War on Secularism

You often hear about the war on Christianity or the war on Christmas or the war on this religious concept or that religious concept.  When you look into these claims you find that most of them are as imaginary as any deity.  So what is with all these claims of wars on various religious aspects?  It’s all part of the Christian war on secularism.  It’s an excuse.  It’s an excuse to feel persecuted, an apparent rampant addiction many Christians have.  It’s an excuse to attack what they don’t like.  Christians always seem to be on the attack for something, they always have an excuse for that attack and that excuse is almost always that they are fighting persecution.  Why do they want to force my children to participate in their religious rituals in public schools?  They are fighting the persecution of their children who are harmed by the ban on prayer in school, of course.  Never mind the fact that there is not now, nor has there ever been a ban on prayer in school.  It just can’t be a sponsored prayer.

To this type “persecution” means simply “not getting my way”.  Christians in America seem to have this sense of entitlement.  They think that anything they claim is automatically true.  For instance, intelligent design nuts want us to “present both sides of the argument and let students decide for themselves”.  It’s only fair, right?  After all, what 6^th grader is any less qualified than any given scientist with a doctorate in physics or biology and years of research in the field to decide the merits of scientific theory?  A VAST majority of scientists have rejected intelligent design as the load of crap it is, but they want to teach it to kids anyway, but they can’t because they are being persecuted by scientists who laugh at ID proponents as if they were idiots and laws which prevent them from teaching their version of reality for no reason other than it’s not based in reality.  Boo hoo.  Christians are so persecuted.

What they don’t realize is that secularism is not “anti-religious”.  It does just as much for them as it does for the non-religious and those of other religions.  They wouldn’t, after all, want the Witch’s Creed hanging above the door to their school.  These same whiners that are bitching about theology not being openly taught in our schools would pitch a fit if it were any other religion in our schools.  And this is the reason atheists like me are so angry, so sick of hearing these people flap their ignorant gums.  I call it the “whiny little bitch” syndrome.  They’re like spoiled little brats bitching and whining when they don’t get their way about how unfair everyone is being to them.  Of course they never seem to have a complaint when they are violating the hell out of other people’s rights.  If two guys get married, how does that affect a single straight person?  It doesn’t.  Yet somehow letting it happen would be a violation of the rights of people who are in no way involved in that marriage, will never meet either of these guys and are completely straight (for the most part, of course.  There are closet gays who truly believe they are secretly wicked and hate themselves for it who fight homosexuality with a spiteful passion because the thought of homosexuality simultaneously excites and disgusts them, fueling a self-loathing that, in turn, fuels virulent, spiteful hatred toward people who openly display the tendencies they secretly hate themselves for having, of course).

So, what is “secularism” anyway?  It’s nothing more than lack of religion and religious consideration in the public arena such as schools and governing.  Simply put it means that you don’t take into account religious considerations and other personal superstitions when making law or policy.  Put even more simply, you don’t force your religious beliefs and practices on others.  That’s it.  It doesn’t mean that religion has to be kept a secret.  It doesn’t mean you can’t have or even express your religion.  It doesn’t mean you can’t take personal time to pray in a public location.  It doesn’t mean anyone has to give up any aspect of their religion.  It simply means they can’t force others to participate or live by someone else’s religious rules.  What it means for the schools is that nobody can set aside time for all students so that some students can participate in religious practices.  Students wishing to engage in some archaic ritual can still find a quiet spot to pray, though with today’s zero tolerance policies I’m afraid they can no longer sacrifice their goats on school property due to restrictions on weapons in the school, but that has nothing to do with me.  But it ALSO means that the Christian students don’t have to sit quietly for 5 minutes while the Wiccan kids dance naked around a bubbling cauldron, though as sexually repressed as many Christians are I think they might actually like that.  I know when I was 15 there were a few girls in my class I wouldn’t have minded watching dance naked around a cauldron.

Secularism, in a nutshell, is nothing more than promoting equality for all beliefs by simply removing all beliefs.  In no way does secularism promote atheism, one of the absolutely dumbest and most infuriating claims some Christians make.  To them, not talking about God in the school is the same as telling students God doesn’t exist.  Crap!  I just realized I haven’t talked about how great it is that we aren’t in a worldwide nuclear war all week!  All week long I’ve been promoting nuclear war because I wasn’t talking about it!  It’s a good thing I’m not in charge!  It’s also a good thing I’m not a complete moron who is stupid enough to think that not talking about something is exactly the same as supporting the opposite thing.

Over the years we atheists have been accused of starting many wars and doing many evils when in reality the claim of the war on one thing has been nothing more than a cover for a war on another.  And what has it gotten the bitchers and whiners?  Basically, a war.  Except it’s one sided.  They’re fighting a war on secularism.  From our perspective, we’re not really fighting a war.  We’re fighting for basic rights for all people, regardless of religion, but we don’t see it as a war.  Generally, I think, atheists see it as fighting against stupidity.  This is a war Christianity has been fighting for centuries.  We’ve only just begun fighting in the last few decades.  And already we’re kicking ass.  Church attendance is down, atheism is up, people have begun reporting the vile things their preachers do and the church no longer has the power to cover it up and secularism is winning step by step.  Even over just the last 2 decades the tide has turned so much.  DOMA was passed in 1996 and now, 16 years later, it’s already starting to fall apart in the courts.  Every poll shows acceptance of gay marriage going up drastically over the last decade.  It seems America has always known that “freedom” means that you have to accept that neo-Nazis have a right to spout hate, but they’re just starting to realize that it also means gays have the right to love.  School prayer is banned, creationism is banned, intelligent design (creationism 2.0) is banned…  We’re winning a war we’re not even fighting.  In 10 years time I think this country will see drastic change for the better, and there’s not a damned thing God can to do stop it.  Don’t believe me?  Pray your heart out that he does and see where he gets you.  Compared to moving a mountain, killing a few atheists with lightning bolts from the heavens should be a snap.