Religious People

Anyone who knows me knows that I am very anti-religion, and for many atheists this is the case. Many of us are atheists not only because we do not see evidence for a supreme being, but also because of the interpretation of such a deity (or deities) has done so much incredible evil in this world.
I don't think religion is evil, but I do think the world would be better off without it. Supernatural belief in general can go, I'm not picky about having a deity or not.
This is not that uncommon of a view, it really isn't. As much as you think there may be a huge religious majority, and there is, 13% (source) of over 311 million is still 40 million. That is forty million people in this country alone who do not believe in a god.
But get ready, because here comes an uncommon opinion.

I don't like religious people.

Not all religious and supernatural-believing-type people. The wiccans in general don't piss me off except when they spout their supernatural stuff. The new-agers annoy the crap out of me when they try to tell me about something ridiculous. In general, however, people who subscribe to mainstream religion (abrahamic, basically - be it any sect of christianity, catholicism, islam, judaism) are people who start on my shit list.

Listen, I want to be very clear about this. This has nothing to do with your belief in a god that I don't believe in. Seriously. Well, it has a little bit to do with it, but only because of the fact that you call yourself a christian, or a muslim, or a jew. I don't think your belief in God is a correct or even prudent one. I think it is childish and misguided and foolish and false and I am going to do everything in my power to convince you of that fact - but none of that means I don't like you. So when I tell you that you are on my shit list from day one, I want you to understand it is not because I think you are wrong.

I want you to understand that when I say that you are on my shit list from day one, it is because of your label. You have this label that you use. You call yourself a christian. You call yourself a muslim.

Then this christian pastor goes and says something like "let's gather all the gays and lesbians and put them inside an electric fence, because that way they'll die out"



Yeah. That happened. Anyway, so this pastor comes out and says something crazy and us militant atheists add it to the "Horrible ideas created in the name of God we are glad nobody used" list and move on. But this weird thing happens when we pass this on to our religious friends.
This is a set of the typical responses to asking a religious person about this type of event
"Oh, he's not a real christian"
"I don't believe that"

Awesome, congratulations, you have a sense of morality. Good for you. Pat yourself on the back.

But here is what strikes me as odd. Many atheists see this type of thing and get angry, we see this and have a very strong emotional response to it. This man is standing up and saying how we need to put all the gays and lesbians and queers behind an electric fence and let them all die off because they can't reproduce. I don't care that this is a stupid idea because gay people are not born of gay people. Seriously, that is not what upsets me about this video.

What upsets me is that you don't care.

What upsets me is the fact that you see this man standing up there, standing in front of all those people, all those minds, and using the name of a belief that you proclaim to be a part of, and he is saying these hateful, ignorant and wrong things, and you know they are hateful and ignorant and wrong, that is why you don't believe them - but why does it not enrage you?

Why does it not infuriate you that someone is standing up there saying that they are a christian and that this is what christianity means, when you know they are wrong?

So if you are a religious person that stands up against this kind of idiocy, great. I am glad to hear that. But there are so many people out there who see something like this and just let it go without seeing any need to stand up and say no. Even the people in the audience of that sermon aplauded. I'm not saying that the fact that you didn't aplaud is not commendable. Again, good on you for having morals. But saying that you simply don't agree with his idea is idiocy as well. You know who else rounded up the gays. You know, and I know I don't have to remind you, because I know you know. Would you ever suggest that saying "I don't agree with that" is enough? No. It wasn't enough. We went to war against that idea. The idea that certain people should be rounded up and slaughtered was such a repugnant idea to us that an entire nation still deals with the fallout of an idea that was fought and defeated nearly one hundred years ago.

So why does it not enrage you when someone claiming to be of your belief system says something like this.

There is a great quote that sums this up very nicely. It was from an episode of Stargate, which, while not a great show, had its moments.

So here is the scene. Context: the Ori are these crazy powerful beings posing as Gods, the priors with the crazy eyes are their missionaries, they also have crazy power. And spaceships. Anyway, their believers have no idea the Ori feed on their belief and are just power hungry jerks. Interdimensional power hungry jerks.
In many ways, the believers are just like so many of us, they just believe, and the message in Origin (their book) is mostly a positive, loving, "Ori will bless you" sort of message.

But then this happens.

A little later, our Tomin goes back to talk to the Prior.

I always loved this scene, but never really figured out why. Recently, I watched the episode again, and realized why I loved it so much: this never happens. I never see the good people, the people who I know are good, kind, moral people, stand up and fight against the tyranny that pervades their leadership. I want so badly to see that anger in your eyes when someone claiming to stand up for your beliefs says something incredibly hateful, ignorant and wrong, and I don't understand why I don't see it.