Angry Atheists

So I’ve started reading quite a bit more within the blogosphere of atheism. I’m sure that the anonymity of the internet allows individuals to more freely express themselves without fear of judgment, but these people are angry. REALLY ANGRY. I might live in a small academic bubble (I say might but I know its true) where being an atheist is not only accepted but often expected (this is especially true of biologists like myself and also physicists). While I fit into that crowd in the often times feelings of disbelief at what people will believe, I am never angry about being in the minority. Sometimes, I’m worried and often times saddened to see what religion makes people do in the name of an invisible sky friend but I’m rarely angry. I suppose if I felt threatened because I was an atheist it would be a different story. Maybe also if I had an atheist leader who told me to be angry with people who weren’t atheists…haven’t found that yet. Or maybe if there were other atheists who were just a little bit different and because of that I might be angry…but that doesn’t make sense either. Rather these impetuses of indignation are truly the realm of the religious. Religion puts people into categories and defines US and THEM in very stark terms. This makes people pissed off…which I guess I understand because when people base their lives around some other bullshit story than the bullshit story I base my life on I get mad because why should their fantasy be better than mine??? Religion also has people in charge when atheists do not. You put someone in charge and he/she is going to need to maintain that power and the best way to do that is to put people at odds with one another and solidify the US and THEM mentality. This even works with minor differences in the same religion. Look at the Sunnis and the Shiites…these groups argue over the lineage of power from the prophet. It’s the same religion and yet they kill each other with reckless abandon.   This would be like if I sought out humanists and told them they should die. We might have differences but the point of it all is the same. Now agnostics are a different story…seriously, what is this, “I don’t know if there is a god or not.” Of course you don’t know…neither do people with religion. The believe that there is a god but its not because they have a reason its because someone told them to and they liked the idea or are to afraid to admit mistake after doing crazy shit in the name of their invisible friend. The question really is…what is more likely to be true. Science and reason? or vengeful sky spirit??? Its kind of like saying when I got in my car this morning I’m not sure why it moved and took me to work. Science and reason says that the evidence suggests that the specific combination of me turning the wheel at given moments tied into the combustion of gasoline and air allowed the car to move. It is possible that there was a team of specially trained guinea pigs that were actively pushing me the whole way while my co-pilot jesus guided them to my office…but its not likely to be the case. Thus, I believe (more likely than not) that the first situation is probably true and can reject the guinea pigs outright as being ridiculous and not worth my time. If this was my religion I wouldn’t question the presence of the guinea pigs because that would be blasphemy and if you came along and told me that it was not guinea pigs but in fact squirrels that were pushing the car…I would have reason to kill you for proposing such a crazy idea…I mean seriously, who ever heard of trained squirrels pushing cars, just doesn’t make any sense. What it all comes down to is that being angry about differences like this is really a function of religion itself and that atheists should calm down a bit and realize that happiness and truth are really the same and that only one side of the debate can have both…guess which one. Patrick OUT!!!