Uncle Roger's Notebooks of Daily Life

Introduction

My life is, to me, ripe with frequent challenges, occasional successes, spontaneous laughter, adequate tears, and enough *life* to last me a lifetime. To you, however, it surely seems most pedestrian. And therefore, I recycle the name I used previously and call this my Notebooks of Daily Life. Daily, because it's everyday in nature, ordinary. These conglomeration of events that are my life are of interest to me because I live it, perhaps mildly so to those who are touched by it, and could only be of perverse, morbid curiosity to anyone else. Yet, I offer them here nonetheless. Make of them what you will, and perhaps you can learn from my mistakes.


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Saturday, April 04, 2009

Of Militant Atheists

Recently, I made a comment in response to a webcomic and I think the idea bears repeating, even expanding upon. Here's my original comment:

We’re not really militant, you know. It’s not that we want to stop people from believing in whatever silly stories they like — if just that if you turn your brain off, you shouldn’t have a say in, well, anything. You don’t get to vote, you don’t get to be in a management position at work, heck, you don’t even get to decide what you can have for lunch. You basically have to go through life with a cork on the end of your fork.

My point is that if you can find your way clear to believe the conflicting and impossible stories in any of the so-called "holy" books, then you are clearly not competent to have a say in how things are run. In fact, I would argue, you're barely competent to manage your own life. Would you want someone voting on matters that will affect you based on the shapes of clouds? No? Well that makes as much sense as any other religion.

And believing that the clouds are signs from some greater power is no less daft than believing that an all-knowing, all-powerful God got so upset that the creations to whom He gave free will actually used that free will, that he had to send his son (who is actually himself) down to be killed to fix the mess.

Now, if you want to believe all that, you're welcome to do so, but don't expect anyone with a lick of sense to take you seriously if you do. Further, don't expect anyone to appreciate it when you try to mess around with other people's lives based on what you think the Magic Man in the Sky told you.

You know, when people say they hear voices that tell them to do things, we usually get them some help or, as a last resort, lock them away before they start hacking the cat (or the kids) to pieces. Except when they say the voice says it's God. Personally, I don't see the difference. Either way, I'd just as soon let you play with your toes over in the corner there where you can't do any harm and leave the running of our society to those who have demonstrated an ability to use their brain to think.

Which leads me to my action point. I think we should start a new movement -- the CorkFork movement -- to get those who are unable to process information and who do not exhibit the ability to think logically some much needed help. And if they don't want help, then to make sure they are able to live out their lives in quiet comfort without bothering the rest of us.

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