god damn 'agnostics'!!

Someone identified themselves as Agnostic to me the other day. To clear up any misconceptions, Agnosticism is the stance that, 'I do not know with certainty if gods exist or not'. Unfortunately it has come to mean, 'I don't know for certain, and the likelihood of gods existing is 50/50'.  50/50?!! It couldn't be much further from the truth. For instance, I do not know 'with 100% certainty' if Antarctica exists or not, therefore on the claim that Antarctica exists, I am Agnostic. Feel free to do that with ANYTHING. Gods, fairies, ...   Atheism is just 'a lack of belief in the claim there are gods'. I also had a few people tell me that Atheism is a religion, even after I explained it to them. ( actually, I'm not known for my communication skills :)  )     Aargh!  It is not a religion. It's just one stance on a particular claim in Cosmology/Cosmogony. I also hold that stance for goddesses, fairies and Atlantis. Each of those claims is not my.... religion.

I get it though. To the people around you, you wanna sound a bit...gentler. And Agnosticism is what you say when you don't want a believer to jump down your throat. I mean everybody knows that ATHEISTS are those people who cut themselves and eat babies, right?  I everyone knows they have these crazy rituals where they pretend to eat human flesh and drink human blood. Oh wait, Catholics do that one ;)
In all seriousness, the problem is we are all divided. No better than all of those silly denominations of Christian Mythology. What do we got? Non-Religious, Atheists, Agnostics, Pearlists, Free Thinkers, Skeptics.....
We all need to fly under the same flag. Honestly, I don't care which one, as they are generally all the same. Maybe I just like the way Atheist sounds. Kinda' gives people an aftertaste that I find amusing, I guess. Really though, we make up about 20% of America. That's huge! We outnumber American Jews and even they have a political voice. Wouldn't it be nice if there was a presidential candidate, when asked about what religion he/she claims, they reply, "I am an Atheist, and my worldview is based on Evidence, Human Reason and Logic? How comforting it would be to know that my president wouldn't send us to war, because a god told him too ( like G W ), but because the evidence suggests that it is the only reasonable option we have.

The Gateway Drugs

Sometimes people will tell me, "I get it. You don't like religion. Fine. But Astrology, crystal healing, psychics, etc. are just harmless. Why do you pick on them?"

Ok. Crystal healing and other stuff like that doesn't have quite the effect that Islam and Christianity has on the world. BUT, if you could be convinced that MAYBE crystals CAN heal you of illness and maybe the stars: Anteres and Beta Scorpii actually affect your personality and who you are, I mean, just THINK about what you may do next. They could lead you to the more hardcore beliefs.

You may start thinking that, maybe humans can come back from the dead. Maybe they can defy physics and walk on water. Maybe conception can occur without a human sperm. Maybe there is an all powerful deity that wants you to kill your son. You know it sounds reasonable that a person can live in a giant fish and come out alive to tell about his experience.

See. Look at how harmless they are now. Look what they warmed you up for. Now your partaking in religious rituals like the Eucharist, where they pretend to drink human blood and eat human flesh.  Look at you now. All into the hardcore stuff like Heroin and Crack. It's harder now to come back to the real world then when you were just dabbling in Reiki on the weekend and reading your horoscope in the daily news. Don't be in denial. You CAN stop using. I believe in you.

SAY 'NO' TO IRRATIONALITY (and drugs too)