Working Atheist

At my job I don't usually but, sometimes, I will work directly with our clients. I work for a private vocational rehabilitation company. I do their vocational testing. It's not the main part of my job but I'm the main tester for the company. I enjoy it. It gives me a chance to talk directly with our clients. Plus it makes my day go faster. (And I slack off a bit)

Everyone in our small company knows that I am an atheist. It's not a secret. I have a Darwin Fish emblem on my car. I talk openly about all the secular groups I'm involved with. If I'm asked what I'm going to be doing for the weekend and I just happen to be going to an atheist social I tell them.  I don't shove it in anyone's face. I just don't hide it. I'm lucky that most of my coworkers are secular as well. This would not be the case down south, I'm sure.

Sometimes I happen to have a religious client. And that's okay. People have their means with which to get through life and injuries. The problem comes when the religious client wants to have a religious discussion with me. I'm usually pretty good at avoiding the subject. Sometimes they don't let me talk myself out of it.

I once had a client corner me. He had noticed my car emblem and asked me about it. I tried to dance around that one like Michael Flatley- it didn't work. He started to tell me that when I'm older I'll become more spiritual. He told me how I was such a smart girl and that one day I'll be able to see that evolution was wrong. I'll see the light.

My client today was very religious. He told me about some of his workers who were atheists. He called them criminals and gangsters. "They only care about themselves!" He then proceeded to  tell me that America should once again adopt 'Blue Laws'. No businesses should be open on Sunday. "That is church and family day. We didn't have crime back then. Everyone was with their family."

I'm usually able to handle myself in situations like this in any other setting. Catch me at a secular event, sure. Question me in a park- no problem.  Quiz me at work......what the hell, dude?? I can't fire back at a client about religion. That would be a disaster. I'm not going to suck up to them either. I mostly just smile and nod.

I hear a lot of religious people say that they are persecuted in their work place. They are in so much fear that they only wear their smaller cross around their neck, they only read their bibles during their lunch break, they may only invite you to church once or twice a month and they only put a short proverb on their e-mail signatures. They are so repressed.

Do it with me, everyone,...SMILE AND NOD...

Death of a Tyrant

Fred Phelps is the head of the Westboro Baptist Church. The WBC is a 'church' based out of Kansas that has become known for picketing military funerals, LGBT activities and basically anything and anyone they deem 'evil'.  The WBC has been banned in a few countries. They have been sued and taken to court over free speech rights. Because of the WBC many states now have laws restricting picketing at funerals. The WBC is largely made up of the Phelps extended family, Fred being the patriarch. They are the most hated family in the US.

And now Fred Phelps is in a hospice dying.

A few years ago I would have been overjoyed at this news. This man is the most hateful, angry and terrifying person I've ever known within my lifetime. The stories his excommunicated children and grandchildren have told of this evil man's ways of 'teaching' them is horrifying.

There have been many documentaries made featuring the Phelps family as well as the WBC. They are an average looking family who is also very intelligent. Many of them go to college and become lawyers. They are not stupid people. They just happen to all have grown up  under the same iron thumb of Fred Phelps. They have all been forced into believing the evil things this mad man has trained them to accept since birth.

I almost can't blame them. I feel sorry for the children. I feel sorry for the young adults. I feel sorry for the grown children of Fred. His daughter, Shirley, is the one I feel most sorry for. She is too far gone. She went to school and earned her law degree. She is not an unintelligent woman. She's a very strong and motivated woman. She was just raised to believe a horrible lie. Just like many religious people are. This family just happens to be more forceful with their horrible opinions.

Fred Phelps dying is not something I wish to celebrate. The suffering and death of another person is not something to be joyous over. I do not feel happiness in his dying. As much as he and his family are hated by others, he was loved and cared for by his remaining children, grandchildren and church members.

Just because this family was mean and hurtful to so many others doesn't mean that we are now allowed to relish in their pain. Many people are happy to see this man die. I'm not saddened by it. But, I have no wish to picket his funeral- if they even have one for him. ( I really thought he had died a few years back and they had just buried him in the backyard.)

The best thing to do is let this man die and not make it news. That's exactly what this family wants. More news and time in the spotlight. Let Fred Phelps die and perhaps the 'church' will go with him.

Selfish

 Ok. I get called a lot of things by religious people. A LOT. Not very nice things. But the one that I get most often is 'selfish'. 

I'm selfish because I don't want to take responsibility for my sinning. I'm selfish because I just want to sleep in on Sundays and not have to spend any time worshiping a god. I'm selfish because I'm not married. I'm selfish because I don't have, nor do I want, children.

I'd like to break some of this selfishness down.

Responsibility for my sinning/Sunday Mornings/Not worshiping your god:

You say I'm sinning. I don't believe I'm sinning. Your god says I'm sinning. I don't believe in your god. We're at a crossroads here.

I try not to break the laws of the country in which I live. I try not to go against the social norms in which I have surrounded myself. I try not to go against the social morals that most Americans, and humans in general, live by. Your god seems to think that what I do with my Sunday mornings and genitals are highly important to him. I don't care because your made up story about how the world works doesn't apply to my everyday life.

I'm not married/I don't have kids:
Nope, not married. And, seeing as I'm in my 20's, I'm ok with this. I'm not usually a patient person but I'm trying to not rush through my life right now. Marriage is one of those things that can be held off.

Kids? Hell no. I don't want them. I never wanted them. They are annoying, sticky, dirty, demanding, and disgusting. Not to mention expensive. I will never understand how I'm possibly being called selfish for not having children. I can't afford them, I don't want to have to take care of one, and I sure as hell don't want to have to ask the government for assistance in raising it financially. Personally, I feel as if I'm doing the world a favor by not inflicting another child on the populous.

Just because you were told by the bible to go forth and multiply doesn't mean it is something in which I must partake.  In fact, the product of you and another person squishing your DNA together is not something I even care about. I adore my best friend's kid. I'd do anything for him, just like I would my nephews. But they are all birth control for me.

Ok, so maybe I am a selfish person. But I'm ok with this. It's not a negative thing to be selfish. Everyone needs it sometimes. I do lots of things for other people. I do charity work. I donate time and money to good causes.  But, every now and then, I just want to go home at the end of the day and forget about the rest of the world. And it's not a sin. It's a mental health issue. I do it in order to be a happier, healthier and more productive person.

You're welcome.

Making Our Own Hope

Yesterday I had a discussion with fellow atheists and freethinkers about what secular people have to offer in the way of hope for others.

Religious people give hope to the masses by offering them mansions in the sky, no cares or problems, spending eternity with loved ones and happiness forever more.

Atheists offer nothing in the afterlife. If you think your life is miserable now just wait until you die! You become worm food and possibly forgotten.... Forever..... It's a hard sell.

It's the most humbling thing I have ever encountered. I never felt 'humbled' in the eyes of god. How could I? I was always told to follow god's law and I would be rewarded with the most lavish afterlife I could comprehend. I was promised a city in the sky, a golden crown, an eternity of happiness....

Very humble, indeed.

I was taught that this world is not my home. This Earth that god had put so much time into was not where I was supposed to be. I was meant for Heaven.

Being an atheist means that I had to accept that THIS is all there is for us. We are no more special to the universe than an ant. When I die, I may be remembered for another generation. And only by my family and friends. The world may not know my name. I may never do anything that is heroic or courageous. I may not go down in history for making a scientific discovery. I may never do anything worldwide with my life.

But I can try.

This is why atheists are coming together and working with one another to make this world a better one. This is it. This is the only chance we get. This is the only world we have right now. I want to do something to make my nephews' lives better. I want to leave this planet in better shape that I found it. I want societies that span the globe to have a better understanding of one another.

This is the atheists' hope. This is what we can look forward to. We are only here for the most absurdly brief amount of time. Destroying one another is not how I want to spend it.

Religious Freedoms Are Being 'Trampled'

This idea is bullshit.

The Christians are always the ones claiming that they are being persecuted. You'd think one of them would own a dictionary. Or a thesaurus for that matter. In America the judeo-Christian God is EVERYWHERE! It's on our money, in our (creepy) Pledge of Allegiance, it was even made our national motto during the Red Scare. Billboards depicting a bloody Jesus (VERY creepy) that died for our sins are on most major streets. Churches are on EVERY street corner. There are an overwhelming number of laws protecting religious freedoms. 90%+ of Americans are religious. But....they are being bullied by people who just so happen to not believe and we're asking to not have it shoved down our throats. How very tragic for them...

We've been hearing a ton about the proposed laws in numerous states that would allow businesses to refuse service to persons who 'would burden their religious beliefs'. Meaning: "My god doesn't like you and therefore I don't have to like you or do anything for you."

I understand the concept of having small businesses run the way the owner sees fit. But don't we already have laws that state that small businesses can refuse service to whomever they please?

I have heard of the stories of businesses getting sued because they refused service to gay people. If you choose to deny service to someone who is causing a problem in your store, sure, kick them out. If they are constantly in the store to steal things or just wonder around making a mess? Kick them out! When you start to refuse service to willing customers because of their gender, race or sexual orientation that is discrimination and that is unlawful.

Jesus spoke against divorce. Are businesses going to ask every single woman with children if they are a single parent because of divorce and then kick them out if the answer is 'yes'?

Personally, I can't understand why a small business would want to deny themselves of the business. That sounds like a bad business move to me. If I am selling a service and someone wants to buy it- why the hell not? That's what the business is for. If you run a business with hatred and bigotry be prepared to run it into the ground.

For that matter, I can't really understand why someone would WANT to give assholes like this any business at all. But, I guess it's not the fact that this particular bakery had a really great recipe for fondant, that that photographer has a great sense of light, or that pharmacy is closest to my home - it's that this particular bakery/photographer/pharmacist found it in their best interests to be bigots.  And if we ignore it, it will continue and get worse.  

Now, I know where a counter argument can be made. If I had a business would I want to serve a KKK member? Of course not. But I'm not denying someone service because they happen to be white. I would be denying someone who is an active bigot. I want no part in that. Someone who is gay had no choice in the matter. They just ARE gay. And to deny them service would be on the same level as denying someone service because they happen to be black.

Also, how exactly would I KNOW that  a particular person is a KKK member? How would I KNOW that a person is divorced, or gay, or anything that I would be morally objected to without asking them? Are these business really asking people to fill out a form with all their 'moral misdeeds' so the owner can judge them? That seems like a lot of damn work. Again, not a great way to try to keep a business afloat.

I think that in a few years many of the people who argue against gay rights will find themselves on the wrong side of history. Wake up, people! You're not being persecuted because of your religious views. You're being called a bigot because you are being a bigot! 

Southern Public Schools

Recently there have been numerous reports about public schools being sued by the ACLU for some reason or another. Many of them, rightly so. There will always be the school districts that believe a simple prayer, Christian tabling session, or a Jesus rally won't hurt anyone. What's the big deal, right?

Here's the big deal:

In middle school I had a history teacher, 'Mr. White'. He was an amazing teacher. He kept us tweens interested in history. Good for him! Middle school kids are the worst. The only problem with Mr. White was that he would frequently interject his religion into his lesson. He always had his bible in class with him. And, he would get very passionate about telling us to read it. No one questioned him about it and no one seemed to have a problem with it. I didn't because, at the time, I was pretty religious. (About as religious as a pre-teen outcast could be.)  But, if anyone in that room wasn't Christian...I can see how it would have been a very frustrating thing... Mr. White was cool. Going against him was social suicide.

In high school, when I was starting to develop my own ideas about morals and what was right, I started to get a tad more lippy about my ideals. This didn't really get me into trouble with the school but, more so with other students. In homeroom I was asked by my teacher to participate in another student's psychological survey. The student said it was for a class although she may have been asking for a pro-life after school club. I can't think of why else she would be asking the following question- and only this one question: Would you ever get an abortion? My only answer was 'maybe'. You would have thought I had set a bomb off in the room. Gasps were widespread. Jaws were dropped. My sister was the most annoyed with me: 'THAT'S AGAINST OUR RELIGION!"  That was a major moment for me when I came to realize that maybe 'our' religion wasn't 'my' religion. Needless to say, I became pretty ostracized in my homeroom class...and in the halls...and invited to MANY more religious functions after that.....

In college, it was a different story for me. I was pretty active in the secular community by this time. I was working as an orientation leader and ambassador for my university. I had been asked by the student affairs office to help them run a leadership camp on campus for a few days. The students attending the camp would be incoming freshmen who would want to take leadership roles early on. Awesome for them, right?  I get there and the camp is headed up by the disabilities administrator- a known religious woman. Not a big deal to me. Until she started leading the students in prayer before meals. Most of the other students didn't mind it and followed along eagerly. However, there was a few students who had gotten to know me well enough to come to me and tell me that they were atheist and didn't know how to react to this. I ended up talking to the admin- who blew me off. She had even stated before her prayers that 'people are not going to like this but I don't care.'  I filed a formal complaint with the local chapter of the ACLU. I don't know what came of it. I do know that this admin had been reported before.

The big deal here is that school is HUGE social place for students. It's where we go to meet lifelong friends, learn our social behavior and figure out what is acceptable for us. We live in a nation that was founded on the right and freedom to choose our own path. Our major institutions should reflect that. Atheists are not trying to rip your beliefs out of you. We are trying to make sure that you are not trampling on others' beliefs. Government is for all people not just the ones who look and think like you. Public places should be separate from religion because they are that- public. Religious people already have institutions for their beliefs- tax free I might add.

**In all fairness, in middle school, myself and another 'religious' student bullied our brand new, very young science teacher out of teaching evolution because it was 'against our religion'. We really just wanted to roam the halls instead of going to class. Instead of letting people who had a problem with it out of class she chose to skip the chapter all together. I'm so ashamed of that now. I eventually learned about evolution in college but, I made other kids miss out on learning about it.I'll always be sorry about that.

Debating Creationism

Last night I, along with about 20 other people, braved the snow and below freezing temperatures to be able to go to the Secular Hub to watch the Bill Nye v. Ken Ham debate. The debate's topics was 'Is Creationism a viable option for the explanation of the Earth's beginning?' We weren't the only ones to see it streamed live over the interwebs. Thousands of people tuned in to see the show. So many, in fact, that the live feed dropped several times.

At first, I was skeptical about this debate. I really didn't like the idea of a respectable scientist giving religious nonsense a platform to stand on. I'm positive that Ken Ham and the Creation Museum will use this debate as a way to somehow prove their credibility.  I'm already annoyed at having to defend 'atheist churches' to Christians, I really don't want to have to now argue that just because there was a major debate that creationism is now a viable option.

The debate can be watched at www.debatelive.org where it will be available for the next week or so. I believe that YouTube will be archiving the debate as well. There are sure to be many ways that one can watch all the action. I implore you to seek it out and watch the whole thing.

My favorite part of the night was all the facial expressions Bill gave Ken when something didn't sound quite right. Here is my favorite:






 Isn't this just the look of 'I'm tired of your shit, Ken'?

A few points that I loved about Bill's way of debating: I LOVED that Mr. Nye was not afraid of saying that he didn't know an answer. He would spin the idea by making it sound wonderful that while, yes, we don't know the answer but HOW COOL IS IT THAT WE GET TO FIND OUT?!? Many times when I have debated a Christian and have answered a question with "I don't know" they use it as an 'ah-ha!' moment. They have me now! THEY have an answer. It's God and Jesus and the Bible. That's all they need. I feel sad for them at that moment. They have an answer so they are done?  How do they know that answer is right? What about the insurmountable evidence that is piled against their answer? They choose to ignore reason for their comforting answers.

I also liked how many times Bill Nye said, "It's an extraordinary claim" as compared to Ken Ham's "It's impossible." Ham just seems to be so immovable in his faith- which, in many circles, would be commended. But, when someone is so stuck in their opinion, they close themselves off to so many possibilities. Mr. Nye, by saying that there is an extraordinary claim, is still leaving room for extraordinary evidence; all someone needs to do is present it.

 Just like Bill, many atheists were not satisfied with Ken's answers to questions or his explanations of creationism.  Most of Ken's responses to audience questions were a mix of "I have this book that begins with 'In the beginning...,'" a complete lack of not answering questions, and his very impressive way of answering a question that no one asked. At one point he answered a question by stating that his answer had to be what it was because his sponsors 'would have wanted it that way'. That one baffled me.

Most of the evening had me feeling as if I were in college again. PowerPoint presentations and short videos were used a lot by Ken. I wondered if he was going to be speaking on his own at all during his 30 minute presentation. He did do a LOT of preaching, however, throughout the night. I guess he figured that would help.

The point that I think many people are fixated on was the responses by both men to a particular audience question. The question was, roughly, 'what would be enough for you to be swayed to the other side?' Ken's answer was that he was a Christian. Christians can't explain nor prove their evidence. It is something that was specially revealed to them via some non verifiable way by God. Ken is 100% positive that nothing will change his mind.

Bill's answer? Evidence. Spoken like a true man of science.

By the end of the night I was chanting "BILL, BILL, BILL, BILL! BILL NYE THE SCIENCE GUY!"