For Someone Who Doesn't Believe in God, You Sure Talk about Him Alot

homeschool atheist blog, secular homeschool, raising freethinkers 

LOL...yes, I've heard this one before. The first time I heard it I thought I would spit out my coke.

It was on Facebook a couple of years ago and I was still FB friends with a coworker of my husband at that point. I can't remember exactly what I had written, but it was fairly innocuous. I'm not exactly in your face with this stuff.

She came back with the comment, For someone who doesn't believe in god, you sure talk about him alot.

I thought to myself Do I?

So I took her claim seriously and looked back in my FB statuses for the three months prior to her observation.  Guess what I found. NONE. I hadn't written a single thing except for that one meme that I had posted that day.

None.

But what she was commenting on, of course, is the fact that I am an open atheist and I am always an open atheist and she knows that fact no matter what I post. Her awareness of my disbelief kept her quite upset.

Eventually she unfriended me and I was quite ready for it. This woman is very fond of my husband and I liked her too but her daily Catholic posts had gotten a bit tedious and she was constantly commenting about my atheism. I stuck around for the pics of her kids.

But the REAL answer to her question:  of course I talk about it. The overt discrimination toward atheists, toward reality and logic and critical thinking in this country, toward freethought is ridiculous. And I do intend to stay open about my atheism because it is so very risky to do so in this country. I will talk about it because I think it is essential for the next generations to have reality out there. I sincerely want to resist religion.

The thing is, I understand her comment because this is the stuff that she is told. This is the brilliant wisdom that the church offers to explain atheism to believers in their churches. Trite, ineffectual, shallow stuff. Fear, attempts at humor, attempts to discredit, logical fallacies, insults, and certainty that atheists are so wrong and dangerous and laughable.

Christians actually wonder where atheists get their morality, wonder whether we have anything to truly offer to the world, are doubtful that atheists can truly be patriotic, and feel perfectly in their right to despise atheists. 

Why wouldn't atheist be angry about that?

And so, for someone who doesn't believe in any gods, I guess I DO talk about religion alot. And I will continue to do so ... even if I am the lone voice out here.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For more posts like this one:
It Takes More Faith to be an Atheist
Just in Case He's Real
Atheists Can't Experience True Joy
Your Life Has No Meaning
You Were Never a Real Believer

My Pinterest friend Helena Handbasket commented:
There was a time when atheists were burned at the stake. Now some of us talk proudly about our atheism to let others know they are not alone in rejecting ancient beliefs. The internet spells the end of religion.