Jesus Ain't Comin' Back

The other night, we went to the bar and a guy came up saying he was gonna enter some singing competition, Nashville Star.  I guess it's like American Idol or something.  He was hoping to win some money at least to be able to pay his mortgage.  I told him I hope he does well.  He told me he would because God was on his side.  I more or less exited the conversation after that.

Yesterday, I saw a bumber sticker that read "Keep Christ in Christmas".  I was mildly annoyed.  Christmas isn't even the kid's birthday.  Not to mention there are an awful lot of faiths out there that have winter celebrations of their own.  It's selfish for any religion to assume that theirs is most important or right in their beliefs because they have the most followers.

Brad Pitt's mom recently wrote a letter to her local paper endorsing Mitt Romney citing that he holds good Christian beliefs since he's Mormon.  Good Christian beliefs like homosexuality is an abomination and that any god would give Joe Smith his word on golden tablets.

In the comment section of the article I read about Mama Pitt, someone had mentioned Jesus returning to strike down the non believers and sinners.  I love how some people that are supposed to be about love and forgiveness use their savior as a weapon or threat.  I'm sure Jesus loves it when you think of him as a big brother to come and beat up all the mean sinners.

To me the belief in a god seems just ancient and ridiculous.  It's 2012 and people still spend their lives reading, rereading and debating stories about men that comes back from the dead, people hearing voices from burning bushes, men that single handedly topple buildings, and battles for the fate of the world.  I read about that kind of stuff in comic books because I enjoy that cheesy, fantastic stuff but I will always know it's a fantasy.

I recently told my parents I am an atheist.  They promptly came to the decision that I'm being brainwashed.  You know, because I can't think for myself and not believing in God is wrong.  As soon as I had the courage to declare myself an atheist I made myself an outcast.  My belief in empirical evidence is seen as lunacy while a belief in the power of Christ is seen as an unquestionable reality. 

My parents don't like it.  My mother even tried to use it against me this weekend as an attack on my character.  She and I were talking to relatives and they asked about my wedding plans.  I mentioned an outdoor wedding.  My aunt asked if they church was going to be involved, rather innocently since she didn't know I was atheist.  My mother was quick to declare I didn't believe in God in a venomous bite of gossip.  It didn't get very much traction as my aunt and cousin are reasonable women.

I know that Superman is an amazing character.  I know he seems to always do right and gives of himself to save the world but Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster, two Jewish teens from New York, invented him out of thin air.  He's got qualities that we can all admire but he's no more real than Thor or Hercules or Rama or Luke Skywalker.  The fact that these characters are not real should not diminish their deeds as any less noble.  If someone does something nice for someone because his thinking is "Superman would help given the opportunity and I want to do nice things to be a bit more like him." I see no problem with that but no one should be worshipping the man of steel.

Why is it that Jesus, God, or any other mythological creature so special that it has to be the truth?  People are often desperate to believe in something that gives the universe meaning.  For some reason, the existence that we have isn't enough.  We can breathe and think and read and tell jokes and make music but if we don't have a destiny determined by someone we never see it all becomes meaningless, is that what I am to understand?

That's ridiculous.  I am the product of billions of years of evolution.  I am the pinnacle of everything that has come before and led up to me.  Science can prove this.  My destiny lies in my next step.  I need no god to tell me what is right or just or divine.  I can use the stories in the Bible, or Action Comics, or the novels of Ernest Hemingway for guidance but I will never mistake them for the absolute truth of the universe.

There is so much more in the universe than some hokey religions and traditions used to explain the universe and morality to cave dwellers with severely limited tools.  I have access to almost limitless knowledge.  I live in an era where many of the great secrets one could ever have known can be known and proven.  I will not allow the things I do not know to be hidden in the shadows of mythological figures because what we might uncover makes us feel insignificant or uncomfortable.  If the truth is uncomfortable then we should be uncomfortable.  To settle for less than that would insure our insignificance.