“You are being hypocritical!”

Posted by danleone on August 18th, 2007 filed in atheism

“You are being hypocritical!” – That, my friends, is how my most recent comment began. It was not a comment about any of my posts. It was about the small SECONDARY tag line on my blog, Cafe Leone – Words unRead or Thank God I Am An Atheist. It appears that she believed she caught me in some form of logical trap. “How can you call yourself an atheist but infolk [sic] his name?” She then proceeded to tell me that she didn’t care if I believed in capital H, Him, or not because “the time will come” when he will judge all of us. But she was clearly proud of her logical prowess as evidenced by her final line: “atheists are really good at talking circles around the issue, but it the F A C T of the Lord’s love that will A L W A Y S prevail.”

Now, I think I am a reasonable man. Many of the people I hold close to my heart are Christians and Jews. I am not trying to be antagonistic. I also know that this woman does not represent a reasonable Christian and certainly does not speak for most believers. But, I will take the bait and explain the tag line of my blog: Thank God I Am An Atheist.

I have not had the luxury of a personal visit from God. He has not come into my house and broken bread (is this cannibalism?) with my family. No doubt, many of you are saying that He in fact has visited me, but I was too [insert appropriate adjective here. IE, distracted, close-minded, not-ready-to-accept, blinded...whatever] to pay attention.. The point is that the only concept of God I have is what I have experienced in Church, reading the Bible (which I have read front to back three times in my life), toying with New Age-y spirituality in the 80’s, lengthy conversations with my theistic friends and whatever the Jesuits wanted to throw at me at Boston College. None of these experiences were negative. In fact, they have without a doubt all been VERY positive experiences.

“Thank God I Am An Atheist” is nothing more than a mere, silly play on words. I once believed I was the one who invented the phrase and wanted to use cafepress.com to create and sell some T-Shirts. I was proud of the word-play so I kept the tagline. I am merely saying that based on the concept of God, certainly as conceived by the institutions of religion, I am glad I don’t believe in Him.

I am simply, stupidly and with a bit if irony saying, that I do not believe in the concept of God and because of that, I am an atheist.

As I have said in other posts, God does not exist as far as I am concerned. Until I know he exists, there really can be no discussion on which God is the correct God or how to best utilize his infinite, but fickle, resources.

I respect BoMR (Both of My Readers) and respect their beliefs. We are all on different paths. I get that. I am happy, downright ecstatic that there is a broad spectrum of opinions on this issue and I would love to hear what your thoughts are. I also respect that God is a deeply personal experience and not worthy of sharing with me on my irrelevant blog. But, anyone that agrees or disagrees with me is invited to comment or send me an email. I truly love hearing your thoughts. In fact, I believe the only reason I post anything at all is to hear what you have to say (that sentence is more sincere than you will ever know).

To believers and non-believers everywhere, as always, thanks for listening.

My opinion until I change it.

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7 Responses to ““You are being hypocritical!””

paisley Says:
August 18th, 2007 at 7:11 am
deardiary

i dont know myself dan,, but i think his hand is on blogdom today,,, as i too wrote about g-o-d….
Mahala Says:
August 18th, 2007 at 9:45 am
I can only say that I’ve been where you seem to be. No one can know what a person has seen, experienced, gone through (or not)and therefore no one has the experience, right or authority to judge what another person believes. Those that presume to do so are only fooling themselves.

I don’t believe in religion. I have some strong opinions on the subject, which I’ll keep to myself lol. But I have had spiritual experiences which have shaped my own perspective of faith in my life. Everything happens for a reason, I believe that.

Sorry to ramble, I just take issue with people, like your commenter, who have deemed themselves to be judge, jury and executioner to the world. Live and let live.
sophie Says:
August 18th, 2007 at 6:31 pm
Perhaps Paisley is right. I saw a t-shirt today that has me pondering a post. It read,”Only g-o-d can judge me.” I had a varied life with church things–raised catholic, very involved in a fairly fundamental baptist youth group in high school and college–like you, all positive. (Well, except that one time when the nun hit my desk with a sawed off hockey stick.) I have progressed to a more scientific approach to life, and as of now do not believe there is a god. I have much trouble with believers who are highly critical of those of us who do not believe. The way I learned things, I would have to say that the commenter was the hypocritical one.
terri Says:
August 19th, 2007 at 5:46 pm
I think all are entitled to believe or not believe as they choose. I do feel that many believers so strongly believe that there is one God, one being from whom they gain strength and some semblance of understanding of this insane world, that they truly fear for the well being of those who don’t follow their paths. This fear manifests itself into judgement upon others, which the God I believe in would frown upon. I can’t explain God or the world or anyone’s beliefs, but I do know a kind and sincere person when I meet one, and you are one of these. And that definitely counts for something.
danleone Says:
August 19th, 2007 at 6:03 pm
Paisley – It was your post that inspired me to write this post in the first place.

Mahala – RAMBLE ON!

Sophie – Science rules!

Terri – I have never heard it said so eloquently. Thank you for the kind words an d thank you for making me smile tonight!
Ingrid Says:
August 31st, 2007 at 5:28 pm
I think you visited my blog today. I saw your name in the MyBlogLog widget and came to see your site. This was a good post and I am glad to find other non-Christians out there. I stop short of calling myself an atheist, preferring instead the term agnostic. I have taken that position in response to the dichotomy of my upbringing, which included a militant atheist mother and years attending Baptist and Catholic private schools. Both sides had such an inflexible stand in their positions, the “fire-and-brimstone crowd” at school and my mom’s “Christians are stupid, it’s the Big Bang and nothing else” dogma.

By contrast, I strive not to be so categorical in my beliefs (or lack thereof), because I truly have no way of knowing.
Sleeping Beauty Says:
October 28th, 2007 at 8:52 pm
I want to believe in God, I really do. I hope there is one, but I just do not know why my faith has been tested lately. I like talking about this issue with people who are open minded and not one sided. I was told I was going to hell by some friends of mine when I told them about me being unsure and one of them was unsure if she could even talk to me for not believing, WTF? Any who, I am looking for my inner peace, and maybe it is God’s route, maybe not. I guess we will find out!