I never thought the day would come when a bunch of religious folk (read Christians) would show up at my door preaching the ways of God, Jesus. Or is that God? Whatever. Leave that argument and the conundrum about the Holy Trinity to the theologists.
I opened the door, rather cautiously, to two cheerful young lads clothed in black T-shirt and black pants. "Hi, I'm a disciple of Christ", read their shiny badge. Closer inspection of the badge revealed that they were members of the Church of Latter Day Saints. Mormons. Yay. Throughout the conversation the theme song from that SouthPark episode was going on in my head. Dumdumdumdumdum...
Wasting no time, they got down to business.
- "Do I have a personal relationship with God?". I replied with a dead pan expression that I am an atheist. In my experience with revealing this bit of "horrifying" news to theists, it's always the double take or the gasp. These guys did both.
- "Don't you want to know Jesus better? Let's pray!" There's a church down the street and we are having a service. Let's get to know Him better!
- "Are you a Muslim, Jew or Sikh?" What, I can't be a Buddhist or a Hindu? Close minded jerks.
- "Do you know of the great sacrifice?" Of course. He died, so that we may live. How the death of one person can magically forgive/pardon/redeem/give a free ticket to Heaven for millions of recurrent sinners for over two thousand years is beyond any rationalistic notion.
- "It's sad that you have not invited God into your life, we shall pray for you". The single most annoying (bordering on insulting) thing anyone can say to a non-believer.
- Have you considered the fact that you could have been indoctrinated into "believing" in an entity that can apparently bring into existence all of creation with a single thought?
- Do you see this entity? Can you convince me without quoting the Bible or those Golden plates or some long winding theological argument?
- Are you a Creationist? Do you really believe that the world is 5000 years old and that Man tamed and saddled the T-Rex?
- You don't believe in evolution, you poison academic institutions with your biblical take on life and you ask for crocoduck fossils... Where do I even begin?
- Magic Underwear? You're just asking for more punishment.
Another example of power in numbers. Were I to say,
" These french fries have borne the fire and brimstone of the Oven for me. Therefore I will worship the French Fries.", you will be quickly escorted out of McDonalds, thrown into a looney bin asylum and be fried with electricity until you start perennially drooling at the mouth. Supposing a million or so people believe in the Covenant of the Fries, could we brand them all as insensible people? No. You actually think that there must be some truth in the Fries. Such is the power of numbers. Propagate an idea and no matter how weak or illogical it may be, with enough people, it gains serious momentum. If people had questioned the concept of Fries in the beginning, (when the fries were ordered at the counter), all of this would not have happened. Rationalizing plays a key role in keeping these sorts of things in check. To prove my point check out the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster :the ultimate kick in the teeth to creationists.
So fine, I have a bone to pick with religion. My point is we can all be good decent human beings without a bearded man in the sky dictating the way we act and behave. If we can help others, live a good life and be of good moral fiber, we have essentially taken religion out of the equation. My doctrine sounds logical and plausible right? If you still need proof, look what Christianity has to say:
If your Gospel is a set of rules and regulations to live free from sin, and condemnation to hell for those who don't. Believe it or not, God labels your message as a perversion of the Gospel:Book of Galatians
But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned! Galatians 1:8-9
I rest my case your honour.
Religious disclaimer: As an atheist I really don't care about religion and sentiments. You are free to believe in whatever you want to. But when people go about trying to shove their beliefs onto others who don't want it or didn't even ask for it, that's just plain wrong. In which case I strongly urge people to ask questions of their own.


