Greta Christina: Why are atheists so angry?

http://youtu.be/GUI_ML1qkQE

It was good to hear her put this into words and it was good timing for my needs. I’m accused of being angry and negative and, of course, the blame is put on my lack of faith. Well, sure... if I closed my eyes to the things that are happening and focused on the idea that everything will be okay and there is a reason for all of the horror and tragedy in the world, I’d definitely feel better. It’s also true that I’d feel better if I got drunk or smoked some pot. If I focused on making myself feel better, I probably would and then my friends and family would be happy to not have to listen to me pointing out the bad things. But I cannot close my eyes. As they say, “What has been seen cannot be unseen.”

No, things are wrong and I won’t apologize for noticing and pointing them out. I refuse to delude myself into thinking it’s okay for anyone, especially children, to be hungry and homeless or to be poisoned by industries who contaminate the environment by such actions as blowing up mountains and releasing toxins into the air, land, and water.

When little girls and boys are strapped down and their genitals cut because of their parents’ religion, am I supposed to keep quiet? I can’t. In my mind, I see that little baby boy—too little to fight back—strapped to the board screaming for help that doesn’t come. I see that little girl held down by those from whom she has a right to expect protection and I cannot even fathom the extent of her pain both physical and emotional as her clitoris is cut off. Tell me: How can you *not* be angry?

I also refuse to ignore the fact that people here in the “Land of the Free, Home of the Brave” are not free to express their own thoughts if they disagree with the majority religion and are not free from having their tax money spent on promoting said religion and are not free from being subjected to it in public places and that those who are brave enough to speak up are tormented with hate and threats of violence and death.

I’m angry that every winter like clockwork the bitching and moaning begins about the supposed “war on Christmas.” I guess I’ll just never understand how other people celebrating their own holidays can be construed to be an attack on yours. Why can’t people be joyful that it’s Christmas and leave others to celebrate their own beliefs? The worst part of it, for me, is that I make a point to be cheerful and wish everyone a happy holiday. That is to say: If I know you celebrate Christmas, I specifically wish you a Merry Christmas. If I know you do Hanukkah, I wish you a happy Hanukkah. And so on. I also send out a general “Happy Holidays” to those I don’t know or may have missed. I’m also very open about the fact that I celebrate the winter solstice. How many of those people—my friends, family, and loved ones—do you think wished me a happy solstice last year? Three. Yep. That’s it. Three. Yes, most of my friends, family, and loved ones couldn’t be bothered to offer me a quick wish that my holiday be as happy as I'd wished theirs to be. That really hurt my feelings but... yes... yes, I’d have to say it also makes me angry.

So I do have a lot to fuel my anger. And those are just the highlights. I didn’t mention homeless veterans, unnecessary war, government representatives who do not represent, rich people who buy politicians so they can get richer and the politicians who are willing to be bought, the fact that more and more people are losing their jobs and homes, and the people who keep saying we need to cut welfare to the poor instead of corporate welfare, the alleged war on drugs, the fact that we’re losing the very freedoms that we claim we’re fighting to protect, and how my liberal and conservative and anarchist and libertarian and black and white and young and old and activists of different causes all think they are each other’s enemies instead of working together against our real enemy for the cause of freedom for all of us... along with all the personal bullshit I have to deal with including having a painful and debilitating health condition. Among other things.
So much of my anger seems to have nothing to do with atheism but it’s blamed on the fact that I lack faith so maybe it does. At any rate, I’ll keep my anger thank you very much because it’s justified and it exists because I care about important things like people and the environment and freedom and justice. I refuse to stop caring. I don’t even know how to stop caring. I may not be able to do much but I will continue sounding an alarm.

-earthchild. Once again she has spoken.

"...A lot of these people seem to have never considered the possibility that a lot of atheists are angry because we legitimately have things to be angry about." Greta Christina

Hitch was right

I left Facebook a while back. I wasn’t sure why at the time but I was just overwhelmed with frustration, thoughts, and emotions so I needed a break from it. I didn’t close my account. I’ve even gone back to check some of my groups and interests but I won’t look at or interact with individuals or post any of my thoughts. At this time, I don’t know if I’ll ever do so again.

The catalyst for this was a conversation I had with someone very close to me. I don’t want to call it an argument. I’ve known and loved this person for some forty years and can’t ever recall anything near harsh words between us. It hurts to think we’d come to that over something that shouldn’t be more important than our relationship. I still love this person as much as I ever did but I’m frustrated at not being able to have an open and honest conversation.

I wasn’t able to express my frustration at the time but now that I’ve had time to reflect, I realize that what was on the surface wasn’t the problem at all. Was I upset that my loved one believed differently than I? No, not really. Was I offended by the derogatory video that was posted? Actually, no, not really. I post things that represent my views or that I find interesting—sometimes just to promote a discussion—and I realize someone could be offended. I welcome comments and, if something I post is factually incorrect, please let me know. But I wasn’t offended. Certainly I wasn’t offended by the jackass in the video. I’m used to that sort of thing and people like him and dismiss them with an eyeroll. No, my initial reaction was to correct the two misconceptions that he used as his strawman argument. I honestly thought that my loved one would accept the information and realize that the guy was wrong instead of defending and agreeing with him. In no way did the facts that I presented mean that my loved one had to change her beliefs; just that this particular bit of information was not true. Still, I’m not offended; it just hurt my feelings. In a way, I regret that I ever said anything but, in another way, it was a good lesson because it made me realize a few things and reinforced some others.

Most importantly, Hitch was right when he said that religion poisons everything. Something that prevents people who have loved each other for 40 years from having a well-reasoned discussion is poison. I’ll explore other revelations in future posts.

Christian comedian's funny and insightful take on being an atheist

http://youtu.be/MmrevhzVcD8

This was posted on Facebook by a friend. I have too much to say to put my entire response there.

I didn't see anything particularly insightful and the only funny part is that he has no idea what atheists think or even what evolution is but he chooses to make an ass of himself anyway. Trust me...he's funny...atheists are laughing at him. Nothing he said was original; just stuff that Christians like to say about atheists.

BTW, atheist =/= evolution. An atheist is someone who has no god. An atheist probably accepts some form of evolution (there are several theories) but accepting that doesn't make one an atheist. There are Christians and persons of other religious beliefs who accept the factual, peer-reviewed science behind evolution. That evolution happens is a proven scientific fact; scientists just haven't figured out the details yet. As has been said many times before, “Just because we don’t know how it happened that doesn’t mean god did it.”

So this fellow is actually very ignorant. Of course, ignorance isn’t bad; we're all ignorant about something. Ignorance is a lack of knowledge. This guy goes beyond ignorance, though. He's actually stupid which is a state of remaining ignorant by choice. He revels in his ignorance like a pig rolls in mud.
He obviously has no idea what an atheist really is. It's real easy to say a person believes something and then make fun of what you said they believe. Actually knowing their thoughts and making a well-reasoned rebuttal is quite a different thing entirely. When a person isn't smart enough to do the latter, they resort to the former.

What was the point of his locking the doors? The woman obviously came to that decision by some research and deep thought on the topic. I'd bet she's pretty well-versed on the Bible. People don’t become atheists based on emotionalism. Atheists generally know more about what the Bible says than Christians. Many atheists, myself included, will tell you that one of the reasons they left religion is that they actually read their Bible seriously with an open mind. If he’d locked me in his house and tried talking bullshit like what he said in this clip to me, he'd be unlocking and running out the door in a hurry. With his hands over his ears yelling, "lalalalalalalalalala..." which is the usual response from people like him when exposed to logic, evidence, and reason.

An important point also comes to mind. If this person or anyone in his audience really cares about an atheist’s “soul” and “bringing them to the truth”, how is making fun of them going to help? Wouldn’t it make more sense to do some research into what they think and why... maybe talk to them seriously and really listen. That way you can have a well-reasoned discussion and they’ll be more willing to listen to what you have to say. But that would be if you really cared. Which this guy obviously doesn’t.