I have been thinking about a way to create peace between theists and atheists.
Compromise is obviously not gonna work and neither is reason. It would seem that there is little chance that there will be a truce between the two parties, but I think I have a solution.
It seems that Christians feel that, although they keep telling us the same thing over and over, there is one word or phrase that will make the atheist chip that is embedded under our skin, overheat and self-destruct. They feel that if they keep telling us about the threat of eternal suffering, one day we will say, "Oh shit, I didn't realize God was serious." or "Eternal hellfire?!? I thought it was gonna be a quick spiritual spanking and then I get to pull my pants up, wipe my eyes, and get back to heavenly bliss."
Sorry guys. You NEED to understand that the threat of Hell means very little to people who don't buy into it's existence. When I was a kid, the idea of being tortured forever and not being able to even get the sweet release of death, was quite a good reason to be a good Christian boy (I won't even go into how fucked up that is to tell a child). What's strange is that around Christmas time, the fear of not getting any presents trumped the fear of Hell. "God will give me time to make this up, but I've only got a few more days to get right in Santa's eyes." I wonder if Santa and God use the same database...
2. It will look better on paper
I am aware that as Christians, y'all have been tasked to save souls. So I am assuming you will have to answer for the ones you didn't save when you get up to the pearly gates. If you have ever talked to an atheist, it's likely that they have given a lot of thought to religion. Many of us were religious at one time. The odds of presenting any evidence that will sway someone like that is pretty low.
Think of it like selling cars. You have a quota at the end of each month. Should you spend your valuable time with people that have really poor credit or really good credit?
Atheist: "Hey man, I think I am a believer now."
Me: "What? No 'Hello. How's your week been?' You just gonna come up to me with that? What made you change your mind? Did you have a near-death experience?"
Atheist: "Nooo..."
Me: "Have scientists discovered proof of God?"
Atheist: "Nooo... Even better..."
Me: "Wow, I give up. What happened?"
Atheist: "Well, I was taking a shit and reached for the toilet paper and found none. But I found this little comic that told me that if I wanted something, I needed only to ask God. No prayer is too small. So I prayed."
Me: "Did he answer your prayer?"
Atheist: "He did. I found a duplicate copy of the comic on the ground and was able to wipe my ass with it."
Seriously, if you or anyone you know was converted by one of these tracts, please let me know.
3. The end is nigh
I know exactly where this is going every time. The end times. Oh Lord, the end times! I'm sure it comes as no surprise that Christians have been expecting the end of the world in their lifetimes about as long as Revelations has been in existence. What myself and others, such as Bill Maher, have been perplexed by is this: Why would Christians try so hard to keep the world from falling into an immoral state when their own book clearly prophesies this? It would seem that in doing so, they are going against the word of God. I see many people on these Facebook groups looking forward to the second coming of Christ, yet on the same hand, pushing their own religious agendas into politics in order to steer the world back onto a moral path.
As Bill Maher so eloquently said in his film "Religulous",
"If the world does come to an end here or wherever, or if it limps into the future, decimated by the effects of a religion-inspired nuclear terrorism, let's remember what the real problem was: That we learned how to precipitate mass death before we got past the neurological disorder of wishing for it. That's it. Grow up or die."
I have my doubts that the religious extremists will overcome this "neurological disorder" of anticipating with great excitement the end of the world, so just let it happen. Let us marry who we want, believe or not believe what we want, and live our lives the way we see fit as long as we do not infringe on the right of others to do the same.
Think of how happy both sides will be not having to worry about what the other side is doing. Life is filled with plenty of stressors, wouldn't it be nice if this "saving souls" bullshit was not one of them?
