Atheism...

(This is a slightly different kind of post than I would usually do... Recently, I seem to be drawn into religious debates every single day with one person or another. Here is a brief vent on the recent ones I have had. I will avoid posting anything on religion from here on out.)

I think their has been a misconception on the part of Christians...

I constantly see and hear about how you have to have a belief in god to have morals, or values. Everytime there is a disaster people like Patrick Robinson try to blame Atheists, saying that we are responsible... that our lack of belief is causing these terrible things. That not allowing religion in school is the downfall of our education system.

I'd like to point a few things out here...
1) My morals, and my values didn't stem from Christian propaganda. They came from my family, my friends, and comic books... I was raised believing the golden rule. Do unto others as you wish to be done onto you. And I take that very seriously...
I come from a close knit family. When we were kids, everyone was always around, they treated each other with respect, and no one ever said a foul word about anyone else. We were taught to treat everyone with respect... (While that might not be the case now... that is how we were raised.)
And finally, one of the largest sources I had for entertainment growing up was these unbelievable heros... People like Batman, who stood up for what they believe in. Simply a human being fighting for what he knew was right. (He may have had a lot cooler toys than I do... but still an inspiration none the less.) Then you have Superman, he is not even from our planet, and he is doing everything he can to make it just. A happy place of existence. The X-men... even though society, the government, and religous groups hate them because they are "different" doesn't stop them from caring about each and every single person on the planet. These imaginary characters are more American than most of the people who live here.

2) Perhaps it is not our lack of belief that causes things to get out of hand, but the constant oppression we feel from every aspect of a non accepting society that causes so much stress on certain people that they finally break. I mean obviously they were a little... CRAZY in the first place, however, keep in mind this is speculation. But what if rather than constantly telling people how much you hate them for the things they can't control, you try and... I don't know, do as the bible tells you to and love them instead? And by love them, I mean honestly love them, which means accepting their differences, accepting even those things you don't like about them. Treating them... (And this is the important part...) as EQUALS. Spending less time trying to change who they are, and more time trying to build a society that cares more about the person, than the act.  Maybe that would be enough to keep them from going bat shit nuts and shooting up theatres or moscs or going to war with a country for oil rights and blaming it on terrorism...

3) This one is something that has bugged the hell out of me for a while now. The reason why religion was removed from school, is not to piss off the Christian population, but because it is not fair to teach only one religion in schools. For it to honestly be fair, then you would have to teach about ALL religions in school. That would mean everything from Mormonism to Catholocism, from Hinduism to Wicca, Buddhism to Islam... As most people in our country would probably be a little freaked out, (Mistakenly so...) about their child learning that some people have faith in witchcraft, and that it is an actual religion just like Christianity... There really is only one simple explanation. To remove all religion from school grounds. Teach it at home, or don't be a bigot. It makes sense, but the country seems to be convinced that it's all do to Atheism... a non belief in god. To be quite honest I can think of at least 1,000 more likely threats to people... Asteroid, snakes, Super volcanoes, catholic priests (Only if your an alter boy), bears, bees, bacteria... the list goes on, Atheism even falls after such religions as Catholicism, remember the crusades?

All I ever ask is to think before you speak, act, breath, blow your nose, shower... whatever you may do in your day to day life... think for yourself. Don't let others do it for you. Just because you see a post on Facebook, doesn't make it true. Not even this one... this is just my personal thoughts on the topic... Do research and form, wait for it... (This is another important part...) Your own opinions.