An Atheist Rant
[I usually don’t do this, but after being told for the umpteenth time by a nice God-fearing Christian that all I needed to do was read the Bible and open my heart to Jesus to understand the truth and find salvation, etc., etc., etc., I sort of snapped and produced the following rant. I figured it might be worth preserving in case I need it later…]
Been there, done that and even got the t-shirt. I’m sure that you are a wonderful and kind human being who only wants the best for people like me, maybe somebody I’d love to have as a neighbor even, but I have devoted a significant chunk of my life to considering the possibility of God’s existence and can say that I truly believe from deep deep from the deepest point of my heart (well, my mind, actually) that the entire concept is utterly ridiculous and without merit. Seriously, you’re talking about something based on superstitious beliefs dreamed up by ignorant desert tribesmen thousands of years ago who didn’t even know the earth rotated on its axis and who thought stars were holes in the fabric of the sky, and you expect me to take it seriously? You might as well ask me to believe in Thor, Zeus or Osiris.
I’m glad to know that you think that your God is somehow different from all those other obviously made-up gods. But let me let you in on a little secret. Devout Muslims are just as convinced that Islam is the only path to salvation and Christ was nothing but a minor prophet with no saving grace whatsoever. And there’s over one and a half billion of them who are just as sincere in their beliefs as you are in yours. And then, of course, we can consider all the devout Hindus (probably another billion right there), Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Zoroastrians, etc., etc., etc., who are all just as 100% convinced that their way is the right way and that you Christians are just poor deluded folks. And then, of course, we had thousands and thousands of years where the majority of the earth’s population devoutly believed in the ancient Greek gods, the ancient Egyptian gods, the ancient Roman gods, the ancient Norse gods, the ancient Babylonian gods, etc., etc., etc. You may think you and your God are somehow “special,” but that’s what EVERYBODY thinks about their God and I just acknowledge that you are ALL completely full of beans.
Seriously, what type of hubris does it take to imagine that of all the many billions of humans that have lived and died throughout all of history, you just happen to belong to the one small group who know who the “real” God is and the “real” path toward salvation? Are you really that arrogant, or can you even contemplate the possibility that maybe, just maybe, you’re the one who has it wrong and one of these other many, many religions (or none of them, including yours) may be right instead. I mean, seriously — why do Christians all seem to think that they invented “God” and that being an atheist simply means we don’t believe in the Christian God?
Are you so sure of your faith because you were raised as a Christian? Well, guess what — those raised as Muslims or Hindus feel exactly the same way about their faith as you feel about yours. Did you, perhaps, have some sort of spiritual awakening or personal revelation? Well, guess what — that’s exactly what people of every other religion claim as well.
Regardless of what you may personally believe, YOU ARE NOT SPECIAL! Every possible justification you can come up with to explain why Jesus really is the Christ and the Bible really is the word of God is also used by every other major and minor religion on earth to justify why their faith is true (and yours isn’t). “But there were witnesses to the events described in the Bible!” “But the Bible describes things that ancient man couldn’t have possibly have known!” Save, it — that’s what they all say. Seriously. And if I’m not going to become a Muslim, or a Hindu, or a Buddhist, or a Sikh, or a Jain, or a Zoroastrian because of what they claim to honestly and sincerely know to be true, I’m certainly not going to believe what you say about your particular religious beliefs either.
Hmmmm… I guess you touched a bit of a nerve there. Sorry to ramble on so long. But seriously, you really need to get over yourself and your sense of entitlement. It’s bad enough having theists in general tell me that I really need to believe in God, but it’s insufferable when it’s always their God and their religion for really important reasons that of course no other religion in the world has ever thought of (except that they all have).
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