I've been lurking on reddit for a month or so now, almost exclusively on the atheism subreddit. I repost a lot of things that I think are funny, or that make a point, to my facebook page. It's making me much less tolerant of Stupid Shit, and what some might call (by "some" I mean just me) belligerently atheist. I just don't have the patience to humor people anymore. And really, why should I? Along with the dumb shit that assaults my ears on a daily basis at work, there are usually three to five instances during the day where I ask "how are you today?"

And receive this response: "I'm blessed."

Blessed by whom? Why Jesus, of course!
And some of the folks who respond likewise are much more vehement: "I'm blessed by the best."
And some of you are probably thinking, "good for them. Good that their faith and beliefs give them some sort of validation or even comfort."
I have a hard time with this. I've been having a rough go with this idea for some time; I try, unsuccessfully, to approach religion and religious people with tolerance and amused indifference. But some of these folks who are "blessed" have probably never read the bible. And if they have, they clearly overlook certain inconsistencies and contradictions.They are ignorant, and, in my opinion, willfully so. Never mind the old testament stuff where god tells you not to shave or cut your hair, or that women should submit themselves to their husbands and god, or that whole bit about god telling Abraham to kill his son. Because that's how they feel about it: the old testament isn't for them. It was written when things were different; it's quite all right to ignore certain things and pick and choose what to adhere to.

But that's faulty logic, at best. If you devote yourself to the principles of an organization or document, you can't pick and choose what's relevant. If you start to decide what is still valid and what is not, the whole fucking thing falls apart and invalidates itself on that very basis.
And yes, I understand that there's a fundamental difference between the little old black lady telling me she's blessed and the politicians yammering about how Christians are persecuted, but it all feeds into the same problem: people want to believe in something so badly, they've made up their mind so certainly, they are unwilling to even accept the fact that they could be wrong. They continue to parrot mis- and un-informed arguments about gays, about misogyny, about prayer in schools. But you never hear them talk about how Jesus said to hate your family and love him above all else. You never hear them talk about giving all their belongings away to the poor. And I'm positive that Tim Tebow won't even mention Jesus if he starts losing.

So what's my point? I'm not sure I have one. I've been wanting to blog for awhile now, and everything just seems like intolerant rantings that aren't going to change anything. Mind you, I don't think that my ramblings warrant much attention (although I have to thank all seven of my followers for subscribing: thanks, kids!) or that they make a difference, but putting this out there doesn't seem to matter to ME anymore, either.

Religion in this country has absolutely gone berserk. It's been on a steady incline since they changed the nation's motto from "E. Pluribus Unum" in 1956 to "In God We Trust." And really, regardless of your beliefs, please at least think for a second and realize that, contrary to what all these fucking theocrats want you to believe and keep repeating ad naseum, America is NOT and NEVER HAS BEEN a Christian nation. The founding fathers were closeted agnostics, atheists and doubters, no doubt due to the times they lived in, where atheists and non-believers of every stripe (read: everyone but christians) were demonized and persecuted. They did their best to distance themselves from religion without openly stating that they didn't believe, probably figuring that if they came out, they'd be criticized or worse.

America is dying a slow death, and the politicians on both sides of a corrupt two-party system and the lobbyists who give them campaign money are doing everything they can to kill it even more. And how are they going about it? By appealing to the lowest common denominator. People don't educate themselves; even in this age of Google and wikipedia where just about anything you'd ever want to know about anything else is literally--literally!-- at our fingertips, people still want answers handed to them on a silver platter. They want cut-and-dry, easy explanations, and it's not a very big leap in illogic to say that religion is what gives this to them.

And you can't even discuss it with them. I don't know if some of the GOP candidates for next year's presidential election really believe some of the shit they're saying about gay marriage or evolution, but it's much more frightening to take a moment and think that someone, somewhere, listening to these morons speak, actually agrees with them. And they vote for these people!

I've long abstained from the democratic process, as I feel the system is so corrupt that there's no saving it whatsoever. When congress can waste time deciding that fried potatoes should be called "freedom fries" and reiterate that "In God We Trust" is the national motto, when they can decide, all by themselves, that the military is allowed to indefinitely detain American citizens without rights or trial, the people have very little power to make a difference. And these candidates that run for office? I'll reiterate that they are funded by corporate lobbysists. Anyone you vote for is already in someone else's pocket and looking out for someone else's interests--the bottom line being that they aren't yours.

God certainly isn't looking out for any of us (mostly because he isn't there). God isn't the one fucking up the country, your lives, and the human race in general. It's men doing these things, as it has always been. People who tell me they're "blessed" are merely a symptom of a much larger disease; all the tolerance and good intentions and amused indifference in the world aren't going to make it any better. There's a great deal of people out there who might think like I do, although I'm sure that their outlook is somewhat less dystopian.

I can't bring myself to find the silver lining to any of this. I mean, sure, I'd still rather be here than anywhere else in the world. I enjoy the freedoms we used to have that are slowly being stripped away even under the reign of a democratic president. I'm not saying I want to move (at least not yet).

What I'm saying is that I have a right to be intolerant of the madness that has seized a majority of decent human beings' minds. Christians and other religions' faithful have no problem telling me I'm going to hell, so maybe, just maybe, I shouldn't feel the burden of having to humor someone or simply agree to disagree. It's time that these people were told, by those of us who don't believe, that they are WRONG, and they are doing the human race no favors by propogating an archaic and hateful system of belief. I won't be doing this at work, mind you, and I won't be picking any fights, but the next time someone starts talking to me about Jesus or how blessed they are, I'm going to tell them how ignorant they are and that they need to take that shit someplace else.

I'm not anticipating that it will go well, but for my own sanity, I need to stop humoring the morons.

Feel free to comment or hit me up on facebook; for now, smoke 'em if you got 'em and cheers.

-Swift