I was talking with some people in my building and one of the people passing by said “Praise God” and I shouted back, as I normally do, “And Praise the Flying Spaghetti Monster!” She responded saying “You atheists and your flying spaghetti monsters!” I got a little irked and responded “Well, the Flying Spaghetti Monster is not real. It was a concoction to help show how teaching creationism in the classroom is foolish.” She responded back “Well, they teach atheism in the classroom!” This kind of puzzled me because I know of NO classroom in the United States or Canada that teaches atheism. We then went on to debate and she finally made the statement that “atheism is equivalent to racism”. That kinda took me aback and it made me think, how is atheism racist and why is it that some people choose to say things like that?
First off, let’s state what atheism really is for the uneducated. Atheism is simply the state of not believing in a god or goddess. It isn’t exclusive to the Judeo-Christian god, it also includes all other invented gods over the years such as the Hindu gods, the Mayan gods, the Greco-Roman gods and many other deities worshipped over the years. We do not believe in any of them, just as much as we don’t believe in the Judeo-Christian god. And just so people can get an idea of the reach of atheism, let me tell you that every person in the world starts out as an atheist. Some of us stay that way, some of us are brought to a conventional religion by our parents and religion is artificially implanted into our minds and lives and others were converted to the religion but finally saw what a crock it is and after much research and introspection, leave the faith and become an atheist. I happen to be among the third group of people, as I am an ex-Christian - having been baptized, confessed sins and all that malarkey. I just find the Christian religion to be a bore and I cannot see how any RATIONAL person can believe in such garbage.
And as for teaching atheism in schools, how do you figure? Do you mean that just because they do not teach your religion and force children to go to classes to learn about YOUR religion, they are some how teaching atheism? This is about as valid as the claims that they took the god of the bible out of schools. This is not true, and if you religion were valid, your god would be everywhere whether we like it or not, right? But either way, what it did was it required public schools funded with public money that comes from EVERYONE, not just Christians, but Jews, Muslims, Buddhists and Atheists - to mention only a few. Wouldn’t YOU be mortified if they made it compulsory to learn about Islam and having the teachers teach that the stories are absolute truth with no ability to question it? I am sorry, but I can’t come to any conclusion other than utterly barking mad.
She then went on to say that if I did not want her to talk badly about atheism, I should not talk about equal rights for gays and transsexuals. Okay, this has me taken aback, because she was slandering atheism and making false accusations upon atheists everywhere. But the gay rights fight is a battle in the big war for equal rights for all citizens, regardless of who they are. Homosexuals and Transsexuals deserve the right for equal health care coverage, the power to get married to any consenting adult that they love - following the same rules as straight couples have to without regards to gender of either partner and the right to adopt a child legally and in the names of both parents. We should have these rights, but we do not, so we must actively make ourselves known and talk to the average person on the street. The reason why is that we need to show people that these rights are important for every citizen to have and the fact that people are being denied these rights because of sexual orientation or gender identity is just absolutely wrong. So we NEED to bring up the discussion because if we stay silent, the religious reich will be more than eager to continue preaching on how evil gays and transsexuals are. Don’t believe me? Check out this article that was posted on the website of Chick Publications, a website owned by Jack Chick - a fundamentalist Christian bible tract producer. Or how about this article, pretty fucked up eh?
The reason why I post these articles is so that I can give you a vision of exactly what I am fighting when I choose to blast Christianity. I am very aware that atheism is not necessarily anti-Christianity. I, however, have decided to go on the offense, because of the fact that I can see how Christianity hurts people and chooses to try to brainwash people into thinking that they are not who they are. I go into the world planning to be openly atheistic and queer so that I can show people that (1) I am not a threat and (2) I do not plan to recruit anyone. I just want to love someone who I am genuinely attracted to mentally, spiritually and emotionally and not be punished for it on the basis of my sexual orientation. If I find the woman of my dreams and I want to marry her, I should be able to do that. If I die and she needs my life insurance money or something like that, then she should get it! This should be commonsense but it’s apparently not, when one religion brainwashes it’s followers into believing that we should be denied equal rights. This is where I make my stand.
This article also states that homosexuality is a preference so I should make my response about that clear right now. I did not wake up one day and say “Oh boy! I am going to be a minority today!” No, I have learned about my condition through constant research and education about transsexuality and every logical source that I study seems to continuously affirm my continuing decision to correct the body to fit the mind. This has been proven more healthy than trying to brainwash the mind to conform to the body, as many ex-ex-gays will tell you. No, I have to say that we cannot recruit because sexual orientation and gender identity are inherent from birth and like it or lump it, there is nothing you can do to change that. We can, however, educate people that this is a completely natural and healthy state of being and show people ways to live your life in the most fulfilling and affirming way possible. We can educate people on the essentials of gender identity and sexual orientation and break down some of the hate, bigotry and animosity towards gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transsexuals. The result of this education is less bigotry in the minds and hearts of the general population.
And as for the article about ‘Transgendered’ Men, I must ask what the hell? Transgendered Men would not want to go into the women’s restroom - because they are men. Or does he possibly mean transgendered WOMEN and is confused by thinking that for some odd reason, a person’s anatomy dictates their destiny and who they are. Well, besides being an outdated sexist attitude that shows a serious lack of enlightenment, it also shows how much of a love Jack Chick has for his fundamentalist conspiracy theories, because I know of no transsexual who regularly uses the women’s restroom to actually make any sort of attack. Many transsexuals just have one goal when they enter the women’s restroom - to use the restroom. We check out makeup, use the lavatories, sometimes chat with friends and leave. I don’t really do the third thing but that is just because of the fact that I want to have my voice perfected before I start talking to people in the women’s restroom. But if my voice didn’t give me away, people see me as what I am - a woman.
But either way, I am getting off onto a whole other tangent, so I am going to wrap this up now. I am not racist, I treat everyone with dignity, kindness and respect - until I am given a valid reason not to. And even then, I will still treat them with dignity and I will refuse to disrespect them because I would not want to stoop to a lower level. But to claim atheism is racism is wrong, because we are not the ones preaching homophobia, transphobia and heterosexism. We are not the ones trying to say that it’s okay to beat someone because of who we love. And 30 years ago, we were not the ones saying that you couldn’t marry someone because you have different skin colours. So, I have a few words for Christians who would sincerely accuse atheists of being racist, just because we do not subscribe to your doctrine: “Judge not, lest ye be judged.”
