I think what attracts one person to another is their ability to see something in the exact same light. They say opposites attract, but only for so long until the things that they disagree on starts to separate them. At least that's how I feel, though I'm a bad example because I'm a cynic and foresee anything that is built has a date with destruction.
One of my best friends and I connect over our atheism. We are constantly inspecting the world around us and scrutinizing beliefs for their fallacies as well as their truisms. So when someone retweeted: "I don't get how someone can say I don't believe in god because I don't go to church. When was faith was based on church attendance?"
Alright, I don't doubt that homeboy believes in god, because how could anyone even know that but him? What I find ironic is how it is literally in the 10 commandments (or the biblical constitution) that you must attend to church to commemorate god. I am a frickin atheist and I know this! I wanted to explain this to him, ie. correct him, but the thing about being atheist is that you must keep your beliefs to yourself, otherwise you're considered insensitive or arrogant. It's fine for Christians to plaster their beliefs up and down and left and right, but if atheists were to do the same, it would be "offensive". High five for double standards!
Because I'm me, I couldn't let this go untouched. All I did was simply tweet: "I just about had to school a Christian on Christianity, but I didn't because it would escalate to an argument probably." My atheist best friend "favorited" it and I laughed. She understands me. I took this as a cue to text her and fill her in on my motive for the tweet, so I started explaining a conversation I had with my brother.
J: I called Marc the other night to talk about "Law and Order: Special Victims Unit" and we ended up having a 45-minute religious debate. LOL. Needless to say, he called me a hypocritical bigot.
Homie: I just power-rolled my eyes, just so you know
J: Me response- I hate catchy choruses too
J: **my
J: Goodness. Typing like the Cookie Monster & shit.
J: No, he thinks I'm a hypocrite because I try to promote open-mindedness, yet I myself am not open-minded, since I don't openly accept Christian ideology. To which I explained to him that I was one and studied it for 16 years before I decided it was illogical and untrue.
To which he says is an even greater mystery as to how I was, in fact, a Christian for so long and suddenly changed my point of view.
I didn't have an educated response at the time, but I've been thinking about it the past few days and I have 2 rebuttals.
H: Do tell!
J: 1. You used to believe in the Easter Bunny for several years until you found sensible evidence to prove otherwise.
H: Love it love it
J: 2. The reason I started out believing in god is because that's what my mom fed me. Then I went to a private kindergarten where they taught me religion. They were my influences until the day came where I was in charge of my beliefs and used the knowledge I gained over the years to make a sensible conclusion.
H: Noice
J: OMFG if that is a Key and Peele reference, we should probably just make love now
H: It was indeed!!
J: Oh ya. But the debate was pretty great. I held my own. Although he did mind-fuck me at one point and I was forced to reword a statement.
H: What did he say?
J: I explained to him that knowing our origins won't affect how we live tomorrow or next week. I asked him if he would become a murderer tomorrow if he found out today that god truly doesn't exist and he said no.
J: Oh, the mind-fuck thing? Here it is:
J: I started with the basic truism that "snakes can't talk". He said "that isn't true. A snake may be able to talk, other snakes know what they're saying." I said, "Still... it can't talk."
He said, "Do you understand Arabic?"
I said, "No."
He said, "By your logic, because you don't understand what someone speaking Arabic is saying, therefore they're not talking."
J: So I recanted with― humans cannot communicate with snakes to the extent the bible exhibits.
H: Nice save
J: So I told him, "It's okay that I'm atheist because Jesus died on the cross for all sins and therefore I will still hypothetically go to heaven." Then Bizzle whipped out a bible verse that states, in sum, all sins will be forgiven except not having faith in the holy trinity.
H: Damn
J: I didn't reply then, but a thought occurred to me a few days later― if the bible is supposed to be taken completely literal, Deuteronomy 22:13-21 says, "A marriage shall be considered valid only if the wife is a virgin. If the wife is not a virgin, she shall be executed."
H: Checkmate
J: Also, wearing different fabrics is a sin, divorce is a sin, and so is premarital sex, which the majority take part in.
J: I'm not understanding how I can lead this perfectly wholesome life where I don't hurt others, I don't participate in promiscuous sex, and am a giving person, yet I can't get into heaven for the mere fact that I am atheist, whereas a man who raped and murdered a child becomes "born again Christian" and has the chance to go to heaven. If that's the case, this is not the type of god I want to associate with.
H: Yussssssss
J: I asked my brother why he did believe and he said when he was 8 or 9 he heard my Mexican grandma reciting her Hail Marys and that when he saw how devoted and passionate she was about Jesus, he said there was no way it couldn't be real.
J: I said― similarly, a Nazi soldier would recite his creed and genuinely believed that what he was standing up for was the truth and that it was right.
He said, "Ya, but the Nazi creed was made and written by man."
H: Please tell me you said "so is the bible"
J: I didn't because he clearly wasn't making that mental connection on his own
J: At one point he said I feel sorry for you
J: And I said― no, no... it is I who feels sorry for you
J: He thought I was mocking him
H: So it ended in a stalemate?
J: I said― no, I'm not. In the time you commit to reading the bible or going to church, you could be devoting that time to biology or chemistry or physics or astronomy. You could be discovering a cure for cancer, figuring out more efficient and ground-breaking ways to put man further into space, or figuring out a legitimate way to filter industrial pollution into clean air. Albert Einstein was an atheist and look at everything he discovered!!!
J: No, it ended with him calling me a bigot and saying that he loves me all the same.
H: That would piss me off even more
J: Hahaha. It didn't because I know that I'm more knowledgeable about what I'm talking about than he is. Shit, I could have a whole argument for my opposition. I know my stuff.
H: You do indeed
I hope you have a friend that supports you and comforts you like I do.
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