Friday, April 9, 2010

A Letter from a Concerned Fundie.



What I'm going to do is, instead of just assuming you know why this is stupid and move on, I'm going to pick this apart sentence by sentence to really drive the point home here. Seriously, this is just stupid.

"It's time to stomp out the atheists in America."

How typical of a fundie. Within the first sentence, the topic has already turned to violence.

"The majority of Americans would love to see atheists kicked out of America."

Hmm... I wonder if this woman has a statistic to support that statement, or if she's just being religious and expecting her readers to be the same by merely accepting an opinion as fact without evidence. The actual fact is that atheists make up about 20% of this country. Religious literalists and extremists actually only make up about 30% of this country. The remainder are moderates, religious liberals et cetera, whom I'm sure would not like to see people kicked out of a country based on lack of faith. That is, unless, there is such a matter of truth in the religious hostility against inquiry and skepticism.

"If you do not believe in God, then get out of this country."

How about this proposition: if you want theocracy, then go somewhere where theocracy already exists. Seriously, Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, these countries are very nice. And they're just like you would like them, crazy Fundie. Hostile toward inquiry, homosexuality is illegal, prostitution is punishable by death and so is atheism, and violence riddles the country all in the name of God. This should be perfect for you.

"The United States is based on having freedom of religion, speech, etc... which means you can believe in God anyway you want (Baptist, Catholic, Methodist, etc...) but you must believe."

Where, kind fundie, is that written in any constitutional text? Is that like saying, "Freedom of religion means you can accept Jesus Christ as your lord and savior any way you want,"? Because that's what I just read there. Notice she didn't mention Islam, Buddhism, Wicca or any other religion; just Christian denominations. Well, this lady is obviously smarter than Thomas Jefferson who pointed out that the "Highest freedom within religious liberty is the freedom FROM religion."

"I don't recall freedom of religion meaning no religion."

See above.

"Our currency even says, 'In God we Trust.'

You're right, it certainly does. In fact, In God We Trust was added to US currency shortly after the civil war, and it was, in fact, added by former confederates who justified their right to own slaves out of literal biblical quotations such as, "However, you may purchase male or female slaves from among the foreigners who live among you. You may also purchase the children of such resident foreigners, including those who have been born in your land. You may treat them as your property, passing them on to your children as a permanent inheritance. You may treat your slaves like this, but the people of Israel, your relatives, must never be treated this way." (Leviticus 25:44-46 NLT) Is that the message we want to carry onto our children?

"So, to all atheists in America, get off our country."

Hmm, the funny thing about this statement is this fundie seems to have some sort of ownership complex. You know, the first recognized white men who landed here were the British outcasts that we call Pilgrims (of which this woman is the contemporary). They came there, slaughtered thousands of people, stole and raped their women, stole and raped their land and started burning people. It wasn't until the Enlightenment Era that this started to change and a group of men took the helm of this country. We call these men The Founding Fathers of America. A group primarily made up of secularists, Enlightenment readers and authors, and, dare I say, Miss Lack Ye Education, ATHEISTS! They tried to set things right. They established the church/state separation, which I'm sure our fundie would argue is a "myth", the made laws and signed declarations and constitutions to ensure the liberties of all people of all faiths, lack of faith, race, sex and so on... These liberties, ones that you're trying to deny people, were the very foundation of this country. So I guess the better question is this: Why don't you get the hell off our country?

"Atheists have caused the ruin of this country by taking prayer out of schools and being able to practice what can only be called evil."

Well, atheists certainly are evil people. I mean, the way we bomb abortion clinics, fly planes into buildings, blow up Meccas of faith and communication, shoot doctors in broad daylight, inhibit the progress of science and health care, deny people treatment based on their beliefs. Oh wait, that's not us, that's YOU! And you're right - ceasing the forced prayer of children in the publicly funded education system certainly has caused the downfall of this country. Because if there is something a country needs to be happy and surviving, it's forced prayer and religious oppression.

"I don't care if they have never committed a crime, atheists are the reason crime is rampant."

Okay, if you can show me a statistic that shows clearly and without dispute that our Nobel Laureates in biology and chemistry or even physics are molesting children at the same or a higher rate than Catholic priests, bishops, cardinals and popes, I'll concede. You won't find it, but I'll hold myself to that. But perhaps you've found reasons that I haven't regarding consistent world-wide statistics that clearly show the less religious a country is, the happier its people are and the more liberties its people enjoy. Let us remember that liberty, freedom and personal autonomy were inventions of the Enlightenment Era, and not of the world of theocracies which the era existed to protest. Perhaps it's because they don't derive their morals from a book that condones slavery, stoning disobedient children, killing disobedient women, killing homosexuals, killing people of other faiths, marrying boys and girls as young as age six, and overall, burning alive all those who would disagree with you.

Maybe they're taking their morals from the brains that evolution (something I'm sure you also have a problem with) gave us. To be kind to one another, to love your neighbor, to not judge others, to be faithful to your loved ones, to take care for your fellow man and your planet, to be charitable, to be kind to animals; you know, like Jesus thought (something with which I'm sure you're completely unfamiliar).

You know, Alice, people like you are the reason there is so much angst against organized religion in this day and age. People like you are the reason that when people think of religion, they think of poverty, war, suffering, slavery, bigotry, violence, racism, fascism, etc... People like you are the reason that I'm not just an atheist, but a rather militant one as well. People like you are the reason I think the world would be better off without religion - it's certainly not the moderates who make me feel this way. Your bible is a book of hate and mine is a book of science. Which one do you think is going to encourage progress and freedom, and which one to you suppose would impede upon it.

I normally save this for Fun With Fundies, but you, my crazy dear, are BAT-SHIT CRAZY!

Thanks for reading.