Last night in a quick aside when he mentioned the question from the GOP Debates the night before about whether or not any of the candidates had ever spoken to God (giggle, I know if there had not been a national audience at least Cruz and Huckabee would've answered in the affirmative and offered the myriad conversations full of the good Lord's glorification of their own good deeds), Maher said 7.5 million Americans are atheists and 9.8 are agnostics. He then said, "By the way, they're the same thing. People try to make a difference, there is none." There most certainly is, dammit.
I was raised a Methodist. I went to church and took classes to be confirmed because my parents said I had to. I was 13 so I did what I was told. I didn't really pay attention in the classes and the confirmation to follow meant nothing to me. I don't mean to disrespect anyone who thinks that is a poignant moment in their lives, but it was not one in mine. When I went to college I was excited to take the Comparative Religion class because I thought the idea of so many different ideas about faith would be cool to learn about, much in the way I am interested in many other aspects of history and sociology. The thing I walked away from at the end of that semester was the number of commonalities of most religions. Many had strikingly similar stories and offered the same basic tenets. My mind wandered off to question, "Well, maybe there is a God and he/she/it sent prophets with similar messages to different times and places when and where they were needed."
The nice thing about not having any personal investment in supporting the ideas of a specific ideology is that I can embrace any of them. I do not need to be right. I don't care who is right. It is curious to me that religion, for some reason, is the only thing I have yet come across in my life that I do not HAVE to understand. I honestly don't care either way. I tell people that I want to be a good person even if there isn't a hell. And I mean it.
I am offended by people of any religion who insist that I am wrong not to follow their faith and insult me for not believing what they do (or worse, insult me for not allowing them to believe what they do, which I would never consider but when you are offered too many opportunities to dismiss all other people with different beliefs, sometimes you end up with the arrogance that those who aren't 'on your side' are against you). Similarly I am offended by those who condemn those of faith to ignorance for having a belief in something which contradicts their atheist views. Its just shitty, in my mind, to tell someone they are ignorant for believing (or not believing) in something no one can prove.
Having faith doesn't make you stupid. Faith can be a lovely thing. I remember when my dad was dying over 3 weeks in the hospital. Countless times I wished I knew what it meant to have faith. I wanted to have a place to lay my heavy heart and feel my pleas may be heard. I would've done absolutely anything to go down to the chapel in the hospital and make a deal with God. There is very little I would not have promised to God in trade for alleviating my dad's pain. If having the capacity to pray and believe that there is hope makes people feel better or safer in their lives, wonderful. If they sincerely believe that it is a positive influence in their lives, who am I to tell them they are wrong? I've never seen God. I've never had proof either way. And I don't need it.
This will probably end up being a pretty irrelevant entry for most of my readers. The distinction was important for me. It is crazy o'clock in the morning, however, and I cannot even really be sure if I made my point. I am adorable like that sometimes.
