I was bitching to you yesterday about that stupid Paula Zahn show where they had a supposed “discussion panel” about atheists, yet had nary an atheist on it. Guess who’s going to be on her show tonight? None other than eminent evolutionary biologist and world-famous atheist, Richard Dawkins himself. I’ve heard him speak several times, and he’s wonderful–eloquent, rational, logical and polite even in the face of screaming evangelical nutcases insisting that the world was created in seven days 6000 years ago, that an entire living and breathing woman was made from a single rib, and that ID is science. Some call Dawkins, “Darwin’s Rottweiler”, but he’s not attack dog-ish in the least, only calmly determined. It should be quite interesting to hear what he has to say. I hope I remember to watch the damned thing!

While I certainly do believe that it’s everyone’s absolute right to have his or her own beliefs whether I agree with them or not, that should be my right, too, and until there is no stigma attached to “the a-word” (in the US, of course, not so much Canada and even less in most of Europe), I want to see stuff like this on national television because I want people to learn that we’re not evil and satanic, we’re not a cult (we could not be any kind of cult because we are not organised) and the majority of us (militants aside–they’re as bad as the religious extremists) don’t want to “destroy” anyone’s view of the world, we want only the right to have our own without being persecuted for it. You’re spot-on about an educated populace; it’s the ignorance (and resulting fear) of others that keeps atheists “in the closet” because they outnumber us, or at least if they don’t, too many are afraid to reveal what they truly believe. If I could say to a neighbor, “No, I don’t attend any house of worship because I cannot reconcile the existence of a God or gods with what I know can be proven, and I have my own perfectly functional moral compass to tell me right from wrong” then I’d just shut up about it. I can’t, though, because here in the armpit of America, it’s not okay to not believe. If you don’t go to church every Sunday because you had something else to do, then you may get some disapproving frowns, but if you don’t go to church because you don’t believe, you’re evil. We’re second-class (perhaps even third-class) citizens, and indeed, in many states, a person who does not believe–or at least claim belief–in some kind of higher power cannot hold political office. I think that’s ridiculous–did somebody set the time machine for the 16th century? I don’t want us living under the western equivalent of Sharia Law, but if the most extreme evangelicals had their way–and their voices are certainly loud enough and backed by enough money to be heard–that’s exactly what we’d be doing. I’d be quite content to mind my own business and even be pleasant and polite if Pat Robertson lived right next door to me, but only if he’d mind his own business, too. Therein lies the problem: he wouldn’t, and he would have enormous support for meddling in mine even if I had done nothing wrong. If I’m not doing anything that causes harm to anyone else or violates any laws, then it’s none of anyone’s business what I do or do not believe. I don’t need or want to be “saved”; I just want to be left alone and my beliefs given the same respect as anyone else’s. If I’m wrong and there is indeed a God or gods who judge(s) us when we die, then I’ll know when I turn up in hell for my sentence of eternal damnation…but I’m sure I’ll have lots of company. 😉

Someday in the not so terribly distant future, I will die, and I believe that will be the end: that there is nothing for me after useful brain activity ceases except organ extraction and helping to teach medical students (I am both an organ donor and a body donor). Unless they cremate what is left (I have no preference), then bacteria, insects and worms get it and will turn it into nitrogen-based fertiliser. That’s all right with me–I hope the little buggers grow something pretty with it and someone in the future can enjoy it. I will not die wealthy, or famous, or beautiful, and no one will write about me in a history book, but I will die knowing that I stood up for what I believed was right and never hurt anyone else in doing it. I can look in the mirror and respect the person I see, and that’s all I want. For me, the “meaning of life” is (42? 😆) how you live it; knowing you did the very best you could with the resources available to you, that you helped where you could, and never intentionally harmed anyone else. I don’t need a heaven because I have one right here, every time I choose good over bad and feel confident that I can tell one from the other.

Love, L.