Okay, Easter rolling around and everyone paying attention to that and not to Passover has stirred all this up again. (On a side note, great quote from Eddie Izzard: “So the Pagans had very big festivals, remember, on Easter and Christmas. Christian religion came along and had very big festivals on Easter and Christmas. Jesus was born on one and died on the other…. Hmm hmm hmm hmm!?!”)
There’s something that really annoys me every time I take a standardized test.
No, it’s not the fact that I’m taking it at all. It’s not the fact that every person is different but we all have to take the standardized tests.
In fact, it has very little to do with the test itself.
It’s that tiny little box where they ask you to state your religion.
Because – and here’s what irks me so much – there is no option for “atheism.” There’s an “other” box, but none for atheism.
America was founded on the basis of freedom, religious or otherwise. This includes the freedom not to have a religion.
I am proud of my atheism. It shows independence and a willingness to think for myself. There is a scene in one of my favorite comedy shows, Red Dwarf, where the cast is told that the object of life is to lead a worthwhile life and to justify their lives by this standard. An android member refuses to do so because, although he has lived a selfless life replete with good works, he was programmed to do so and thus cannot take credit for it. He suggests that the only way an android could justify his existence is if he attempted to break his programming and live by a set of values arrived at independently. The following exchange happens:
“Inquisitor: Well, Kryten, justify yourself.
Kryten: I’m … not sure I can.
Inquisitor: But surely your life is replete with good works. There can be few individuals who have lived a more selfless life.
Kryten: But I am programmed to life unselfishly. And therefore any good works I do come not out of fine motives but as a result of a series of binary commands I am compelled to obey.
Inquisitor: Well, then how can any mechanical justify himself?
Kryten: Perhaps only if he attempted to break his programming and conduct his life according to a set of values he arrived at independently.
Inquisitor: Your argument invites deletion.
Kryten: The rules are yours, not mine.
Inquisitor: Do you wish to be erased?
Kryten: Well, I am programmed not to “wish” for anything. I serve.
Inquisitor: In a human, this behavior might be considered stubb-orn.
Kryten: But I am not human. And neither are you. And it is not our place to judge them. … I wonder why you do.
Inquisitor: Enough.”
In essence, that is what I am trying to do. I prize honesty and open-mindedness, creativity and freedom. Pride is not a sin; nor is taking God’s name in vain, given that he does not exist. Some dubiously interpreted passages in an old book do not make gay people wrong; women should assume leadership roles if they have the skill to do so. Is it not better to think for yourself than to believe unquestioningly something you had no hand in thinking of?
But apparently, for most people, that’s not good enough. And funnily enough, these people are always Christian. I have never yet met a Jew or a Muslim who tried to convert me to their religion or tried to shove their religion in my face. The people who do this annoy the hell out of me. No, I will not justify to you why I am an atheist – would you ask a Jew to tell you why he’s a Jew, or a Christian to provide a reason for their Christianity? Would you even ask a Zoroastrian to tell you why?
All you have to do is look around.
Above all, I despise closed-mindedness. And in essence, that’s what religion is when it’s taken to this extreme. “Why no, I am not going to change my mind! Why not, you ask? Well, because a book written two thousand years ago tells me you’re a bad person for not believing in the same imaginary friend that I do!”
And I also hate people who try to force society to adopt “Christian values.” So it’s not Christian to allow a woman the freedom to choose to terminate her pregnancy? The Supreme Court made one of the most forward-thinking decisions of its history when it decided Roe v. Wade. You don’t like abortion? Fine. Don’t get one. Don’t like gay marriage? Fine. As comedian Wanda Sykes says, “It’s very simple. If you believe in same-sex marriage, the don’t marry somebody of the same sex! I don’t understand people all up in arms over shit that don’t affect them! It’s ridiculous.” Can’t people believe in a different set of values, a different God, and still be decent people?
You don’t like the teaching of evolution in schools? You want to teach creationism and break the sacred principle of separation of church and state? Fine. Show me one piece of proof – not something written in a book – that creationism is true, and I’ll be fine with that. We can teach both, then, because I can show you proof that evolution happened. It’s not perfect proof, no, but it’s a damn sight better than yours.
I’m just working myself up now, so I will get down off my soapbox. But it definitely bothers me. (No, really?) And … yeah.
Definitely more coming the next time someone irritates me fucking pisses me off over religion.
