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.