On the matters of faiths, beliefs, sciences and worldviews.

I do not knock on people’s doors and if I did knock on doors so that I could proselytize against god, it would be considered so incredibly rude as to merit active campaigns against my activities. Moreso than if I were selling cookies, anyway. I do not protest funerals, as do the Westboro Baptists. I do not stone to death adulterers. I don’t bomb abortion clinics or kill abortion doctors. Nor would I rape and kill a family member who was raped. Nor would I murder a person who once held the same views as me but had recently switched sides. Nor would I command the mutilation of a child’s genitals, imposing a covenant on the child without his or her permission. I would not kill, maim, or shame a person for acting on their sexual proclivities. I demand no rites, no tithes, no rituals, no prayers, no profession, no utterance, no submission, no allegiance, no indignity, no dissolution of family bond, no affirmation of permanent commitment, no denial, no cognitive dissonance, no abdication of reason. I demand very little, in fact. Such things are the province of religion.

But I am a militant atheist.

This is just part of a letter RobTheMonk8 has written down, as well as read aloud in a youtube video, but this part struck me. I’ve argued the same thing countless times, but it just never seems to hit home with some people. I know there are people that literally think it’s worse to believe God doesn’t exist, than it is to commit actual crimes. I know, because they’ve told me, straight-up. Being an atheist is bad, in some people’s minds. Why, I honestly don’t know. When reading something like this, I just wonder even more.

When a Christian goes on a killing spree, it might get mentioned that he had a lot of faith or went to church often. Maybe it’ll even be mentioned a couple of times. In the end, however, this fact becomes utterly irrelevant somehow. People just tend to forget about it completely. However, the mere realization by someone that I am a person that does not believe God exists is often times enough to label me “militant”. I’m “militant” because I dare to openly admit to not believing in God. I’m “militant” because I dare to oppose those that do.

Well, gosh darnit, I’m guess I’m militant, then. It has been said that the pen is mightier than the sword, and with the advance of technology, the keyboard must be a regular atom bomb. I guess I’m a soldier in the army of atheists roaming the earth, scaring little old ladies and stealing candy from children. I guess I’m guilty of war crimes, or at least I soon will be, seeing as me having an opinion is now a “war on religion”, and blasphemy will probably be made illegal.

I feel a little like a regular Iraqi citizen, just living my life and thinking that the USA is cool but not nearly as fantastic as they claim, before the Americans dropped a bomb on my house and called me a terrorist. Religion can do good things, of course, but just like with the states, it’s not nearly as fantastic and idyllic as it makes itself out to be. And for no other reason than that I feel that way, I’m labeled “militant”.

I am a militant atheist.