Seems like I’m always reading (or hearing) that atheists are just as bad as religious folks. This theme has a few funny variants! Pushy atheists are just as bad as pushy believers, or maybe they are just as closed minded as fundamentalists. Atheists who force their views on others are just as obnoxious as Christians who do the same. You can add all manner of pejorative adjectives and get the same formula. We non-believers always seem to be just as annoying, just as rude, and get on people’s nerves just as bad as those we criticize.
I guess atheists are justazzy people.
…which I suppose is fair enough, but is being ‘just as’ really just as bad as being what others just are when someone accuses them of being justazzy?
It’s a bit of a dark night where all cows are grey, this world of justazzyness. I guess it’s a question of priorities, and some folks’ priorities don’t leave much place for the the particulars. Those without a damn to give will hear only that others talk too much about a thing and not much about what each has to say about it.
…which makes for a whole lot of justazzyness.
It’s easy enough to imagine the possibilities. We’ve all met the assholes who could easily square this equation off quite nicely. But of course, folks complaining about the justazzyness of non-believers are rarely clear about just what it takes to cross the line into justazzyness. It could as easily be a thoughtful question as a bit of snark; just likely to be respectful disagreement as a bitter bit of insult. I can’t help thinking in most cases one enters the land of justazzyness simply by stating a point of view in the first place.
My old high school used to suspend both parties in a fight, even if one clearly attacked the other. To them defending yourself was just as much a ticket to the principal’s office as picking a fight to begin with. This would seem to have been just as much a case of justazzism as the one that has me up at this fricking hour. It’s 3:30am fer fuck’s sake! And my dreams no doubt find this topic just as poor an excuse for keeping them waiting as any other.
Soon, dammit!
Oddly enough I can’t help thinking this justazzitude is just as unfair to the justazzinination as it is for the justazzinandum. It can be no better to be a measure of damnation than it is to be damned for opposing the damnable. But of course that’s just as one would expect it to be. But is it really a forgone conclusion that faith imparts an evil to anything that shares a measure of whatever it may be? Is belief really such a settled villain that the only question left is will it take its foes down with into a Hell of great peevishness? I’m no friend of Jesus, and even I wouldn’t say it’s such a settled matter as that. But who could fault a fellow for saying ‘no’ to anything so easily dismissed as that? Who but someone who really just wants the issue off the table whatever the costs and whatever the merits of the parties involved?
What a damnable state it must be to live in a world where one can neither affirm nor deny with anything more than a shrug and a meh!
It’s a tragic narrative I suppose. An unbeliever confronts the monsters of superstition and gullibility only to find himself becoming a monster in the eyes of a third party. Try as he might, our soldier of reason can only see in those eyes staring back at him the very darkness he seeks to combat. The vision is painted in broad strokes to be sure, but some eyes don’t see care for detail. There is no argument against apathy. But is faith not the original sin for this tragedy, a seed which bears fruit in the form of a rotten dilemma? One may accept faith, or one may just as well accept it in the very act of denial. Damned if you do and damned if you might as well have anyway.
You have to wonder! Will those impatient souls who make no distinction keep to that mood Saturday and Monday as well as Tuesday and Friday? Or will they take a side some day, perhaps one which is just as present today in their thoughts as it will be when they at least choose to voice it? Not that they will wish to discuss the matter then, now, or ever.
…which is just as frustrating to some of us anyway.
I expect this rant makes just about as much sense as a kite in a bowl of soup, but then again, I’m feeling kinda justazzy tonight.
Anyway, I guess we’ll have cause for concern when folks start talking more about how religious folks are just as bad as unbelievers. When people of great faith are just as bad as us already justazzy folk, then me must have taken a wrong turn after all.
Till then…
From one Just-azzy to another, blessings to you… God love you. Smile.
I see what you did there.
🙂
“A Hell of great peevishness…” Whether this rant was as sensible as a kite in a bowl if soup (the piece’s ither great line), or perfectly rational, it was worth reading for that alone.
I’m glad you found a worthy kite and a happy hell in this one. It’s always nice to see someone enjoyed a line or three.
I’m a militant atheist in principle, though almost no one thinks I’m an atheist irl. In fact, I’ve had someone assume I was deeply religious, because I live a rather quiet and moral life (which to me is a pretty hilarious irony).
Anyway I don’t think it’s just a case of misunderstanding nonbelievers or mischaracterizing us. I think it’s a deliberate attempt to smear us because our mere existence threatens the institutions of faith that demand blind worship, obedience, and most importantly refusing to reason. Reason is the key to unlock the door out of the prison of religion. A person who asserts the primacy of reason threatens the illegitimate control that religion has over poor and confused people. Therefore, religious people, particularly religious leaders, have a tremendous amount of power at stake which is threatened just by having people be openly atheist. Every open atheist demonstrates to the world that one may survive healthily and happily without obeying religion, without succumbing to faith, without saying that we are born in sin and must surrender our minds and hearts to an imaginary being who conveniently wants whatever these leaders want people to do. I feel that this is all about power, and I prefer to call it out as I see it.
I would agree that this is deliberate misrepresentation, but I think the behavior I’m talking about is particularly strong among the luke-warm believers. They want to have their cake and eat it too (i.e. enjoy the psychological comforts of religion without giving it serious thought). They cry foul whenever they confront anyone who takes the subject seriously enough to field a thoughtful argument on topic.
Doesn´t the dilemma lie in the thought that atheists are non believers?
Everyone believes in something don´t they?
I can think of no non-trivial construction of belief that would tempt me to say yes to your last question.
Oh yes … the obnoxious come in all flavors, thus I wonder about the loss of respect for others.
Have read your blog, just as you asked. I think the situation differs in various parts of the world. Where I live it is very common to be an atheïst or agnost, no need to argue or defend yourself. No need for others to try to convert you.
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