A Soldier, An Atheist

Meet Specialist Jeremy Hall, an Army soldier who happens to be an atheist. He was sent home early from Iraq because he was threatened and mistreated after fellow soldiers, including an officer, found out he was an atheist.

Jeremy wasn't an atheist his whole life. He was a Christian who, through open dialog with "atheist leaning" soldiers in Iraq, began to question his faith and later broke free and became an atheist.

So let me get this straight....he voluntarily risked his life in the military, he carried the same gun and wore the same uniform as the other soldiers, but he couldn't get fair treatment because he was an atheist? In other words, he was judged by fellow Christians? Wow, sounds pretty hypocritical to me! It's all just so sad and pathetic. I can certainly empathize with Jeremy, considering I've dealt with the same crap.

See, I'm content to go through life just the way I am. I'm happy, and to me that's all that matters. But I'm not just happy with myself, I'm happy with my life and how I live it. I'm happy to know that I'm not vain or materialistic, but rather, I have enough to get by for now. And if I do have something I no longer need, I'm not quick to just toss it away, instead making a conscious decision to give it back to someone else. Amazing I can give so much of myself as well as find peace in my life and do it just because I want to. I don't do it for a church, or a god, or some old world belief system, or in the hopes it will get me to "heaven." I do it because I want to....and it feels great.

Here are a few quotes to ponder:

Thomas Aquinas: "Clearly the person who accepts the Church as an infallible guide will believe whatever the Church teaches."

Isaac Asimov: "If I am right, then religious fundamentalists will not go to Heaven, because there is no Heaven. If they are right, then they will not go to Heaven, because they are hypocrites."

Robert Green Ingersoll: "Give the church a place in the Constitution, let her touch once more the sword of power, and the priceless fruit of all ages will turn to ashes on the lips of men."

Arther C. Clarke: "The greatest tragedy in mankind's entire history may be the hijacking of morality by religion."

Ridiculous Religion

Here I am again ranting on about my favorite topic....religion. It's been in the news alot lately. I can't deny that some of it has been what I consider progress, but mostly it's the same old bullshit.

Let's start with the progress.... It happens so seldom, particularly for Christians and Catholics, I figured I better make note of it. Of course I'm talking about Pope Benedict XVI's visit this week. I think what he's done so far here has been well received, even by an outspoken atheist like me. I commend him for meeting with and apologizing to priest molestation victims. It's disgusting what some members of the Catholic church did to cover up such a horrendous scandal, so it was very important that the Pope acknowledge their crimes and apologize for what happened.

Secondly, I'm happy to see that the Pope visited a Jewish synagogue and called for continuous "bridges of friendship" between the two faiths. He did this one day after meeting with a multi-faith congregation in Washington DC. I still think organized religion will be the catalyst for the downfall of civilization, but merely acknowledging another faith by the most arrogant faith of all is progress.

And that about does it for the good news. In other news, I just learned a fancy little term called "breaking" which was very popular at the polygamist sect that's been making headlines lately. What's "breaking?" Here's an explanation from Carolyn Jessup, a woman who left the church and wrote a book about it: "The method he would use with infants was a form of water torture,” Jessop said of her former husband. “He would spank the baby until it was screaming out of control, and then he would hold the baby faceup under a tap of running water so it couldn’t breathe. He would do this repeatedly. Sometimes, it would go on for an hour, until the baby was so exhausted it couldn’t cry anymore. This method he called ‘breaking them."

Where in the religious teachings of any organized faith is there anything written about violence to infants?

Nice, huh? All in the name of religion, folks. That mindless following people participate in so they can get somewhere that they've never seen and serve a dude they've never met.

As always, I continue to wish luck upon the magic-man followers. I'll just meander through my life...... volunteering, giving money to charity, doing nice things for people....and doing it all just because I want to and because it makes me feel good. I donated two huge bags of clothes, a computer monitor, a box of dishes and an enormous stack of books to the Salvation Army today. Yep, I gave it right to the group of people who I complain about. But do you want to know why? It's because they don't get in my face. They don't knock on my door during the week when I'm working from home, they don't solicit me by mail or phone.... They just stand at the back door, waiting for people to come and donate their slightly worn goods to those that need them much more.

Amazing what we atheists, lurking among the hypocritical believers, can do. When is the last time you saw an atheist in the news "breaking" a baby or molesting a child? Oh that's right....NEVER. We're too busy spending our time doing good rather than stuck in a building singing songs to the magic-man.

I wouldn't be so irritated at all of this if it didn't impact me personally. I say that because some people just can't accept me being an atheist. They can't wrap their brain around the fact that I don't believe in something that they do. It's ok if we like different foods, vote for different politicians, cut our hair long or short, prefer dogs to cats....all of that. But tell someone you don't believe in God and you better step back!

It's all pretty hypocritical and ridiculous, but for anyone who can't accept me for me, well have a nice life. I'll just sit back and know I'm right, because it really is nothing more than hypocritical to say that "God loves everyone; He doesn't judge; He accepts everyone" and then reject me for not believing that. What I do believe is that we get back what we put out there. We're all made up of energy, and if you put negative energy out into the world, you're going to get it back eventually.....

The Eyes Have It!

After trying on 20 pairs of glasses and spending nearly an hour in front of the LensCrafters mirror...I narrowed my choices to 3. I took a picture of myself with each of them and emailed the masses for feedback. The votes came in...and here they are! I like them and got lots of compliments at work today. I also got a pair of what I think are rather "glam" sunglasses....because they're a little larger than what I've worn in the past. I don't have a pic of those just yet....but let's hope this nice Buffalo weather keeps up and I'll post one later!

Peace out!