Tofur: The Unusual Athiest

As promised, here is the follow up to my little gripeabout crazy ass bible thumpers giving faithless people like me grief. However, this post is NOT about shitting on religion and giving those extremists crap (even though I could write hundreds of blogs ripping extreme faithful sheeple apart). I am posting this to point that I am not like those very outspoken and annoying atheist that get in your face and poo poo all over anybody that has even an inkling of faith. These obnoxious atheists give the rest of us an extremely bad name. I really don't know what pisses me off more…preachy clueless sheeple or preachy self righteous atheists.

What these loud mouthed "heathens" have done is make this world a pain in the ass to live in. These, for a lack of a better word, assholes do not have a clue about who are what is in the majority. This is what makes me as a perceived unusual atheist. I know that roughly 80% percent of the U.S. is Christian and the rest made up of other faiths, agnostics and atheists. I also know that atheists are doubling in numbers every few years and that lets me know that reason and intelligence is growing in this country. 'Tis a good thing. As many times before, I digress. Even though I know that reason is growing and faith is shrinking, I am still only a drop in a very large ocean and it will be very silly of me to try to take on the powers that be. Moving on…

Here are a few things that make me different from what a person thinks of a faithless heathen like me should be…

1. I celebrate Christmas. Yep…that's right, I actually enjoy the season. However, I do not celebrate the religious side of it. No Jesus, no 3 wise guys, no bright stars. None of that. I celebrate the spirit of giving, joy and all that other mushy stuff like hanging with the family. Seeing my kid's eyes light up when they see the fat man, Christmas lights and the like just make me feel good. I already have my tree up. Now if the snow can only melt faster so I can go Griswold outside.

2. Most of the 10 Commandments are a good thing. The holy BS items can go but the "not killing" and whatnot make total sense. I am not going to make a big stink if I saw them printed in a court house or any other government establishment.  However, I will state for the record that they do not belong there.  It shows support for a religion and the is a no-no in the 1st Amendment.

3. The teachings of Christ minus the god part are good. Love one another. Be good to one another. This is all good. If you follow it as a philosophy or stories to teach about being a good person, complications will go away. It is the whole devotion thing that causes people to fight whose God has the bigger dick. Most wars in the world have been fought over religion.

4. I don't mind that our money says "In God We Trust". Again, that is part of our history. It symbolizes that we want to be good.  However, IT IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL and flies against the 1st Amendment and the history is recent that it was put on the money. 1955 and 1956 to be exact.  Our founding fathers would shit brick over that and it should be removed to follow the Bill of Rights.  Just saying.

5. If somebody says Merry Christmas to me, I will say it back. The same can be said if somebody says "Happy Hanukkah" and any other holiday phrase. It will not offend me. Why should it? They are enjoying a happy time of the year and are trying to share their happiness. Go with it man…

6. I am not "brainwashing" my kids like Kirk Cameron thinks all atheists do. My children are aware that people talk of God, Jesus and various other religious figures and I will answer their questions that they may have about any of it. I am not teaching them any of this however. I am letting them be children now and as they get older I will allow them explore their options of religions and philosophies. I will, like my mother, try to expose them to all of the major religions. They need to know about them if they are to make it in this world. If they want to pursue faith, I will support them. They will always be my children and will love them always regardless if they believe in the supernatural and fantasy.

The few things that I do fall in line with the other heathens are that there MUST be a separation of church and state. The founding fathers of this country believed this too AND they were people of faith. I am not talking in strict adherence of banning prayer groups the meet after school or anything like that. That is where those loud mouths come in and want. They see things in black and white when it comes to church and state. The founding fathers did not want religion and the organized churches influencing the governing body of this country in making laws based in faith like had been going on in Europe before. That is what this country was built on. Blue Laws come to mind as I mention this. These are laws that were based on influence from religion and they should not exist. Other than that, as far as religion is concerned, I say live and let live. As long as they don't push their views and agenda on me, I will return that favor to them. I also leave them be if they do not lobby the government. They stay out…it's all good.

OK…I got that out of my system. After getting these two blog posts out, I feel good now. If anybody wants to engage in intelligent conversation about my views of religion, I will happily comply. Just don't come into it thinking that I will be persuaded to change in anyway. My views and thought processes on this whole thing formed when I was very young and only have been strengthened as I experienced the world. I will also not get all in your grill either about your faith. Like I said, intelligent conversation, no fighting.