"Well, what the fuck do you care?"

I've gotten that one a couple times.

Why do you care enough about what people believe to rant about it so?

Wheeell...


First of all, why care about anything?
And why talk about anything?
Why even have language? Why not let education and discourse as we know it crumble?

Well, we have these things, we have this discourse in our society, we have this damned internet gizmo, so, let's use it, I figure.

And if you cared enough to ask me that question with your little typing digits, we seem to agree that far.

And in this country, we seem to have no problem hashing out political ideas.
The right and the left have no problem at all smashing their skulls together.
It's almost expected.

Religion, however, verboten.

And no one can seem to tell me why.

"Just because".

Well, "just because", doesn't cut it for politics, or anything else.

Why just religion?

More "just because"?

I either get an infinite chain of elaborately worded just-becauses, or the person runs away.

Well, I can assume there's some cosmic answer, that no human being can strain their lips into forming into words, and I have to keep my mouth shut until I die in anticipation of it, or I assume there is no answer, and plow ahead with these investigations, and observations.

Clearly, I went ahead with option two.
Option one wasn't getting us anywhere IMHO, and as my first official blog rant showed, I think it's important enough to pry open and look at like any set of ideas.

And I think compared to the mud wrestling match of politics, I've been pretty damned mild.

Go to a political blog, you'll see right-wingers saying left-wingers have a mental disease, and vice versa, and on and on.
Sooner or later, Hitler will be invoked.

So yeah.
And given the books of religion say even nastier things than that about the non-believer, me trying to be delicate, and sneak up on the subject has been a courtesy on my part.

But, I realize now, as I supposed in that first rant, there's no real way to tackle religion where you won't get venom thrown at you.
But, as I also said in that rant, given where the world is now, it's a discussion, and a debate that needs to be had.

I think.
I could be wrong, I could be persuaded.
But even that relies on opening the discourse.

Well, anyway, that's why I care enough to even discuss the topic of religion, but then there's the "but why do you trash it so?", element of the question.

Wheell...I'm an atheist, and I've been laying out why I'm an atheist.
I don't agree with these ideas, I don't find them to be divinely inspired, and I think they're harmful.
And I lay out why I think that.
I could be wrong.
I could be persuaded.
But again, that relies on opening the discourse.

Anyway, given I think that, I think atheism is a morally and intellectually superior way to manage one's life.
Otherwise, I wouldn't be one.

And I've laid out why I think that.
I could be wrong, I could be...well, you get the idea.

Okay, but why not leave it alone, keep it to myself, etc?

I suppose I could....

But, I'd have to be very uninterested and uninvolved in the world to do so.

I've become interested in the goings on in the world, because the world has gotten too small to avoid.
There was this little thing called 9/11, perhaps you've heard of it?

And looking into that little malfunction, it was unavoidable for me, wired as I am, to not peer into the world hard, and deep, and thus it was unavoidable to conclude there's a lot of bullshit in the world.

Given that, it was unavoidable not to peer into the sources of bullshit, and see religion was one of them.

And given bullshit is an inescapable problem in our shrinking little planet, it was unavoidable that I see it as something to fight against.

And I had that epiphany moment that made it inescapable to me that it had to be fought, or I'd simply lose myself.

Oh, there are of course, the other sources of bullshit, and I've outlined them too.

You've got your sources of political mind control, you've got advertising, you've got the deep seated cultural insecurities that a lot of the other bullshit springs from, you've got the knee jerk bullshit people lash out with when you poke at that bullshit, and then of course, you've got the superstitions, that are at the core of the world's religions.

And I bet ya, I bet ya good money, if I hadn't thrown prayer into that last one, EVERYONE would've gotten on board for that one.

When it's the other guy's superstition, the religious person has no trouble bashing it.
Ghostbusters? Fortune tellers? Crystal wavers?
How ridiculous!
What ridiculous fools those people are!

Hell, if it's the unpopular religion of the cultural moment, you can really let it fly.
"Islam?
Why, it's a barbaric mongrel faith!
Let's use the Quran as toilet paper!
HAW! HAW! HAWW!!"

Hmm, maybe that's why there's no answer to my questions in regard to why it's a hands-off subject.

There's really no rational answer.

It's all emotion driven.
You just not supposed to discuss it.
And you're just supposed to know this.
And this just because reasoning is some sort of "wisdom".
But no one is allowed to tell you, because you're just supposed to know, and if you just don't know, you'll figure it out eventually, if we beat on you enough.

Yeah, there are a lot of things growing up that hid behind that veil.

Bullshit, all of 'em.
Every last one.
To a tee.

It's an unimpressive argument, and the big secrets it hid were equally unimpressive.

If there's a better argument than that, please inform me of it.

Maybe it ruins "the big plan".

Hmmm...I admit, I'd kind of like to ruin the big plan.
I could be talked out of it, but again, no one has persuaded me it's a bad idea.
Again, the discourse needs to be open for that to happen.

Present me with good arguments, please, or I'll crush the lightbulb, I'll do it.
I don't think it'll be the end of the world.
If it is, convince me.

Okay, that's why I rant and rail period, and that's why religion is in the mix, but why harp on religion all the time, even in other rants?

Well, again, because that's the protected one.

And all the other forms of bullshit connect together.

So religion connects to all of them.

And, because I'm a comedian, and much of my humor derives from odd human behaviors that violate my sense of reason.
And religion has an infinite supply of those sorts of things.
Holy books are a comedy goldmine.

I could harp on the government, but there's a set boring pattern to their bullshit.
Greed, and authoritarianism, and that's been beaten to death.

And I could bang on commercialism more, but that just sucks the life out of me for some reason.
How many ways can you go MST3K on the bitch in the Glade commercials until you just want to go fucking die in a corner, y'know?

So, those are my intellectual, moral, and emotional arguments for why I care.

But, in the end, I guess it comes down to that I care because I care.

And all the arguments for not caring don't add up for me.

And the above explains why.

Now, from now on, I can paste the link to this if the question comes up again.
Saves me a lot of wear on the fingertips.