Haven't posted for a while; but that just means I have a backlog of rants. So here they come!
On good days, when I am feeling the love of being alive and the joy of human fellowship, I wax brief in Facebook posts about it. But then there are the other moments; no, not the ones where people are rude, or drive aggressively, or walk past dying people without batting an eye. Those things disappoint me, but they don't get my goat. The world is a cold, tough place and manifesting love seems surprisingly hard to cultivate in our species in public settings or outside one's in-group. No, the other moments that stimulate my writing are the passing encounters with well-meaning Christians (and a few who know I am an athiest and take some pleasure, or imagine some future salvation, in sort of poking me with their faith). They say things that are common enough but which truly get my goat by confounding any attempt at reason. There are four I will focus on, and they are interconnected: "God will provide", "Everything happens for a reason," various characterizations of people as "blessed", and "God has a plan for you." All these phrases make my brain convulse. If I could claim that such language was against my religion, I would- because I feel my intelligence insulted whenever I hear them. Your religion offends me.
First thing is first: quite often, God will NOT provide. Over 10 million children die each year from hunger: which is precisely why the UN and countless charities, many of them Christian, have to step in and fill the gap. So, who provides? People. Certainly these people are well-intentioned; and I have not seen any Atheist food banks in town (Dear fellow Atheists, put up or shut up as far as 'we are also ethical people'. We should be emulating the Christians on this front, just minus the ridiculous notion that a god is needed to feel love or teach us to share.) But it doesn't matter if god told you to share, or krishna, or you just thought it would be nice. God allowed lots people to be born without a pot to shit in, and as added insult, without any food to digest into shit. So how about this: God will provide, except when he doesn't, in which case people can help out. That is what churches do when they organize, do fund raisers, and then donate the proceeds. People do all that, yet they sell themselves short and give all the glory to god. God did not cure Polio; he created it, and we beat it with science. God is bringing beautiful babies into being in regions infested with the beautiful mosquitoes that carry the beautiful malaria he created; and man is busy trying to fix it. But who did they thank when they pulled the Chilean miners to safety? You guessed it. How about thanking the engineers who rigged the capsule? Same damn thing whenever they interview a quarterback after a football game; as if god was up there picking teams and calling plays. People are lucky, and unlucky; shit happens, some good, some bad, some predictable, and some highly unlikely. None of this indicates divine intervention. News flash: roughly 50 percent of football teams will lose; the others will win; and a few will tie. There will be some amazing plays from time to time, but god isn't "blessing" any of those criminals, unless you count their salary. And that brings us to blessings.
Have a blessed day. I am blessed. Sure you are! God will provide, especially if you are born in a developed country, even more likely if you are white. The notion that there is a conscious being up there passing out the good luck and bad luck is patently offensive, because of his inequitable distribution. I mean, you have this all-powerful, all-intelligent being, capable of miracles, who supposedly loves each one of us, possibly from the moment of conception (though that makes all the miscarriages hard to explain), and yet he can't even manage to have us all born where there is enough food to go around, or for the food to grow decently where the people are. But wait, you say, there is enough food produced to feed the world; the PEOPLE are to blame for not sharing it. That is an interesting proposition, one that is paraphrased on the cover of the weekly newsletter my wife brought home from her church: "God give us all, then calls on us to Share (superfluous capitalization theirs)." Omniscient, omnipotent, but doesn't do distribution. Leaves that to us. That is a sick little game, isn't it? Almost as sick as what he did to Abraham. But not the sickest! No, to truly appreciate how god blesses people- or more accurately, how people use that notion and the others listed above to handle psychological adversity- let's look at another category of misfortune: combat veterans.
Imagine running is your favorite activity in the world. But god loves you, and he has a plan for you, which goes like this: blow his legs off! Now, maybe god is just testing you. Trying to teach you a lesson. Using you to help others. Sure. Whatever works to stay positive, believe it. That is the power of faith- you can ignore the statistics and use the irrational part of your brain to believe that you can beat the odds, which, like a placebo pill reducing pain, actually increases the chance that you will succeed. The power or prayer and such are real- as real as a placebo; and I wonder if even I can access that power despite knowing it is rooted in hooey. I'm slightly jealous of those who have 'freed' themselves from rationality and accessed this power (along with a raft of steaming camel crap like creationism, faith healing frauds, and so on). This god sure has a funny way of blessing people- I mean, sure, the lucky veteran is the one who made it home- they are certainly more blessed than the dead- or those who made it home and then died. What a blessing! What a plan! But that's ok, they are in heaven. See, you can't lose with this god, no matter what he dishes out! There is a great benefit to looking on the bright side, and no one is better at this than the Jesus people. But more on "everything happens for a reason" and looking on the bright side and counting "blessings" and luck vs. miracles later. It is time to baptize the porcelain with a wave of my staff.
