Caught in the Crossfire

collateral damage: noun Unintended damage, injuries, or deaths caused by an action, especially unintended civilian casualties caused by a military operation

 I am going to preface this post by saying that I readily concede that there are millions of good, kind, considerate, intelligent Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and people of other faiths, who inhabit this planet. IOW, there are millions of reasonable, smart, loving religious proponents out there, who, thankfully, are less stringent than their fundamentalist counterparts, and who, thankfully, have an innate sense of empathy and "right" and "wrong", in which case, these people then realize that it would be wrong and down-right dangerous to take any book that says that it is just fine to KILL anyone and everyone who opposes or who attempts to lead them away from their chosen Faith, literally. This goes for keeping and beating slaves; this goes for pelting rebellious kids with rocks; this goes for stoning to death any newlywed woman who is found to not be a "virgin" on her wedding day.... and generally, this goes for any other clearly moronic and insipidly harmful act found in any book.

Saying this, two books come to mind: 1) The Holy Bible 2) The Holy Qu'ran.

Since I live in a country that is predominately Christian; and since I was born into a family of devout Christians, which, subsequently, led to my being raised to be a Christian, I am going to focus on Christianity and its Christians, but in this case, the liberal variety, many of whom are the type of people that I just described above.

As I've said in the past, I have many friends and family who profess Christianity, people whom I love and with whom I get along just fine, no problems. We simply agree not to discuss religion or to attempt to convert each other. With that out of the way and brought to the forefront---and with my complete, on-the-record acknowledgment that these people are things like kind, compassionate, and yes, intelligent---I do, however, believe that each one of them compartmentalizes his or her beliefs, and I have no qualms about saying so. This is not....repeat, not ...some derogatory judgment with the intend to flame anyone. No, it is merely pointing out a demonstrable, observable fact about them, and about all Christians. It is precisely the same thing that I did in my former days as a believer in Christianity.

To encapsulate, Christians know, in a practical, day-to-day-living sense, that "Allah" has no referent in reality and that Muslims are mistaken. They know that the "God" that a Muslim prays to several times a day is a complete figment of the praying Muslim's imagination. Christians know that "Muhammad" did not sit in a cave somewhere in the Middle-East jotting down the Will and Testament of "The Almighty Allah", and afterwards, hopped on winged pony and flew off into the clouds. No, that is just myth and the ramblings of mere mortal men. Christians know all of this.

So, like it or not, there is a bit of a common ground between Christians and Atheists after all, specifically, that both take the same stance when it comes to "Allah" and the "Holy Qu'ran".

Now, where does the difference come into play? Where does the compartmentalization come into play?

It comes into play right here: Atheists feel the exact same way when it comes to the claims of Christianity as Christians do when it comes to Islam. IOW, Christians make an exception for their own brand of mythology, AKA, compartmentalizing.

So........

Dear, Liberal Christians,

This is precisely why, when your fundamentalist, Evangelical counterparts attempt to tell us with a straight face that they believe that a snake, donkey, and shrub at one time spoke the human language; that it rained frogs sometime in the distant past; that a "firmament" holds up the sky("water"); that "demons" cause mental illness; that bird's blood heals leprosy; that dinosaurs never existed(or hitched a ride on the "The Ark"); that all non-Christians will spend an eternity in a "Lake of Fire"(AKA "Hell")......and the final splintering blow to our intelligence, that the universe, the earth, and all life on it, were created "as is" just a few thousand years ago, it is for this reason that they get the reactions that they get from us Atheists/Agnostics/former believers.

As you know - or as you should know - the scriptures that delineate the above are all false, and demonstrably so. You, as a liberal Christian, must square-up the above falsehoods with your Faith(and they aren't the only ones, BTW). I know all-too-well how you don't want to "throw the baby out with the bath water", because I was there---I wanted to hang on to Jesus and (what I believed was) my relationship with him. The fear that this life is all there is, frankly, scared me sh*tless, albeit it, I'd never have admitted it back then, just like many of you likely won't admit the thought scares you now. Of course, there's nothing to fear, because when death comes, we won't know that we are dead, nor that we had ever lived. But this is for another discussion.

So, for those of you liberal Christians who harbor a conviction and who intend to hang on to your faith, unquestionably, I am sorry if, when discussing the issues, that y'all's more-lenient, broad perspectives of Christianity get caught in the crossfire when/if we Atheists are taking your fundamentalist counterparts to task for their assertions, beliefs, judgments against us Atheists, etc. However, you should know that this just isn't going to change, nor should it. There is a war going on, yes, but it's not some spooky, supernatural "Spiritual War" between a "God" and a "Devil"; it is a war against legendary thinking and willful ignorance. When we are in any other war, there is what's called "collateral damage". This is inherently part of war and it happens when fighting for what's right.

While such damage is unfortunate - and in this case, while good, compassionate Christians get caught in the crossfire(I contend that you don't need "Jesus" or Christianity to be "good" or "compassionate", but this, too, is for another discussion) - please do not expect things to change anytime soon. And furthermore, I really, really wish you'd take just 10% of the time you spend taking issue with us Atheists, and spend that time calling out your own fundamentalist counterparts, instead of tip-toeing around them or letting them go unchallenged. I realize that some of you challenge them, but it doesn't happen enough, and you are implicitly giving them a "thumbs-up" when/if you remain silent.

Sincerely, a concerned *Agnostic Atheist

* the two things aren't mutually exclusive, for anyone wondering.