October 15, 2012

Closet Atheist

An organization called the American Atheist is sponsoring a billboard campaign going after the religious beliefs of both Obama and Romney. Their goal, according to their statement, is to “expose the foolishness of religion in the political landscape” and they are specifically attacking Christianity and Mormonism. I doubt if these folks ever considered how fortunate they are to be American Atheists. I wonder, is there such a thing as a Middle Eastern Atheist?

1 comment:

Steve Corey said...

Gail;

-----I’m sure there is such a thing as a Middle Eastern Atheist. I believe it is a brand of plant food specifically blended for melons. So I suppose if an atheist desires to be more useful than plumping cantaloupes, he probably should be thankful for the good old US of A, just like you say. Yet that does not relegate his point about foolishness of religion in politics to the trash heap. Was it religion in politics which gave him his freedom to be an atheist?
-----For sure, the entire World was entrenched in religion when the old dead white guys crafted this nation. The World’s entrenchment was not completely in Christianity, though. There were plenty of Buddhists and Hindus and Muslims and Sikhs and countless other imaginings all around. And in the Western World there was an abundance of Christian sects which had been bloodying each other’s swords with each other’s blood for a couple centuries. It seemed that every king thought it his right to demand every citizen think about God like he did, or into the dungeon with your head! Maybe without your body, too. Those dead white guys fled such tyranny with their families, folks they loved, so they could worship God as they knew Him without fear of man. They weren’t going to subject each other to the same! They imagined something more splendid, something more free, something not entirely new to thought, but new to politics. It included religious freedom. Yes. Religion gave us religious freedom.
-----That’s all well and good. The fact we have to keep referring to this history illustrates how little it is emphasized in our schools and how easily it is forgotten. That, quite naturally, is a direct and desired effect of atheists. They fail to realize they are becoming those tyrant kings our old dead white guys fled. Religion is about beliefs and worship, in its most basic concept. Everybody worships something. Everyone accepts that something as the pivotal point of existence and the fundamental point of understanding all that causes effects, or effects causes, for that matter. It makes no difference if someone believes nothing is pivotal in such a way. He yet places his belief and worship into that thought regarding the nothing, and so is being religious. Therefore, the atheists raging out to eliminate every aspect of everyone else’s religion from public life or politics is identically the same thing as those tyrant kings our heroic and dignified founding fathers defeated.
-----It is not atheism which lays within the belly of the beast. It is not atheism against which Christ worked our salvation. It is deceit. For deceit, that simple twisting of what is really true is that which percolates within the beast. Without deceit the beast would be feckless. The truth is that Buddhism, Hinduism, and all other forms of isms, right down to the individual sole bound up in his own narcissism (the epitome of atheism,) are all worshipful beliefs. So, to the atheist I proclaim, “DOWN WITH THE king! VIVA LA CONSTITUTION!” At least that way I am secure to enjoy what sets Christianity apart from all other religions: enough truth to have eyes to see and ears to hear.

Love you all,
Steve Corey