Dating the Devil

In college I dated a Catholic man. When we started dating I told him that I was not a believer. He, at first, was fine with this. He was more curious about it than anything else. The fact that I grew up Christian and he grew up Catholic was enough of a difference. We would have conversations about our personal religious experiences and how our religions differed. It was interesting...at first.

Once his very religious family became involved in the relationship it all went to hell.

His parents were also very curious of me in the beginning. They would ask me about my morals and how my own family thought of my non-belief. More of their inquires were curious in nature than vicious.

That didn't last long.

About 6 months into the relationship they began asking me about my long-term goals. They wanted to know if I wanted to get married and start a family. They wanted to know how a non-believer COULD be married and successfully raise children. They wanted to know how I COULD live my life without a deity.

They began telling my then-boyfriend about how I would lead him down the road to hell. I was not a good match for him. I was surely after his money (all $300 of it). They began to tell him how people like me could not be trusted. They told him how if he married me they would disown him.

He believed them.

(Sidebar: He wasn't a very nice man so I'm better off anyway.)

At the time I thought that things like this were normal. There are a million stories about people who hate their in-laws. But, I think it is somehow worse when religion is mixed in.

For an atheist, at least in my experience, it is much easier to be involved with someone who is also a non-believer. And it's sad that this is a true statement. To me a relationship that is ruined by a god is like having your relationship ruined by Santa Clause.

You spend all your time with this person. They are real. The issues and happy days you share and experience are real. The struggles and pain you go through together are real. For it to be killed by a bronze-aged, middle eastern idea is a baffling thing to have to wrap your head around.

It sucks.

Oh the irony...

So, my debit card information was stolen over the weekend. It's a good thing that I have a good bank and they stopped it quickly.

But, here is the funny/ironic part, one of the charges was placed at a church. My very religious sister pointed out to me that this could have been a thrift store owned and operated by a church that the thief could have  purchased something from.

She and I got into a bit of an argument. I regret that her feelings were hurt. She is my sister and I love her very much. But, I will not accept that I am 'persecuting' her every time I say something against the church.

Why do christians love that word? "Persecution" It's like they use it as some sort of 'don't-point-out-the-obvious-problems-of-my-religion' blanket to cover all situations. But, my sister is one of those types that NEEDS religion. She may mentally break without it.

This situation made me think. Christians have no moral obligation to society to follow simple societal laws. They believe that the only thing keeping them from running amok is...an invisible being that keeps some sort of score. And, to make sure they go to a mansion in the sky after they die, they must keep the Sky Daddy happy. However, if they do, in fact, sin or break a law all they need to do is pray and truly be sorry to this invisible being in the sky and all will be forgiven.

But, forgiven by whom? They prayed to god for forgiveness but they have no obligation to seek forgiveness from those whom they have wronged. This person who stole my debit information and run up some pretty crazy charges may never be caught. And, even if they were caught, they may feel no obligation to apoligize or make anything up to me.

In contrast, neither do atheists. But, I like to think that we have the upper hand. Atheists don't have an ever-present being creepily spying on us making sure we do not rape, steal and murder everyone around us and, yet, we somehow manage not to. Go figure!

If a christian does something bad and another christian hears about it their usual reaction is to state that the first christian was a 'christian'. They were not a real christian because a real christian would not act like that.

If an atheist does something bad another atheist will say that person is kind of a dick. And this is the beauty of atheism. Stalin was a terrible person. He happened to be an atheist. Bill Gates is a pretty awesome person. He also happens to be an atheist. As atheism isn't a religion or doctrine neither Stalin nor Gates did/do anything in the name of 'atheism'.

The Spanish Inquisition did some really horrible things.  They were also religious. They did their horrible things in the name of religion. This is the difference.