Monthly Archives: October 2011

So…where the fuck was “God”?

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In reading about the account of an autistic boy who went missing (and was found 6 days later) in Virgina, I came across this little gem of a quote from Hanover County Sheriff David Hines:

There were sometimes that you just had to reach down and find that faith that you were going to find him. Whether it’s appropriate or not for everyone, there is a God. He listens to prayers, and prayers were answered,” he said.

Nice. What eats the lining out of my stomach is that time and again, reporters let people get away with this without offering the slightest challenge. If someone makes an “on the record” comment to a reporter, that comment is fair game to be scrutinized and questioned. Isn’t that what is supposed to happen? Isn’t that what reporters are supposed to do?

When the circumstances were such that the boy could have been lost, where was the miraculous intervention to prevent it from happening in the first place? Where the fuck was “God” THEN?! Taking a nap? Getting laid? Playing poker?

On atheists and activism

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I lifted this comment of mine from a post on Atheist Revolution. I think we are limited to what we can or should do as atheists.

The more time that passes, the more I realize just how little I have in common with many of the active atheists online. I also realize full well that the online atheist “community” is not representative of all atheists everywhere and may, in fact, represent only a small but vocal minority.
If there is one quality that all atheists might share in common, it would be the commitment to independent thought, a refusal to do or believe in anything simply because the majority does it or believes in it. Beyond that, I see the complete spectrum of human expression and experience, ranging from neo-fascists to far-left anarchists. Most of us lie somewhere in the middle, I suspect.
If there is one point around which all atheists should rally, it is the determination to prevent our lives being ruled by beliefs that have no foundation or basis in reality. This does not restrict the dialogue to religion, and should include all dogmatic political ideologies as well… from the left as well as from the right.
I find it ironic and frustrating that atheism is so inextricably linked in people’s minds with 20th century communist dictatorships and movements. I hold these up as examples of humans replacing one form of dogmatic beliefs (religion) for another (communism). That the communists claimed to be atheists does little to conceal the fact that they pursued their goals religiously and with little to no regard to reality, logic or critical thinking. They merely replaced one religion with another.
If atheists in the United States are to organize effectively AS ATHEISTS, we will need to limit our goal to simply fighting the efforts of others to legislate their religion on the rest of us. Anything beyond that and we stray into waters that are muddied and confused at best.