Courage to go forward

I am being resoundingly criticized by my family for DARING to question their religious beliefs. Apparently, my brother DC (whom I have blocked on Facebook) had posted a diatribe so vicious that even Carolyn chastised him for his intolerance.

I know it will be hard--maybe even impossible--but I am going to end my relationship with many of my family members. To be blunt: how can you see where you are going if your head is firmly stuck up your ass? I know they get tired of my saying that they simply don't understand because they are too uneducated. But that's the truth. It's not that they aren't intelligent. Even an intelligent person will make a dumb decision or have a stupid opinion if that person has not bothered to examine the facts.

The facts are these: there is no god. There never has been. It's the biggest fricking hoax ever perpetrated upon humankind. There is no heaven. There is no hell. You cannot prove that the Bible is reliable evidence by citing the Bible. In short, all the evidence points to religion (all of them) as being a manmade creation, and no amount of sticking one's head up one's ass will make it a legitimate source of knowledge or truth. People invented gods to explain what they could not otherwise explain. Now that we have science to prove that certain phenomena do or do not occur, we don't have to look to a compiled document of hearsay for evidence. The religious literature proves one thing only: that at a certain time and in a certain place, some people believed X, whether or not there was evidence to support any belief in X.

I know I won't get anywhere. I know all I'm doing is alienating my family. But so what? I don't honestly feel any connection to them. Stephanie said that Amber "tried to get me to change my ways" but that I "didn't like it." Insert violent and angry language. Amber tried to "testify" to me, and I cut her short. I've heard that testimony till it comes out my ass as diarrhea. Why should I listen to it again? It won't convince me. All it will do is make me want to run away from all of them as far as I can get. What really pisses me off is the idea that I need to "change my ways." As if I were the one who was constantly pushing my beliefs onto others. I texted Stephanie and told her that all I had done was respond to what others had said. I had not initiated anti-religious comments as much as I had responded to the things that others had posted.

I know it angers them. I wish I could say that they truly cared that I was "going to hell." They don't. All they care about is that my opinion differs from theirs and they don't like it because they think I'm being "uppity" and a "know-it-all." It is not possible to communicate with people who lack the ability to see beyond their own experiences. Yes, I know that there are intelligent and educated people who profess "faith." My response to that is that they are hedging their bets (the Pascal fallacy). The Big Bang theory probably explains the origins of the universe. Evolution is not a theory. It's a fact. Jesus was likely a compilation of descriptions, not a biography of one real man. Mary was not a virgin. No star of Bethlehem ever appeared. The Egyptians never enslaved the Jews. Noah's flood never happened. Intelligent Design and Creationism are pathetic attempts to subvert true scientific proof. The earth isn't flat, either.

Sigh. Am I ready to say goodbye to brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews? Friends? I'd better be because I'm not going back. I will not pretend to believe in the unbelievable just because other people are clueless. Why isn't Thomas Paine's book The Age of Reason required reading? Instead, we get stupid people trying to make Bible study a class in one state's high schools.