A scourge lies upon the Land of the Free.
A disease is rampant, and has achieved induration upon the fundamental parts of our body politic. The fashion of violent anti-intellectualism. Religious fundamentalists have seized the megaphone of our Presidency through the manipulations of some of the least-capable clowns ever elevated to high office since the end of inbred monarchical rule. And these fools have sought to infuse into the very fabric of our daily life their ridiculous ideas with the notion of suppressing secular thought -- one assumes forever.
I was like all human beings born without religious beliefs. What separates me from most of Humanity is that I was also raised without them. Throughout my adolescence and adulthood it was frequently imparted to me that my ideas did not warrant popular approval.
At some point in my early adulthood, it dawned on me that I hadn't asked for approval. Or permission.
I styled myself agnostic for a very long time, because people seemed more receptive to the idea that I hadn't yet decided. This meant to them that I might be saved. But by my '20's I realized I had to shit or get off the pot. That was the late 1980's, when the current eruption of McReligion was just beginning.
I saw today's hyper-fundamentalism as utterly fake and crass commercialism. The faith of the modern fundamentalist is rooted in denying things that every other sane reasonable person accepts. I realized that in that context there was no point in entertaining the notion of a Creator. Everyone who was was doing so in order to get on a bandwagon of popular reality, not because it meant anything spiritual to them. Everyone who promulgated this story was doing so, in my opinion, out of intense dishonesty.
I've been told on more than one occasion that I'm viewed as a deeply spiritual person despite my atheism. I guess I take from that the notion that finding meaning in life comes not from Crackerjack (TM) Brand Religion Pops, but from swimming strongly away from the shores of the familiar in life.
I exist because I exist. I do not need the permission of the Moral Majority to fail to believe in God. I do not require the stamp of approval of Reverend Whatshisfuck to put a seal on the quality of my character. I am the sum of my actions and ideas and I have apologies for neither to date.
This blog will serve to narrate my journey as a literally unwashed heathen through the seas of narcissistic, pseudo-spiritualistic, self-aggrandistic hysteria that is modern religion. I am one of the many who view religion as the source of many of Mankind's deeply-rooted psychological and social issues. I do not believe it is ultimately a positive force, but rather an outmoded reflex that can be amputated with the same lack of detriment that an appendix can. And just like an appendix, one's religious belief can be infected with a toxin-spewing parasite that ultimately kills the host. Just ask the survivors of Jonestown . . .
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