A Case Against The Enlightened

I just dont get it. An atheist is someone who denies the existence of God, and as a corollary, denies religion as well. That means they don't, or rather, shouldn't have business with anything religious.

But of course that's not the case. There is this messageboard I frequent where exists a section called "Realm of Thought". While the real objective of this section is to debate about philosophical arguments, what you often get is a battle of attrition between Catholics and Non-Catholics, Christians and Atheists, with each salvo containing quotes, rephrases, stolen phrases and links - almost anything but rarely a shred of logical argument coming from crazy smartass parrots consisting 80% of the active posters in this section.

I'm all for a good discussion, but there's a good difference between healthy debate and obssession in attacking another person's beliefs. And though I hate to admit it, the worst offenders are those supposedly most composed with how they should go about their beliefs - those who have relinquished their affiliation to whatever religion they used to practice through "enlightenment".

Take for example people attacking Catholicism. These peole have had their hayday with the Da Vinci Code. Now they're starting to analyze word for word the writings of St. Paul, supposedly the chief architect of the Church as we see it today under the label "The Pauline Conspiracy" (I assume this catchy title came from another paperback). Posts related to this usually end with the remark "IS THIS THE CHURCH YOU SO PROUDLY CLAIM YOURS?"

So the man had a slightly political view of the Church. BFD.

Big Freaking Deal.

He's a man with a company to run. God's not managing first hand so you can expect human error. And it's not like he's the one we're mentioning each time we do the sign of the cross.

But that's not my point. I'm not here to defend a belief system that I've come to see as imperfect.

I just got to ask. If youre an atheist/non-Christian as you claim, what business do you have in questioning a belief that you're not using, morover, a belief that's not directly making your lives harder?

A non-believer barking at a devout is like a man complaining why a woman should be having menstruation. Bud, their pu**y, their problem.

They remind me of that annoying neighbor who keeps on suggesting which plants to grow in our own garden. God, even if their garden is so damn nice, I still wouldn't be asking for their opinion. I'd be busy transfering their plants to my yard in the middle of a moonless night. Because Religion is not brain science that should be force fed, it's something that should be discovered with one's own will.

For all the philosophical points these people say they comprehend, it seems that they still can't see the point in saying "To each, his own." Whatever happened to "coexistence is key"?

What's the matter smartasses, is it lonely on your side of the fence?

Trust me, if ever you do win over somebody with your aggressive arguments, chances are it will be the halfassed person who would be so easily convinced to throw away his faith with just quotes and book titles.

And you won't be any more satisfied for it. Quality over quantity, unless you're only in it for the donations, in which case I'd call you a sellout and probably ask for a small cut.

I think the best offence, sometimes, is defense.

People dont jump to the pirate's ship when you sink theirs. They will either swim to the shore or let themselves get eaten by sharks. Give them the reason why your life is much better and they'll be yelling "Yarr" and scrubbing your planks faster than you can say "Scurvy matey!"