What I'm about

Truth is important, but no one always tells the truth.  At least I haven't met anyone who was, and I don't consider that a problem. Most of mankind's problems lay in being dishonest.... to ourselves, to others, to make money, to not lose money. As I get older, I find the one word I constantly have a harder time keeping to myself is "Bullshit!" I can't always tell what the truth is, but it's easy to see when someone isn't being honest.

"But wait.." you say. "If you can't tell if someone is lying how..?"

Since when does honesty have anything to do with lies.

"That's crazy talk." you say.

Nonsense. Honest people lie all the time. That doesn't make them dishonest, although it does make them liars.

"Okay now you're just messing with me."

Honest people don't misrepresent themselves. They may lie, but they don't hide who they are and they don't try to give people the impression that they tell the truth all the time unless they actually do tell the truth all the time. Liars, serial killers, psychopaths, the worst humanity has to offer... yes.. even politicians.... can be honest. It doesn't mean that we have to like them any more.  The problem with politics is not that politicians lie.  It's that they expect us to think that they don't.

I think lying about the big things is wrong: Global Climate Change is a hoax, Obama is a socialist, the right cologne will get you laid.... it doesn't do anything useful to say such nonsense. The only people who say those kinds of things have their own agenda, and it doesn't have anything to do with getting to the truth of the matter or solving any problems except their own.

In all honesty (haha), I don't really have any complex political ideology. I am very outspoken about politics, don't get me wrong. As I grow older I find it harder and harder to keep my mouth shut about a multitude of subjects, mostly having to do with the direction I see our world heading. While I am a United States citizen, I have no great love for Americans. I know how we are seen abroad and much of the things we are accused of are true. I do like the Constitution, though, and I like the fundamental ideals of the United States of America. I think they are such good ideas that we should try them out..... you know... for a change. I'm not bitter about it, but I find myself with less and less patience for the political games people play (and not just politicians) as time goes on.

My political outlook is simple: Anything anyone wishes to do should be allowed unless it denies fundamental rights to someone else. I know close to 100% of the readers of this article will say "Yeah, that's right. I believe that too." but think about it. Really think about what that means, because too many people I have encountered get it wrong with enthusiasm.  What it means.... in part... is that being repulsive is not enough deny someone a right that you enjoy.  Advocating that which you hate is not enough to deny a person the right to speak about it.  Doing things you consider immoral is not enough to lock them up or limit their access to public places or keep them out of any job that is open to you.  No one is a danger to society if all they do is say what's on their mind.  It is actions which may or may not be dangerous, actions such as trying to subvert the rights of others, causing or threatening physical harm to others, theft of property, etc.  Exposing people to ideas they may not agree with is not a danger to society.

Nowhere does the difference between truth and lies matter more than in Religion.

I'm an Atheist. Now that I've made enemies of about half of you, let me tell you what I think that means: It means I don't accept anything without evidence, and I don't believe there is any objective evidence that there is a supreme anything out there. Does that mean there isn't a God of some kind out there? No. It means mankind hasn't got anything that would compel any logical person who has never heard of a religion to say "Hey... I think there is a God." The universe behaves pretty much the way we would expect to behave if there was no one running things. This not only means I don't have any empirical evidence for the existence of a supreme being. It means that you don't either. With the lack of evidence, then belief is a choice. There is nothing forcing you to believe any more than there is something that forces me not to. The difference is: I'm willing to admit it. Are you?  If you can't say "I understand that there is no compelling evidence for the existence of God." then your belief in God is meaningless.

For me personally, it goes beyond mere Atheism. Atheism is where I am now. It doesn't say anything about why I'm here. It would be a mistake to think that I am an Atheist simply because I don't believe in God.  That's only half of it.  If I entertain for the moment the idea that there really is a God, what would that mean? That would mean that there is a creature out there who is so powerful that anyone he has encountered is a mere insect by comparison, yet our understanding of the nature of that being is taken from literally hundreds of conflicting rules created by mostly competing religious folk telling us how to live and what to believe and how to think. In the face of all this conflicting data, they say that I have this thing called an immortal soul that could be damned to hell for eternity if I chose wrong.  My piece of eternity depends on me separating fact from fiction among all of these separate faiths with no more reliable guide than a collection of books that are anywhere from a couple hundred years to thousands of years old, written by men and often are at odds with each other, and from the advice of people who are poor fallible humans, with agenda's and hopes and dreams clouding their judgement about right and wrong. THAT's where your faith comes in. Faith is in believing that in all this monumental babble you can discern a truth that you can bet your soul on with nothing at all to confirm your choice was right.  Knowing the nature of God is the foundation of faith, not just believing in his existence. The mere existence of God is trivial by comparison.

I've read the Bible in it's entirety, a few different versions of it. God is a bastard. He's a real asshole. Destroying whole civilizations because they don't want to follow his rules? Ruining someones life over a bet with Satan? Killing his son to absolve humanity of a sin that no one alive even remembers or was responsible for? This is the moral template we would hold ourselves to?

I respect the fundamentalists. They want a literal interpretation of the Bible. They are whack-jobs who I will fight against to my dying breath, but I can respect them. They don't twist the Bible's meaning to fit the time we live in. They read it and say that we must obey. The rest of Christianity is a puzzle. They update scripture to go with the times... Fair enough, but what does that say about the Word of God? What criteria do they use to toss out or modify a rule? Do they simply toss out rules they feel are "outdated", and hold on to what they feel they can get away with, or do they toss out what they think God doesn't care about anymore?  When asked why a rule exists, we get the standard answer... It is the word of God." But you don't change the Word of God, do you? Yes we do. We've done it for hundreds of years and we'll still do it hundreds of years from now, and it is odd to me that God seems to change his rules to fit the secular world most of the time, even though he is delayed by a generation or two.  The writing is on the wall for homosexuality. Laws against it are being eroded away, and when we've had a generation or two where it is legally acceptable, it will quietly disappear from religious sermons and be struck from the list of "rules we like" for most mainstream religions probably without any mention and certainly without any ceremony and be relegated to fundamentalists literal interpretations only.

I've met tons of religious people. I respect them all as human beings (okay.. some have proven themselves to be less than human, but not the majority). I don't belittle their faith or bring it up in conversation and when it comes up in conversation I say little about it beyond the fact that I don't believe. I have no problem with belief in a God or with the faith of any other human being on the planet, but I have no respect for religion as an organization, as a political or social entity. They have done nothing worthy of respect except in their charity work, but even that is completely overshadowed by secular institutions all over the globe, which is embarrassing considering that more than 80% of the population believes in a God.

Faith is a personal thing. It should not be carried like a flag into battle. It shouldn't be used as a test for morality, and it certainly shouldn't be used to hurt people by taking away their rights or in extreme cases by taking away their lives. You should deal with your own immortal soul and let everyone else deal with theirs because in the end, if you truly believe in your religion, no matter what your particular rules are, it's all about YOUR soul.  That is what you are most concerned with.  The whole ominous construct around religion... churches, mosks, synagogues, priests, cardinals, popes, imams, services, rituals, dogma, etc... is a distraction I have very little time for. Some would say I'm going to Hell, but I don't mind. I'd much rather be condemned to Hell for the kind of person I am than get into Heaven because I subverted my nature to follow the rules out of fear of punishment. Moreover, if I try to be kind and respectful of my fellow man with live and let live as my only guiding light and God is going to punish me for that because I decided not to join his club, then God can kiss my ass. That is certainly not the club I want to join.

So there is it.  I am an Atheist because I believe that there is no God, even if there is. I think it's time for people to act as if they have some stake in when and how things turn out instead of waiting for someone else to tell us when to get off the train. God should not be worshipped. He doesn't need a race of slaves. We have brains and have worthy goals of our own, and we have the whole of human existence to look back on and see what works and what doesn't, what makes civilizations thrive and what destroys them, what makes people happy and what makes them despair.  Why should religion be so focused on proving ourselves to God and not getting things done ourselves?  Why can't we judge our laws by their results and not by the endorsement of a church official?

At some point you have to deal with things yourself, go out into the world and stop making God responsible for everything that happens to you.... or us. I think that time has long since come. Destiny or Gods Plan doesn't enter into it. If there is such a thing, then God has to deal with that end himself and it's out of our hands, but we also have free will, and what good is it if we don't use it? I don't close my door to God, but I'm not going to leave it open on the off chance he might stop by. However, if there is a God (Jesus?) and he wants to visit, he can knock like everyone else. I always keep beer in the fridge, wine in the cupboard and there are ALWAYS Dorito's. If God want's me to do something for him, he needs to speak plainly and let me make up my mind that it's a good thing to do. It's the message that's important, not the messenger. God gets treated just like any other guest in my house. I respect their beliefs, and I expect them to respect mine....... and wipe their feet.