Who Ya Gonna Call?

Okay, suppose that you want to know more about, say, anti-lock braking systems. Do you consult an auto mechanic? Or do you consult a botanist?

How about if you want to learn which snakes are venomous and which are harmless? Do you phone up a herpetologist, or a seamstress?

Suppose that there's a Hindu and a Mormon sitting at the bar and you want to know what Hindu's believe. Do you ask the Hindu, or do you ask the Mormon?

I think most of us get the picture. I found the above meme on Facebook. 'Dollars-to-doughnuts a Christian whipped up this little gem of a meme. How can I tell? Okay, well, it's full of misinformation, red herrings, and generally just plain idiotic rhetoric, and we see this sort of thing being perpetuated by the far Christian Right these days. So, that's how I can tell that a Christian whipped it up.

So, Christians, if you genuinely(key word) want to learn more about what we atheists do or don't believe, then I suggest that you ask someone who's actually an atheist. It only makes sense, doesn't it? I think so. Seriously, you really need to cease and desist from projecting onto atheists, and it would be nice if you would stop getting your information on what atheism entails from other theists. Please, just stop it.

With that little request out of the way, please know that it is secularists who believe that there should be a church/state separation. In other words, not all secularists are atheists. Please stick that in your memory bank, Christians.

Now, as far as those who believe that one's religion "should be behind closed doors", again, this isn't solely atheists who advocate this. No. Because if one's religion happens to be, say, Islam, then you can bet the farm that Christians want that sh*t hidden behind the church Mosque doors. In fact, many(most? nearly all?) Christians don't even tolerate the Mosques, themselves, never mind what goes on inside them.

Of course, I don't want to sit here and resort to the very same sorts of tactics that I decry and turn around and generalize. For that reason, I need to be clear: Certainly not all Christians advocate the lovey-dovey parts of the bible, exclusively. No. In fact, very recently I encountered a few Christian bloggers who argue that other Christians who extol God as the "God of Love" have it the wrong way around. To them, the Christian deity is way more about things like "justice" and "wrath".... grrrrrrrr.  See, their rendition cherry-picked version of "God" gets its jollies creating human beings just so that he can turn around and torture most of them mercilessly for all eternity. It "pleases Him", they say. In their eyes(and according to their blog), doing so is an example of God's *"Perfect Justice".

*except when their "God" is feeling "Gracious", then "Perfect Justice" becomes "selective justice".

Anyway, about one's sex life being paraded down the street, yadda, yadda. Again, this is a feeble attempt on the part of some Christians to demonize all atheists. Maybe some atheists don't mind one's sexuality being paraded around town; maybe some do mind it. Either way, what most atheists who've read the bible can probably agree on is that the bible gets the Adult Video AwardXXX for explicitly lewd and lascivious behavior. Let's see, there's the instance of two sisters getting their father drunk and taking turns with him in the sack. But that's somehow not nearly as offensive as two same-sex people holding hands in public, right? Which would you have a harder time explaining to a child? I think I'd have a harder time explaining the former.

In closing, for those of you Christians who are getting your information on atheism from your churches, from your favorite Christian websites, and from each other, please just stop it. If you have questions about what atheism entails, you can ask those questions here, or if you wouldn't dream of asking a question here because of my "trashy", direct approach, fair enough, you can find the "Friendly Atheist" blog and ask him. But posting memes like the one above just tells me and other atheists that you're not really interested in what atheists believe and that preserving your beliefs will always take precedence over reality, even if it means lying. You know who you are and you fool no one.