If I've said it once, I've said it a million times: "can't we all just get along?". I write for Brothers and Sisters at Daily Kos. So has teacherken. Dirkster42 is our moderator. Anglican Kossacks is my own group, open to all. So I write on religion. I also write on gay rights, defend feminism and the constitution. Anything that violates the separation of church and state I am opposed to. Period I am a card carrying member of the ACLU, the NAACP (my family is, as it happens, racially integrated but I would be a member anyway). I am a Democrat, and of the socialist wing. I am probably left of Bernie Sanders. Yet, I'm an Episcopalian. I'll also admit I own a gun. So see, I'm not trying to oppress anyone. Did I mention that I am gay? Write that down, because you'll score on that later in the comments. Bob Barker will personally cut the nuts off of your terrier.
I know, I know, I don't make sense. I read some nonsense book that defies logic and science. Of course it does. It's not a history book, it's not a logic text, and it has nothing to do with science. I read the Bible like some people read fantasy fiction: there's some truth in it, but it's not "truth".
Follow me over the fold for a sec, please......
One of the things that I have found irritating about the recent "pie fights" between atheists and believers is this: 1. Atheists know more about religion than the believers themselves and 2. All Christians are just about the same, only some are "fake Christians" who are "Cafeteria Christians". Lots of quotes, taken out of context by non-believers as some believers do. Just because a person became an atheist after being abused by a Christian sect in their youth does not mean that every Christian is either a fundamentalist or a "wuss" that cannot be taken seriously. This I saw, the other day, quite plainly.
Here's an example of how to live and let live: I am a gay man. I also happen to be an Episcopalian. Now, I don't watch a lot of TV, but when I do, I find that heterosexuality is shoved down my throat like a 17th Century doctor would try to shove an heavy-metal-based emetic down my throat while slicing open my arm. Am I angry about the fact that I don't have my rights? Of course I am. In this day and age, as a 40-something gay man do I blame that on the church? Of course not. Because I am an activist, and I get to be active. Now, I canvassed against Question 1 in Maine a few years ago. I never told anyone that they were wrong about religion. I told them that they were wrong about their STANCE ON CIVIL RIGHTS.
But I guess because I am a church goer, I'm just as bad as any other church goer, regardless of denomination, as if I could convince a Southern Baptist to become a Roman Catholic. Because, you know, we are all the same and can do that, right?
I have a suggestion here. It comes from the "coming out" process we do as gay and lesbian and bisexual and transgendered and queer/questioning folks: if you're an atheist and are an atheist because you were deeply harmed by religion, tell your story. Tell it here. Tell it on Anglican Kossacks, tell it far and wide.
I also have a request: don't try to tell people who believe in science, evolution, and all sorts of other things that they are stupid because they go to church. It so does not further your point of view. If we church-goers who are otherwise sane accept the universe as it is, come tell us why we cannot do that and still read inspirational fiction. Because I wonder sometimes, if some of us read no fiction, no poetry, no plays, and only live in the rational, in textbooks about calculus and physics, and never, ever read any fiction and get inspired by it...
What a boring existence that would be.
I think that there are multiple ways to look at things. I accept them all as within the realm of possibility. I don't need to have certainty: otherwise, I'd be a fundamentalist (name your religion) or fundamentalist atheist. How boring, to have every question answered, and none left to ask, to ponder. Dull. Respectable, but dull, dull, dull.