Since everyone else is all about their religion vs. atheism lately I figured I'd jump on the band wagon. And instead of making a title that an atheist might misread, misinterpret or mis-whatever and get insulted I figured to insult right out the door.
That's called being efficient.
So, what's Kevin D. got to say that will turn the world on its head and make believers out of the heathen masses? Not a darned thing.
Listen, I think we're all reasonable and intelligent people here. And we're passionate about what we believe. But, frankly, most of us don't know one another from Adam and things as deeply held as faith isn't something to be debated. That's to say, I've never head of a case where anyone was swayed either way by two people pounding at one another. Most of the time we root for our side and hiss at the other.
And I'm pointing at myself too here.
The best witnessing tool at our disposal is our life. We can speak a great game but if our life isn't something to be envied then what we say won't carry much weight with anyone. This goes for atheists and theists alike.
Let your life be your witness.
And that's the problem we have here at the D. World. We don't know one another beyond what words we read here. So, we let our rhetoric get out of control because we don't have the silent witness of our life to back us up. I mean, for example, Dean's said some stuff that, had I not known the guy, had I not been able to come to him on a personal level, I'd have written him off some time ago. But because we have that personal relationship, I've gone to his home, he's come to mine, I know that what I read may not be the whole story of what's going on.
I think we forget that. The words we read on the page is all we can know of most people here but we forget that it's a real thinking, breathing, feeling, flawed person writing them. And the five seconds or so we spend reading their words is nowhere near the totality of that individual or what may be going on behind the scenes that is coloring them. In most cases then we’re either unwilling or unable to say, “Hey, is everything okay?”
It's not something easy to do, believe me, but let's step back a moment and consider that we are not the possessors of all that can be known and, more than likely, we're probably wrong about a great deal we think we're right about.
I heard someone once say you can't get 75 years worth of experience until you've lived 75 years. I think we're often grasping beyond our experience because, well, we want to be right. It's only natural I suppose. No one certainly wants to be wrong! And when someone attacks that, especially some uppity dolt we've never met on a blog, we get defensive.
What I believe I know to be true is what I try to live and to attack what I believe I know to be true is to attack how I live. In many cases, we're not just attacking what someone believes about existence, we're also attacking how they live because the two cannot be separated. Remember that the next time you speak harshly of another's beliefs. You’re walking into their home and pronouncing judgment upon everything therein.
Speaking for myself here, I'm more open to the judgments of those I know in life, those I've shared a meal with, those I've invited into my real-life home, then "CrazyB0B452." And I'm more likely to return his words about my beliefs, no matter how innocently said, with vitriol because he doesn't know me and I don't know him.
So, what I'll endeavor to do in my life is establish those personal relationships. And I'll let my life speak for my beliefs. It's a challenge, we're an opinionated people, quick to insult and quick to be insulted, but I think it's a worthwhile goal.
