Last night was my birthday so we went out to my favorite sea-food restaurant.
That is not the subject though of my post.
We parked next to a car that had a bunch of bumper stickers on it like "Don't Mess with Texas" and an old George W. Bush sticker. They also had a sticker, a newer one, about "Protecting Religious Freedoms" and it had a bunch of little crosses on it. No Stars of David, no Islamic Crescent Moons, certainly no Pentagrams.
The understood message was "Protect MY Christian Religious Freedoms".
Christians have a warped sense of reality. They are the most numerous religion in the country with members in 100s of millions. Yet they also want to pretend they are an oppressed minority.
It's not that they all woke up and said "hey, I am going act like whiny baby because I am not getting my way anymore." They have lived in a world of Christian Privilege for so long they have no idea what being a repressed minority actually is.
While the sticker made me groan (it is SOOO bad for you that you can drive a nice car and eat at this expensive restaurant) it also made me smile. If they feel they are being attacked then the atheist movement is having some effect. Sure there are other religions also making the poor little Christians feel all scared, but the bottom line is research is showing they are fewer religious type of any stripe and more secularist, atheists and skeptics in this country.
And that is a good thing.
I think I want to make a "Don't Mess with Atheists" sticker.
What appalls me is that many Christians legitimately don't see how much they misjudge others based on their faith. Apparently an atheist is seen as equally trustworthy as a rapist.
ReplyDeletehttp://hotair.com/archives/2011/12/01/canadian-study-religious-people-trust-atheists-about-as-much-as-they-do-rapists/
Anyway, I'd try to have a Darwinian argument and point out that even atheists are capable of getting along with others due to a biological drive to form cooperative communities, but mentioning evolution at all is enough to shut off some people's minds.
I just reassure myself that I also know some open-minded Christians who honestly don't think that way. I take no issue with someone having faith. I take issue with people using that faith to cast off others as less worthy of trust or human dignity.
I don't think this guy was of the "open minded" variety.
DeleteMy issue with faith is it is built on a lie, but that is no different than the 1000s of lies we tell ourselves to get buy in the world.
Religion on the other hand is built on a lie and propagated to keep others in line.
But I know what you are saying.
Given your sense of humor, Tim, I think you should have a bumper sticker that says "God is an Atheist" would cause some head scratching, before indignation set in.
ReplyDeleteI may have to do that Jim!
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