Why do I do this to myself?
My "Bitter Atheist's Wish List" just got a huge and seemingly random uptick of viewers. So like an idiot, I tried to find out what was up and what people were saying about it.
The wish list is very much like my bitter homeschooler's wish list. I wrote both not because I hear these comments a lot, but because I hear from people who hear them all the time. And I'm a writer. And I give good bitter. And reading this kind of list can be very cathartic for the people who do hear these comments all the time.
I'm lucky enough not to hear this kind of thing too often. Maybe that's why I can't always stop myself from reading the comments people make about my lists -- I have to see for myself that, yep, people really do talk like that. Or maybe I'm just frozen into horrified fascination.
Either way, just a few minutes with a search engine gave me the fuel for a short new list.
1. I'm not sure what to make of the fact that so many people assume that the bitter atheist's wish list was written by a man. Male is your default position for -- what? People? Writers? Really good writers? Atheists? Whatever it is, most of the people who were using male descriptives about me were also quarreling ferociously with my work. You're not making a very good argument for your own superior reasoning powers when you make that kind of assumption. Sexism is many things. Smart isn't one of them.
2. Not believing in a deity isn't a religious activity. Enough already with the "Well, you believe there's no God, so you have faith, too!" Think about how you feel about Anubis -- a god who was believed in quite devoutly for thousands of years -- and then tell me some more about all the faith involved in a lack of belief.
3. Fellow atheists: I get that some of you don't like the list. Of course you don't. We're not a homogeneous group. We don't wake up in the morning and eat our atheist breakfast cereal and put on our atheist sneakers. So you're not going to like every word written by every atheist ever. Neither do I. But when you argue that I shouldn't have written this list because it's going to tick off religious people -- do you have any idea how Uncle Tommy that sounds?
4. For all the people who posted saying that atheists are far more vocal and obnoxious than believers could ever be: seriously, have you ever been out as an unbeliever in, say, the American Deep South? Let me go through my mail and find all the letters from people whose children have been told they're going to hell unless they make their parents take them to church, and then you can tell me some more about how mean I was for writing a list and posting it in a place where you have to actively look for it to find it.
5. I don't care if you're an agnostic. I do care if you're an agnostic who tells me that I can't possibly be an atheist. Yes, I can. I don't see any reason to believe in any of the deities that have ever been postulated. That's it. Perfectly doable. I don't see why you should have a problem with that. I have a problem with the fact that the agnostics I've met are only agnostic when it comes to the Judeo-Christian deity. They think I'm making fun of them when I ask where they stand on Zeus. Or the faery folk. Or trolls. And if you don't think those beings were deeply believed in and feared by many people for many years, check again. Now, if you are a consistent agnostic and regard all deities and other powerful supernatural beings as equally lacking in provability or disprovability -- cool. But I really want to hear you say in so many words that you're an agnostic when it comes to Loki.
6. If anyone, anywhere in the entire world at all, ever again says, "Well, if atheists only believe in things that can be scientifically proven, do they believe in LOVE?" -- I'm going to find you, and I'm going to smite you. Because I actually don't care what your religious beliefs are. But your being that audibly stupid causes me real physical pain. And that pain exists whether I believe in it or not.