God is love? Yeah, so is a cornered rat...

In light of recent events in the world, I have felt compelled to jot a blurb about the way that I, as an atheist, am feeling right now. The words "sadness", "disgust" and "anger" immediately come to mind after the horrific attack on Norway. Even more disgusting is our own media's ready dismissal of it. In today's Islamophobia, they were quick to jump on the "Muslim terrorist" bandwagon. Then, once they found out that it was a right-wing christian, the terminology changed from "terrorist" to "extremist."

No, he is still a "terrorist". It doesn't matter what the beliefs are, a terrorist by any other name is still...a terrorist. It doesn't matter who perpetuates the crime. What really pisses me off in all of this are the stories that I hear almost daily from fellow atheists about abuse suffered at the hands of so-called christians. For all of their preaching about "god is love", the religious spew a LOT of hatred. They discriminate, name-call, harrass, deface property, and even assault those who don't agree with them. That's hardly consistent with the message that they claim to be trying to spread.

 I have been called stupid, immature, ignorant, hell-bound, evil, pathetic, worthless, angry, miserable and sad. I have been accused of killing puppies, I have lost professional contacts, friends and family members because they found out that I was an atheist. Now, with all of that, you would think that I was a genuinely evil and hateful person. Truth is, I'm not that much different than most other human beings. I'm more open-minded and less judgemental than your average christian, but I go to the store and buy groceries, I pay my taxes, I donate to charity, I vote, and I have a family much like anyone else around here. I am just a normal human being who refuses to believe in ancient myths. I don't feel the need to do good to avoid the fires of hell. I do good simply because it's the right thing to do and like most other atheists that I know, I have a genuine desire to make the world a better place to live in for everyone.

There have been very few violent acts committed in the name of atheism. There have been countless acts of hatred and violence committed in the name of "god". When you're the ones spreading the hatred and perpetuating acts of violence, maybe you should stop and take a look at yourselves. Ask yourselves if what you're doing REALLY makes any sense. Do you really think that the way to convert people to a "doctrine of love" is by terrorizing and killing them?

WAKE UP PEOPLE! It's time to stop the insanity, stop the hatred and stop listening to those who would have you hate others and discriminate against others simply because their opinion doesn't mesh with yours. Let people live their lives, go live yours and stop worrying so much about what your neighbor is doing. Mind your own business and maybe your life will be better for it.

http://notachristian.org/christianatrocities.html