Today I was in class and I overheard a small group of people talking
about atheism in a very negative manner (I live in Bibleville U.S.A.). I
sat down at the table and boldly asked, "What's wrong with being an
atheist?" Immediately all of the eyes at the table, with the exception
of a friend of mine's, dropped to the floor. One of the girls at the
table (there were two people that had grown up in church, one convert,
and my friend and I) said "You'll find out when you die what's wrong
with being atheist". At this point, the guy sitting beside her says,
with some hostitlity, "are you atheist!?" (They refer to atheism as
though it is some mental defect; not "are you AN atheist", but, "are you
atheist?") I told him that I was an agnostic. "What's that?" was the
reply through confused expressions. I did not get into the specifics of
my beliefs; it would have been a waste of time. At this point, my friend
said, in response to the pronoun "he" for god, "why does god have to be
a man?" Then the guy who had so politely asked if I was infected with
the mild retardation known as atheism blurts, "God isn't a woman! That'd
suck!" Thus stating his intelligence.
The moral of this useless ranting is this: none of the people at the
table ever asked "why?"; they never thought twice about the beliefs that
are programmed into them like a shiny new VCR. In other words, I agree
with you.
It is surprising to see the amount of thoughtlessness that surrounds us.
There I was with people that did not even recognize the most visible
contradicions of their own Bible; they would probably accuse me of
blasphemy if I were to point them out. It makes me wonder what they do
all of the time instead of thinking.
> >A stopped clock is exactly right every twelve hours
>
> And it's half right every hour!
>
Indeed.
-- John Aten jwa@inx.net