Today I was reading the Friendly Atheist's blog, looking in the section on death. I was wondering if anyone else had been through what I have been through, losing someone that you cherish deeply, and feeling that they are "lost forever". It's a horrible feeling and no one should have to go through it. But the first thing I noticed was a question, raised by someone who lost his mother. The thing is, he's an atheist, and he's trying to explain to his kids what he believes.
What happened is I was reminded of a certain event from my childhood. Now, I never used to be an atheist like I am now. I grew up in a Lutheran family. We used to go to church all the time (until they started getting greedy with tithes, or so my parents claim) but the fact that I was on that site, at that time, feeling the way I felt, made me put my life experience into perspective. I think I know why I'm a skeptic. It's because of Santa Claus.
Who knows if I'm the only one who thinks this, but I'm sure 99% of the people reading this remember at some point in their childhood, the myth that is Santa Claus. He's fat, he rides a sled pulled by 9 reindeer led by Rudolph (which was actually created by Montgomery Wards, believe it or not) and he hops down the chimneys of all the good boys and girls in the world, filling their stockings with goodies, and leaving presents under the Christmas tree, all for the measly price of a plate of milk and cookies. Not a bad deal, really, since money wouldn't really be that useful to him. And if you're one of those 99% of people, then surely you remember being told that him, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, and all those other fantastical creatures you might have believed in as a kid, were just things that your parents made up. Complete BULLSHIT! I don't know how most people would feel about it, as I don't get many chances to REALLY socialize with people, but I can tell you how I felt. It was as though I was lied to, and even though I know I'll never have kids, I can say that if I ever did decide to have kids, I would never tell them a bald-faced lie like that. Ever. I still give my parents crap about leading me on about this "Santa Claus" person. They try to say it was for fun or whatever, but then my response is usually "How is LYING to me FUN!?"
More recently, though, that's how I've been feeling about religion. Too many unanswered prayers and a heartbreak later I'm completely confident that God, or whatever else you want to call it, is a lie. Just like Santa Claus, or the Easter Bunny, or the Tooth Fairy, or anything like that. But this isn't just some kind of lie that your elders will tell you doesn't exist when they think you outgrow it. Even the elderly believe it. After all, your average person probably would tell you "The Bible" is written by God or some crap. It was written by various people, over different periods of time. The Bible has several different authors, and they just happen to write about the same thing; God. But the impact that THIS lie has on entire groups of people is more widespread and perverse than Santa Claus will ever be. Groups of people get killed for lies like these! (Native Americans, anyone?)
Well, now that I've gotten that off my chest, I'm going to go detach myself from this screen for a little bit to take a breather.
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