Reason

I feel there needs to be a punctuation at the end of that title… I just have no idea what it should be. Read on… you’ll understand why… I hope.

As of late, I’ve been feeling remarkably persecuted by society. So many things, which should be (and used to be) conversations, have been turned into blatant bullying and righteous sermonizing based on presumptions of unquestionable correctness.

First and foremost, religion… particularly my personal religious beliefs have repeatedly come under unwarranted attack from people who claim to be non-biased and open minded. I could find humor in the obvious irony if I weren’t so repeatedly offended by people who assume I must be stupid or mentally damaged simply because I believe in something that no one has tangible proof of. I have never once made a silly argument like, “you can’t see air, so God could certainly exist”; I have never tried to talk someone out of atheism or into Christianity; My conversations about my faith are always topic related or invited by the individual; So why then must pseudo intellectuals use faulty understandings of philosophy (I dare not accuse them of using logic) to repeatedly insult and debase me… and worse why do they feel the need to, in a sense, conquer my religious beliefs as if they were a disease? [That isn’t even a rhetorical question. If one you anti-religion individuals out there would care to answer, I promise not to delete your comments.] I am on a daily basis shocked by the general feeling around me that atheism, or more specifically, anti-theism, is the one and only reasonable belief and that many atheists feel it is their duty to stamp out faith. Have a look at this video. The feeling is very subtle, but unmistakable.

“We are winning against the religious crazies.” Other than having the right and the freedom to believe that there is no god absent persecution and government restriction… I’m not sure what battle it is that you have to win… and he clearly doesn’t mean the war for his rights.

Over the last couple years I have also been repeatedly eviscerated, even by members in my own family, for having conservative political views. Conversations where I can intelligently debate and even learn from people of opposing views are fewer and farther between. Instead, they mostly devolve into attempting to bait me into making some sort of bigoted statement as if being conservative minded inherently makes me hate anyone who isn’t white, heterosexual, speaks English and is already a member of the middle class. Watching any news in recent weeks has on occasion actually made me physically ill. I simply can’t believe that we’ve got to a place in society where we assume someone who thinks differently than ourselves is simply an evil individual bent on self aggrandizing destruction and death. I used to think these feelings of mine were simply because I paid too much attention to the news… but I’ve been going to work earlier to avoid the news in the morning and finding more interesting activities to avoid the news in the evening and the feeling has simply gotten worse from interacting with people around me. Agree or disagree with me all you like, but can’t we have a thoughtful exchange of ideas instead of force feeding a personal agenda down the throats of people who think there is a better way?

Another issue I’ve been having: why is being a white, middle-class male looked down upon today? It seems every other possible combination of sex, ethnicity, social background and any other qualifiers to you’d like to put on have their own advocacy groups and anyone advocating for the “white man” (or actual fairness) gets immediately shouted down as an oppressive person. I think my favorite example of this mentality (without making comment of the actual incident) is the Trevon Martin shooting. In order to give a feeling of racial bias (or at least leave the door open to the idea of it), Zimmerman was labeled a “white Hispanic” by the media (we also shouldn’t forget the clear bias in the editing of the 911 tape by NBC). Never before have I heard that term. Hell, every time I’ve seen the classification for white people, the question is are you “White (non-Hispanic) or Hispanic” and now all of a sudden, when we need someone to look as bad as possible… we label them white… The argument could be made, although very poorly, that they were just trying to be factually correct since one of Zimmerman’s parents was in fact white… I guess that means Obama is the country’s first White-Black president, although, I don’t see that one making the headlines any time soon.

I have fairly thick skin and I’m definitely not crying at night over these things, but I’m having a hell of a time ignoring it. While most of my friends aren’t belligerent, a shockingly high percentage of them seem to share the near militant views that it takes to be so aggressively offensive and its making it damn hard to be open with some of them, or even have a desire to talk to them some days. So, in an attempt to preempt future assaults on my intelligence, allow me to say this… You will never insult me out of my views and beliefs. Since it seems I’ll be firmly on the side of the minority (yes I realize only 30% of America identifies as having no religious belief — bite me) for a while, I can take some solace from Mark Twain: “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it’s time to pause and reflect.”