politricks and other distractions

Blogging Against Theocracy

I listen to preachers on the radio as I drive the wilds of Oregon. Those are the only stations that never seem to waiver in the woods, which of course, explains a lot.

I grew up with Burt Lancaster as Starbuck, then Elmer Gantry, so I have a place in my brain reserved for bombastic preachers of questionable morality. And I tease myself with listening to today's Elmer Gantrys just to see if I could have that psychotic break so many seem to have while listening to warnings of hellfire and damnation. There have been times when I've wished I could just relax and lose my mind that fully, but it's never happened, even in my lowest moments.

I'm an atheist and proud to be so. I'm blogging about this today to be part of Blogging Against Theocracy and help usher in the Century of Secularism that was being promised by a rabbi on NPR the other day. He said the 20th century had been the Christian century and that he thought we were entering one of secularism. Hallelujah!

I don't know why my "religious choice" seems to scare so many Americans, but I know it does. I don't have the stats available (hence my not putting this on DKos), but I know atheists are reviled and mistrusted in this country.

I'm not sure why people are so uncomfortable with people who don't believe that there's a white man with a long beard sitting by a gate in the clouds to welcome you when you die. The only rational explanation is that the Christian-types haven't thought it out very much.

I remember once when I was in L.A., a friend from college got very heated about this at me and ended up raising her voice as she said, "Do you accept Jesus Christ as your Savior? Do you??"

When I asked her what that meant, she was flummoxed. She didn't know how to answer. She'd never thought that far. Her husband intervened and explained me to her, which kind of helped. But I couldn't impart to her the fact that no, I didn't believe anybody had died for my sins and that in fact I didn't believe in the concept of SIN to begin with. It's like that ability to roll your tongue, either you have it or you don't. Either you accept the whole meme of religion, sin, guilt and punishment or you have a rational conversation with yourself and come to a more rational conclusion.

For this reason, I can swear that we should not live in a theocracy. We need anyone who wants to be governed by what they "believe" in the dark of night as they cross themselves and whisper sweet nothings to their redeemer to SHUT THE HELL UP. You can have all the weird little speaking in tongues and even cross dressing thing going all you want, but don't inflict it on me. Don't run the country through your Bible. Don't tell our teachers what verse to espouse as scientific truth.

On one of the nutty preacher shows recently, the preacher railed against us atheists. He said without Christ, one couldn't be moral. What utter horseshit. I don't believe in a god, but I believe that there is a right and wrong and I believe most thinking humans know pretty well where those lines fall.

It's time to take morality out of the realm of those who see invisible saints and gods swarming them and put morality back in the hands of each of us and our neighbors. I trust my fellow humans more than I trust some fantasy in the clouds.

Religion = the easy way out of moral choices. Government = the hard way to get anything done. Let's keep them separate so that at least the latter might have hopes of accomplishing something good for all of us. Regardless of which Spaghetti Monster we worship.

posted by dcnative @ 8:52 PM