The Snarky Humanist

My husband sent me this article today: Faith no more , specifically noting the comments by Ben Goldacre: I think probably the main answer to your question is: I just don't have any interest either way, but I wouldn't want to understate how uninterested I am. There still hasn't been a word invented for people like me, whose main ex­perience when presented with this issue is an overwhelming, mind-blowing, intergalactic sense of having more interesting things to think about. I'm not sure that's accurately covered by words such as "atheist", and definitely not by "agnostic". I just don't care. The reason husband sent me this was because he thinks it describes my own atheism pretty well. It also explains my musing in my Welcome post about how unaffected I am to insults about my beliefs. But Ben and I are not identical, because I do care. It's just that I care about other people's struggles, and choose not to have any of my own. Husban...

I know . It's such a pain when you're forced to do your out loud praying at home, church, or a million other non-government public places. And it's awful that you can't even send your kid to public school and expect him to be taught about the science of creationism. America isn't faaaiiiirrrrr! Except yes, it is. Most people don't realize that in addition to having a freedom of religion, we also have a freedom from religion. This means that we are free to not practice any religion at all. It also means that we're free from being forced to participate in religious ceremonies and traditions. Except, it's not a law that's taken very seriously, particularly in the South. I'm still thinking about Damon Fowler , and how indignant students at his public school were told they weren't allowed to pray at graduation (not that it matters since they went ahead and did it anyway). I had someone tell me that they think prayer should be recited i...

I mean, really. You're just asking for trouble if you decide to be outspoken about your lack of belief in God. Sure, you have every right to believe what you want (this is America!), but it's better for everyone if controversial beliefs are kept silent. Oh wait, I mean the exact opposite of that. I've been thinking about this a lot since the Damon Fowler incident. I had someone say to me during a discussion of the issue that "he brought this on himself". I flinched internally at this. It reminds me far too much of the struggle gays* continue to go through because so many people would prefer that they keep who they are a secret. Discrimination isn't a fight between right and wrong. It's a fight between what's right and what's accepted . We know that the discrimination Damon suffered as a result of his request that his public school stop breaking the law was wrong , but many people also don't have a problem with it. This worries me. I ...

I have to blame my husband for getting me "into" atheism. By which I mean the culture, concerns, and why atheism means more than just not believing in God. I became an atheist all by myself years ago by way of this timeline: Catholic > recovering Catholic > agnostic > atheist. It was roughly a ten year process for me, and in my opinion, an individual's belief system should be something that's given much consideration and allowance to change and grow over time. I'm wary of someone who wakes up one day and says "I just decided that I don't believe in God anymore. Viva la' atheism!". Granted, if I hadn't had that pesky Catholicism to deal with it may have taken a lot less time to get to where I am today. I've never had any issues with being an atheist, and I still don't. I don't often get worked up over the useless-impossible-to-win debate between theists and non-theists, and I have a very deep respect for people wh...