The Existence of God

Now, the politics thing from earlier has nothing to do with this post. That had to do with someone earlier tonight trying to hold a conversation as if we had any say in whoever the nutters on the other side of the Atlantic like best by the end of next month.

This has to do with a specific guy.

He's a nice guy. He's well-spoken, has several degrees and has a sense of humor. If he didn't insist on keeping huge snakes in the house, being way too old for me and being attracted to dudes, he'd be my backup in case Boyfriend keels over and dies tomorrow. But, alas, he's too imperfect, so I'm stuck with the question if you can put 'intensive first aid course' on a Christmas wish list. Just in case, y'know?

The problem with the guy is that he can be outspoken. About things that most people don't realise are issues, or care much about. But if the planets align correctly, my facebook feed is suddenly inundated with things like 'government child support, ban or keep?' (He's single and childless) and whether or not to get rid of daylight savings time (with me wondering when it being dark outside mattered much in a society where any successfull corporation works in at least threee vastly different timezones).

Now, I can ignore the political stuff, because he doesn't run for office and these small things change with a higher frequency than my underwear, and my mother raised a very hygienic child in me.

But he has a big thing.

It's religion.

He's an atheist, and seems to think that anyone who isn't, does so out of evil considerations. At least once a week, I get a link or image or status update comparing raising your children religiously to threatening to hire a biker gang to come beat them up with studded clubs.

And it gets on my tits. Mostly because his statuses have a very... Judaïc viewpoint. Religions like Buddhaism where people focus on being good people don't really get discussed. Polytheistic religions where gods are closer to a paid service that influences the world around us aren't glimpsed.

Judaism, Christianity and Islam are the root of all evil, apparently. And those three things are the only options when you're religious.

Now, I've got no idea what I am, religiously. I'm not agnostic, I'm not as Christian or Catholic as is accepted as being religious about it, but since I believe in something, I'm not an atheist or a humanist, either, even if I do believe science and the universe are a thing. My religious life is mostly trying to be an okay person in the humanistic school of thinking, realising things like evolution and stem cell research help us gain a better understanding about the world around us, and believing in a higher power that steers it all. Not necessarily created it, or even mystical. It could be a force like gravity. I believe there's something that makes the universe tick and life something to be thankful and amazed about. My friend has classified this force as science as a whole. Others as nature or a concrete god or set of gods or a principle of living, all with a certain name.

I have no idea about the shape or name, but I've been raised in a Christian tradition (I spent a year more active in a protestant church than I ever was in a catholic one) and it's convenient to agree that 'God' is as good a name as any and that I take comfort in the everyday rituals surrounding it. Yes, I'm lazy, but prayers I've learned a child calm my nerves. I pay tribute to whatever drives all of this, because to ignore and dissect it seems wrong. Uncover it slowly, take your time and always, always be grateful.

Coming together, being grateful, being altruistic, being kind, offering no harm where none is given... That's not a religious thing. On the other hand, it's what I've heard most in churches. I like the idea of faith and religion as a reminder: I have consciously chosen to do these things, because I realise the world would be a better place if more people did them. I literally couldn't care less about what religion you choose to be a part of.

Now, there's also cultural things. Female circumcision, for example. That's never been a religious thing. Several atheistic facebook groups with mildly amusing and/or educational pictures have it down as a religious thing, though. But breast ironing, female circumcision and even castration were never a religious thing. Cultures depict non-mutilated women as whores. European castrati with a good child's singing voice could make more money than any education their parents could offer. There are cultures where you could get more respect as a transsexual prostituting yourself than as a married man raising three kids on two jobs.

I'm not saying these things are right. I'm just saying that godhood isn't involved in this. It's not done to honor or appease a higher power. It's done to either survive or work your way up in life
I'll admit that extremistic religious people are scary and dangerous. And that there's religious customs where you're quite sure it's morally grey at the very least, to downright wrong to do it. Chopping off a piece of skin from a boy's penis, slaughtering an entire animal, every year on a specific day, not out of hunger but to gorge the entire family on, forcing seven-year-olds to attend a service they have no way of understanding for an entire year under the threat of never allowing them into the community if they don't, killing other religious groups or even screaming at people that they're going to hell because, although they're from the same religion and denomination as you, they're not going to the same church as you, telling AIDS-riddled, religious areas that they're not allowed to use condoms if they consider themselves religious... No, I'm not down with that.
. But extremist atheists confuse me. Most extremist groups have a target audience and very rigid policies. Then I came to an extremist atheist group. There were a few funny pictures, several scientists were honored for their achievements... Yes, that made sense. What didn't make sense was where religions were condemned for swaying the minds of children, followed by a repost of a fourteen-year-old claiming to have found her life's faith via their page a few clicks later. Or the one image which was posted twice, about an atheist named Bob who didn't go around rubbing his life's philosophy in other people's faces. In the first, there was the comment 'good on you, Bob'. The second had a three-line outcry about how Bob was part of the problem with today's society and that he should at any cost rip the wool from the eyes of those foolish religious types. These two images literally had one page between them. The page wasn't called the 'Atheist Multiple Personality Disorder Sufferers Support Group', should you be wondering.

And I guess that's what's bothering me about it. I have a sensible, amazing friend, who's into something that knows what it believes in, but spends a lot of its time trying to entertain and/or sway the fence sitters. And faith, even the faith that there is no higher power, shouldn't be a popularity contest.

So that's what I wanted to say.

The next part is just a bit of idle philosophy.

If you were here to follow my train of thought as to why the hell I'm so frustrated at three in the morning after just checking facebook, you've reached your end destination and are free to leave.

The following loosely binds into it, but I've got it mostly figured out.

Your continued mental support in the shape of reading on is appreciated, but not mandatory.

You're absolutely sure?

Well, okay.

I can't stop you, anyway.

I like the Amish. Or I like my understanding of the Amish, since they're one of those denominations that's never quite the same. Like all religious denominations, they have their nutty things, like no music or art or modern technology. But they're quite forward thinking in some respects. They're not people who condone flaming rethoric to sway people to their cause. They live their lives and let others do the same. They respect their surroundings and realise they're interdependent on one another. And even if they raise their children religiously, there is often room for them to experience the modern world and normally unacceptable things before making the choice on how they want to live. As Amish people, as Buddhists or as the most popular Santa Claus impersonator in the Northern hemisphere. All they ask is that, when people with other beliefs come into their lives, these people not force them to go against their own beliefs.

Also, Facebook allows Amish as a religious choice. I abuse this option to make my personal information on that website as unbelievable as possible. Not very respectful, but very few creeps my age are into girls raised to see excessive alcohol use as distasteful, but who also support the British Monster Raving Loony Party.