Fuck Being Civil! And While We’re At It, Fuck Religion Too!

I’m terribly sorry: were you offended by my language? If so, might I suggest that you visit a site where someone actually gives a shit about your personal sensibilities regarding language use.

That’s it. I’ve had it. I’m done with even attempting to be civil about it (as I’m sure you gathered from the title of this post). This is not meant as a personal attack against anyone. I know, and am friends with, and am related to, many religious people. They’re fine, upstanding people who I respect and am proud to call my friends, acquaintances, or family.

So many times I have heard that religion is a “deeply personal issue”. I’ve come to the conclusion that this does not mean that people generally keep their religion as a personal policy, rather than public policy issue, but rather that they cannot separate themselves from their religion. Many people seem to use their religion as a basic part of how they define themselves.

I’m sure we’ve all heard it before: “Ours is the One True Religion™.” They tell me that I’m going to hell because I’m an atheist. They tell me that I’ve been misled by Satan. They tell me that I don’t have faith because I haven’t found god yet. They tell me that I have no morals. They tell me that I’m mis-interpreting their holy scripture. They tell me that the glory of the world around us is evidence enough to prove that god exists. They tell me that any religion but theirs is either made up or twisted from the truth by men. They tell me that only their holy book is infallible and contains no errors or contradictions because it is the word of god™. They claim that I am evil because I am an atheist. They say that the earth was created by their god 6000 years ago. They say that dinosaurs and men once walked the earth together. They say that evolution is a lie. They say that the earth is the center of their god’s creation. They say a lot of really, really inane bullshit. Fuck them!

I’ve fucking had it with their bullshit, and I refuse to be civil about it any more. It wouldn’t be so bad if they had their beliefs and kept them as many people do: as part of their personal life. But that’s not good enough for some of them. Noooooooo… They want to make sure that their beliefs are made a part of public policy. They believe that man’s law always takes a back seat to god’s law™. They want to be sure that their particular fantasy story about how the earth and all the animals on it were created (which is the infallible truth, so they say) is taught in our public schools. They want the schools to take time out for prayer in class because prayer is what will bring our country back into line with god’s will. They want to be sure that homosexuals are kept away from the public at the very least, and that “curing” or imprisoning them would be an even better idea. Fuck them!

They want to make sure that no more babies are murdered. Funny though; that doesn’t seem to have anything to do with fetuses being aborted. Keep your fucking holier-than-thou attitude out of women’s reproductive rights. They want the right to pray over their child’s cancer rather than have it be treated by a medical professional. Do you know what that is? It’s child endangerment at the very least! Not to mention the fact that it’s insane, and pathetic, and reprehensible conduct. Fuck them!

They think the US always has been, is, and always should be a Christian Nation™. They think that the current economic crisis is happening because the US is experiencing a “moral crisis” because we have “forsaken the rich Christian heritage” that they believe the US was built upon. Fuck them!

These religious zealots are the most gullible, self-centered, self-righteous, batshit crazy, delusional, dangerous people on the fucking planet, and I’m sick of them! Fuck accommodation! I’m not giving an inch! They can keep their fucking millennia-old mythology to themselves. It’s got no place in modern society. It explains nothing! It’s the high-priests’ way of keeping people under their control. If you honestly, truly believe that some mystical prophet was nailed to a cross and died, then came back to life three days later in order to absolve you of your sins, then you’re a deluded fool at best, and a hypocritical liar at worst.

And now that I’m finished with my rambling rant, I think I’ll go back to reading a few other blogs.

How long has it been missing? Did you file a police report?

14 comments

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    • Jodi on 2009/06/29 at 20:22
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    Fuck yea!
    That was amazing. I’m passing it on to all my friends. Especially since Jason and I just had to deal with his very catholic father concerning his sister who is gay. (He’s writing a blog post on it now so stay tuned) Just reading this post felt like a release of anger for me so I can’t imagine how much better you feel!

  1. Nicely said.

    This is one of those places where having a personal don’t-fuck-with-me field really comes in handy. People do not try to convert me. Well, except for the Witnesses who swore at me when I didn’t stop to talk to them on the street. That was fun.

    I suspect just being willing to be uncivil is going to cut down on the number of people who try to preach to you. I certainly hope so anyway.

  2. Very very well written, and I’m loving the slamdancing style. Will link it tomorrow morning, maybe even a decent comment, but I’m to bed now.

  3. From my latest attempt to close the conversation with solomon:

    The science that gave us antibiotics, surgical techniques, air conditioning, the Internet, etc., is the very same science that says the Earth is very very old, the Big Bang is probably what happened to start things off, that biology is just chemistry, and that life has diversified via evolution and natural selection. You cannot pick and choose what science you want to use and what science disagrees with your beliefs. You reap the rewards of science in your standard of living, while suggesting that science is wrong everywhere that it intersects with your holy teachings. This is hypocritical of you, and of all religious people.

    It pisses me off to no end that the religious think they can cherrypick what “works” and what doesn’t. It’s all built off the same foundation, and it’s so intertwined now as to be inextricable. In other words, a lot of really, really inane bullshit.

    Fuck them!

  4. How fucking Dare You use that foul motherfucking language to disrespect something so fucking personal that people feel the need to shout it from the fucking rooftops?!!? Have you no fucking Shame!!!

    You make a lot of very important points and I really appreciate it. Seriously – this fucking rocks and I posted a link in my amendment to throw that PDF link for the Cthuluh Trct.

    Stepahanie –

    I love that. I actually got into it with a rather vile street witness, who was all up in his Ex-Gay lifestyle. He wasn’t having much in the way of luck in Portland (which is nearly as queer as the Bay – rather stiff competition with a lot of migration from there) and when I started challenging the Ex-ness of his bout with Teh Gay, he got a tad upset with me – and he made sure everyone within a three or four block radius knew he was Really Fucking Angry!!!1!!11!!!! And totally ready to kick my fagotty little ass!!!1!!!11

    It didn’t help when a few actual gay boys came by and started razzing him – telling him, “give me a fucking break faggot, you know you want some of this…” Mainly because as angry and frothy at the mouth he was getting, it was rather apparent that he did indeed want some of that.

    Nothing says fun like cursing people for Jesus… Unless maybe it’s smoking joints for Jesus – damn I miss that shirt…

  5. I liken religious people to zombies. They meander about incessantly from locus to locus doing destructive shit, not explosive destructive shit but the kind of shit that just ultimately wears their targets down; they don’t think about the dumb shit they do and couldn’t offer an explanation if pressed; they never, ever give up and won’t stop what they do unless forced to stop by an external force; there are too goddamned many of them; and there’s something really grisly about their special brand of ugly–a mass murderer is at least easy to understand (he’s nuts), ditto robbers and thieves and drug dealers (they’re greedy). Zombies? They’ve just been programmed and can never go back to understanding what it was like to think differently. They’ll just keep coming for your shit–sometimes slowly, but always coming. Yet in a sick and non-exculpating way, you can’t really hold them accountable because they didn’t ask to be the fucks they are.

  6. Fucking poetic shit, Man!

  7. I just typed a fucking rant into the goddamn comment space here only to have it evaporate into thin ether. Repeating myself never makes me happy, especially when I was sort of pleased with the direction of flow I had going. But anyway–

    Don’t you realize how much you fucking alienate people with this sort of shitty language? If you wish, for example, to call somebody subhuman baby-killing filth from the pit of hell, you must do it decently and in order, as I learned from a passing troll at DuWayne’s place. It’s okay to lie about people, and to call them vile names, so long as you keep it civil. That’s the key to the whole thing–civil vilification. If you call somebody a fucking retard with shit for brains, then they’re going to turn off. They’re just not going to listen to you, no matter how good your points are. On the other hand, if you misrepresent their views, slander them, and tell them nicely and civilly they are doomed to spend eternity burning in hell because they didn’t embrace your particular brand of crazy, well, then, I’m sure they’ll listen to you. How could anybody possibly take offense at being vilified and slandered, if it is done in a civil manner?

    And as for the downward slide of American civilization through forsaking our richly manured heritage–screw that shit. I’ve been hearing it all my life, and I find from reading nineteenth century editorials that my great-great-grandfather was probably hearing it too. (In fact, given that he was a Baptist preacher, he was probably shoveling it out.) And yet we’ve somehow managed to end slavery, diminish racial discrimination, extend basic rights to women, make education available to virtually all, turn medicine from a pile of lethal superstitions to a life-saving regime, and make information generally available at light speed to anyone who can reach an internet connection.

    I have in front of me a relic of the time when America was supposedly more moral and upright, a time the faith-peddlers seem to want us to return to. It is a menu from an outfit called the Coon-Chicken Inn (at 5474 Sandy Blvd in Portland); its mascot is a grinning caricature comic black man of the Tambo and Bones variety, and customers entered the place through his mouth. There were Coon-Chicken Inns in Seattle and Salt Lake City as well. What, you don’t see a fucking connection between the two? Well, what about this? Nowhere in that menu is a single foul word–no shit, no fucking, no asshole. The perfect example of civility in action.

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