very hard to put myself in the place of a religious person and try to "believe". The biggest one for me was my grandmother's death. I couldn't fathom that one minute she was here and the next not. I would give both my arms and legs to see her for just 5 more minutes. The theist has the comfort in believing that they actually will. The reality that my grandmother is gone forever is devastating, even after almost 20 years. Death, at least for this atheist, is terrifying, and I don't want to face it. The reality that my life, my parents' lives, my children's lives, my husband's life and all the lives of the people I care about are fragile and temporary frightens me to no end. There are nights I wake up out of a sound sleep so afraid that I am going to die that I can't fall back to sleep. It's horrible.
It frustrates me to no end when people say they are "living for the next life". Why? Life is so amazing and wonderful, why would anyone waste it waiting for the afterlife. It boggles the mind. And it frustrates me even more when I'm told I "have it easy" with "no responsibilities or consequences" for my actions because sky daddy doesn't exist. That's a scary statement. It implies that the speaker is only decent and good because they fear repercussions from "god". That, if in fact they did not have god in their lives, they would be on murderous rampages. How absolutely frightening.
So let me tell you, an atheist doesn't have it easy. Apart from being blamed for all the crap that goes on in the world, blamed for corrupting the childre, and moral fibers of society (I think we are tied with gays and lesbians on that one), blamed for being "intolerant" and general "meanies", we also carry the huge burden of seeing things as they really are. There's no "he's dead but...." in our little world. There's no "satan", causing people to do evil. There's no "god's will", determining who lives or dies. There's no notion that we are this amazingly special creature created in the image of a deity who rule the planet and the Universe. As the amazing Bill Nye, the Science Guy said, "I'm this guy standing on a planet. Really I'm just a speck. Compared with a star, the planet is just another speck. To think about all of this, To think about the vast emptiness of space.There's billions and billions of stars.Billions and billions of specks".
It's pretty humbling to be a speck.
But reality as an atheist isn't all doom and gloom. I have the wonder of the Universe to marvel at and realize how absolutely amazing it is to be here at this moment right now. The landing of the Mars Curiosity puts everything into perspective on how marvelous it is to be a human being. No deity or supernatural forces needed. Reality may bite when dealing with "the hard stuff", but in the end, it is really awesome and it is what makes this little trip around the sun so much more worth it. I don't have the promise of an afterlife running around my head. I have the promise that this life is all of I've got and I've got to make it worth something to myself and the people around me. What a waste to do otherwise.
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