It's a trainwreck already, and then the dude in the comments suggests that whole thing about us Tennesseeans, and I don't know whether to comment and then post or ignore the comment section and just post. There was a time I would have commented, would, in fact, have barged in with all my guns blazing.
But anymore I just can't bring myself to do it, so I backspace a bunch and clicked back over here so I could just talk shit at my own place.
But even before dude-bro posted his jab I'd nearly thought about posting because of a single line at the very end of the post.
Okay, the post is at Friendly Atheist and also discusses something about a monument and a Christian flag. I don't really remember, because it's that last line that I think needs to be addressed to be able to understand this whole thing that many Christians do.
Those of us who are nonbelievers see just how pervasive religion is even in so "enlightened" an age as our twenty first century. Those of us who both nonbelieve and live in a smallish and possibly southern place see it all too well. Don't get me started on the gay thing cuz omg ya'll.
And the last line of the post, that juicy tidbit that keeps on giving:
This is a kind of Christian extremism — assuming that government neutrality on religion is somehow anti-Christian.There is of course the whole for-us-or-against-us thing, which is mentioned in the comments, but this whole mentality actually comes from the biblicaly based idea that Christians are supposed to suffer, and one of the best ways to suffer, as mentioned in the book of John, is to be despised and hated as people of faith. Often they tell themselves that this is because none of us want to hear what we must know is the truth, ants and grasshoppers and long lost sons returning home.
It's part of a playing the victim meme that seems to have grown stronger lately, or perhaps it's just being used more often. Christians who insist their religious views keep the rest of us from progressing as humans will always hate it when they lose because they put so very much into the fight for their moral superiority. And because they are morally right according to their own faith they must necessarily be right for everyone because theirs is the one true faith.
And really, you just can't force people to step outside of their belief system and look at it from a different p.o.v. Atheists have already done that for the most part, or many, if not most, of us would still be locked in a similar faith based way of life. Too many questions can make you waver in your steadfastness.
So we have to keep reminding people that forcing others to even passively participate in your faith rituals is not okay. It's wrong to force your religion and the trappings of your faith system onto others.
You do still have freedom of speech and religion, but I also deserve freedom from your religion.
