I had lunch with an evangelical Christian who knows I am an atheist blogger. He reads my blog. He also reads links from the Atheist blogroll at random. He was curious about the blogroll. He question seem centered around why would a nice guy associate himself with some many bad people. I had to laugh. He misinterpreted what I do, and why I do it.
He observed the following:
1 -You don’t write about atheism
2 - Some bloggers are full of hate.
3 - You seem like a nice guy
4 - You have a problem with pastors
He got most of it right and most of it wrong too. It is true that I don’t write about atheism. I don’t believe in atheism like Christians believe in Christ. Atheism is just a word that describes my lack of believe. It’s not a religion. I prefer to write about when believers try to force their moral agenda on me. I don’t care what other people believe and by now I’ve learned there is no changing another person mind on the issue. I don’t believe in the metaphysical, you do… ok, what next?
The statement that some of the bloggers are full of hate seems over the top. I think he means some of the bloggers write about religion or atheism and are passionate about it. I think it makes him uncomfortable. I think it makes a lot of Christians uncomfortable. It does not translate to hate. It translate for a lack of sympathy for the beliefs of the faithful. They are no longer considered special. It might hurt, but it’s not hate.
I am a nice guy. I spent a great deal of time talking about the concept that what we do is more important than we are what we think. We went down an existential rabbit hole for awhile, but in the end he understood that I’m reality based when it comes to morality. He actually agreed with me in the end. What you do is more important than what you say or by extension, what you believe.
Now pastors… It’s not that I don’t like them. I think that because they claim moral authority, they should be held accountable when they fall. In addition, I grow weary of Christians telling me I am amoral by virtue of my atheism. My blog’s endless parade of hypocrites simply says that if I am amoral, then so are you.
I also described a hug from Jim Jones in vivid detail. But that is a disturbing story for another day.
I shot a few pictures this week. The one at the top I caught as I was driving home. Photography is such good stress relief.