I'm not angry

I find it laughable that when certain people find out I am an atheist they immediately tell me I am "angry." What is it about not believing in the same things they do that makes me angry and them not?

I'm not the one who's trying to convince others of how right I am all the time. In fact, it's quite the opposite, I could care less if you believe in all that mumbo jumbo. I just want to be left alone when it comes to religion. I've read all about it, even the other religions most Christians know nothing about, and it's all bunk to me. I've been to church, to bible camp, to revivals, to backwoods shouting churches, to mainstream churches in cities, hell, I even went to a conservative college that was funded mostly by right wing Christians, and you know what I learned from all that? I learned that for me it's all a sham. I learned that religions may be good for some but they are not for me at all. I learned that most all religions are a way for a few people to control a great number of people.

And I learned that religions, especially the Christian ones, get you coming and going. See, they tell poor people that if they work hard and give what little they have to the church then they'll get great rewards in heaven after they die. And then they tell rich people that if they give a bunch of their money to the church they can continue to live as they please and that they too will get big rewards in heaven after they die. So who exactly comes out ahead in all that? Why it's the church of course.

Now of course I understand that there are sincere people in the world who live their faith and who actually are better people because they believe and I respect those people. I respect and admire people like Fran, Rev. John, Ed and Susie, Blue Gal, Ubermilf, and others who don't shove religion at people but who instead try to lead by example. On the other hand I despise sanctimonious people who use religion as a weapon against others, people like Jerry Fallwell, mAnn Coulter, Pat Robertson, James Dobson, and others.

It's people those in that last group and the sheep who follow them who say I am angry because I don't blindly believe like they do. I wonder if they think that the millions of Hindus are angry as well because they aren't Christians like Falwell and his ilk are, and Sikhs too, are they angry as well? Buddhists too? Zoroastrians? Is everybody who doesn't accept Jesus angry? Also, what about the Jews? The New Testament says that only those who accept Jesus are going to be saved and go to heaven when they die, but didn't the Jews have a deal with God prior to Jesus coming down here? Are the Jews going to hell with all the rest of us who don't accept Jesus?

I'm not a holier than thou authority on all things religious so I don't know. But I do know that I don't want anyone leaving Bible verses on my blog and I want to be given the same respect you think you should have. Stop trying to convert me and stop pushing your religions on me. I don't want them and I don't need them.

But some of you will say, "My religion demands I try to save your soul! It my right to make you think and act like I do! You're infringing on my right to practice my faith by refusing to allow me to convert you!" To that I say, my lack of religion is protected by the Constitution so leave me the hell alone. You have the right to spout anything you like but I have the right to ignore you and to tell others to do the same.

In the end I'm not angry because I don't know about Jesus and all the stories about him, I'm just a bit peeved because some of you sanctimonious Christians won't leave me and mine the hell alone. I don't want to go to church with you, I don't want to hear about how Jesus made your trailer trash life bearable, I don't want your Jack Chick tract, I don't want your Watchtower magazine, I don't want to grow a beard and become an Amish farmer, I don't want to read a Bible verse on a jar of jam or at the bottom of a pie tin, I don't want to give any money to quack faith healers, I don't want your book of Mormon, I don't want to hear about how space aliens came to earth to screw with us, I don't want to make any Palestinians move from their houses so I can have their land, I don't want to live in a theocracy be it one run by Muslims, Jews, Mormons, Baptists, or followers of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

I just want to live my life in peace with out any religious interference. And when I die I don't want any religious service for me whatsoever, in fact I don't want any funeral home service of any kind after I get cremated in the cheapest way possible. I want people who knew me to get together and to have a drink while they swap stories about what an ass or great guy I was. And then later I want my ashes spread over water somewhere. Is that so hard for some of you Christians to understand?