Dear Tor,
Please ignore (Q). He's an atheist a-hole. I pray for him everyday, in hopes that he will see the light of Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Savior, though I do take a certain perverse pleasure in knowing that he'll burn in hell for eternity.
Seriously, I find a few things really difficult to discuss on sciforums. Well, just two. One is race and the other is religion. With race, it's either "everyone's identical now shut your pie hole" or "negros be real stupid. now shut that cake hole." Only if you fill it with confectionary!
What I find most interesting about discussing religion with these evangelical atheists, is all the baggage they carry with it. (Q), here, identifies so strongly with his non-God that he reacts to anything that raises doubts of a non-entity as if he himself were attacked. He behaves as a Christian defending his irrational faith, rather than critically viewing his own beliefs and culture about them.
I see so many atheists obsessed over God (or rather, the lack of one), that they behave as a religioso. In many cases, it appears to be more a social reaction than one that involves thinking. Again, let's take (Q) as our example. Rather than entertain any notions about anything, he immediately became hostile and spouted the typical atheist creed of "I think, therefore no god, parrotparrotparrot. You don't think, theist. Neener neener." He could have been saying "Repent, sinner! Godsagunnagetyooooo!" Alright mang, whatev.
God has no role in my life, even his non-existence. I don't have any need to push on anyone my beliefs about something that doesn't exist. I'd much rather spend my time convincing girls to sleep with me than the fact that their skylord is, in fact, delusion.
And I don't even think about God much, except sometimes as an interesting social meme. Like, let's look at religion and how it functions for people the world over. It's actually pretty cool stuff. But then, people like (Q) or some Christian whacko miss out on all that, tied up with their dogma and ego.
I guess I'm just a non-thinker. Roman doesn't give a fuck.
Praying to God, even as an atheist. Hmm.... I think (Q) here has never actually been in a truly stressful situation. Well, let's talk about me first.
I do outdoorsy stuff. I come from Alaska, born and raised. I've been charged by moose, stalked by grizzlies, flipped in big rivers, swum rapids, crossed glaciers with a bike around my neck, climbed mountains and drank so much that I thought I was gonna die.
Rafting, I think, is the most dangerous, most stressful, and what I enjoy most. There's an elegance to the subtle, inarticulate positions and stokes one can use to skirt holes and boulders or bust out of eddy pools. There's decisions and planning, but one doesn't have much time for either. You see, you react. Make a poor decision, and it's going to an icy cold consequence. You simply don't have time to hope or pray, it's blade in, blade out, digdigdig, and if you fail, brace for the shock, don't lose your paddle. Without confidence, one hesitates, and hesitation means you kill yourself on a sweeper.
But prior to a big rapid, the kind you can hear two bends away, frothing and churning, that's when you start wishing God answered prayers. Hope that things go well. There's the "Roman, don't fuck up" talk, of course, but still, a wishing that things go well. Hope's an emotion, not a thought.
God's a grander expanse of hope. It takes the unknown, the future, the uncertain, and puts it the hands of one force. 4 am and I'm solo on a mountain top. It's the dead of winter, I'm underdressed, no gear. Wind howls over icy rocks and I trigger small avalanches. Things are pretty clutch. And when I think "God, don't let me die up here my mom can't find my body," I know there's no God. There's no help coming. There wouldn't be any help if I fell. In the spring, maybe a hiker would find my broken corpse, sockets picked clean by ravens. But that still doesn't change the fact that that's what I feel when under extreme duress. An intense desire that dawn doesn't find my body in a snowchoked gulley. The phrase "God, please..." isn't an appeal to God-capital-G, it's more of an expression of "Dont' die don't die don't die. Don't die." Anthropomorphized fate, I guess.
*shrugs*
May the Force be with ya'll– err, may the Blood of the Lamb wash away your sins, you horrible people.
. An damn that Wes, he duped me again! BTW, re-read my original post, I fixed some spelling & grammatical errors since you replied.
