Proposition 8, The Murder of Dr. Tiller, & “God’s Will”—What Makes Atheists Crazy

We’ve all accustomed ourselves to dealing with otherwise seemingly sane adults who believe fervently that they communicate with and receive communication from invisible divine beings. I don’t speak for all atheists. I don’t speak for anyone except myself. But I am so guessing I’m not alone here.
If you’re a very religious person, quit reading right now. Right. This. Minute. I mean it:  I have no desire to argue with you, and I’m not trying to hurt anyone’s feelings.
Because here’s the thing. Although I’m completely baffled by people’s religious beliefs—and I mean all of them, from the Greek and Roman myths (which at least made sense at the time, given the scarcity of good, hard scientific facts to explain lots of things, like, oh, I don’t know, gravity and stuff) to Hinduism and religious Buddhism (I’m one of those who believe it was never meant to be a religion but, rather, a philosophy) to Islam and Christianity and Native American religion and any other kind you want to name—I try to overlook it when I’m dealing with them. And here in Midland, you deal with a lot of very, very religious people. People with yard signs and bumper stickers and billboards and clothes and stuff written in shoe polish on their car windows (it’s usually Bible verses, so I never have any idea what it means).
When I’m talking to someone about, oh, the nastiness of the bills given to me as change  at the post office—I mean, it looked like these bills had been used as a Kleenex—and they nod and say, wisely, “Well, you know money is the root of all evil,” it’s not even on the radar.
Oh, that’s a lie. This happened last week, and before I could stop myself, I said, “Actually, it’s ‘the love of money is the root of all evil’; money all by itself has nothing to do with it,” which then left me feeling guilty, as I like the postal guy who said it and try not to correct people I like, ESPECIALLY when it’s a Bible verse that’s the subject, because didn’t I just get through saying I don’t know shit about those, anyway? I don’t; I just know stuff like that, and like “soothes the savage breast,” not “soothes the savage beast” and that it’s “par-CEL post,” not “par-TIAL post” and it’s “ESpresso,” not “EXpresso.” Shit like that.
Anyway, so I’m used to having conversations with people around here and having them quote the Bible or say things like, “I prayed about it,” or “Jesus helped me get through it,” or whatever. That’s OK with me. They can believe whatever they want to believe. Private people’s private beliefs are their own business, although I do wish they wouldn’t talk about it to me, just as I don’t really want to hear about their sex lives or what they think of Dick Cheney. I just don’t. You know, sometimes I think my parents were right about not ever talking about sex, religion, or politics. The older I get, the more sensible it seems. I could easily go the rest of my life without discussing tithing or blow jobs or Condoleezza Rice. [And, boy, howdy, am I happy spell check has her name in there. Good to know they’re on the ball, never mind that they don’t know “skitzy” or “fab.”]
Also, I try not to think about things like:  the people who make our laws and spend our money and send our kids off to kill and be killed are getting their guidance from their divine beings. I can’t go there.
But then we get stuff like this—Prop 8 and the murder of Dr. Tiller—and I just go nuts. Because you’ve heard it, too:  that these things are God’s Will. That there’s some divine plan, there’s some higher will, there’s some very special guiding principle that makes it OK to deny some human beings equal rights and to shoot someone while—GET THIS!—he’s in church. Talk about baffled. My mouth literally dropped open.
People say, “It’s God’s will,” and it’s all I can do not to smack them in the face. I told The EGE that, if we’re out somewhere and someone says this to me, he should just walk away. Quickly. Because here’s what I’m going to tell them: 
“Do not, do NOT try to justify your bigotry and hatred by blaming it on your imaginary friends. If you are so filled with insecurity and hate and miserable self-absorption that you can’t value the rights of anyone else, then admit it. Admit it and say you’re a bigoted homophobe and think abortion providers should be killed, but don’t you dare say ‘it’s God’s will,’ as if that justifies anything. It justifies nothing except your inability to look at issues logically and sanely as a human being concerned with the lives and welfare of all other human beings, not just those who are exactly like you are, and don’t give me that crap about the ‘lives of the unborn’ because the truth is that, until a fetus can live outside the uterus, it’s a parasite and you know it.
[You can argue that the mother benefits from the pregnancy  and that it is, therefore, symbiotic, but you can also argue that she doesn’t and it is not.]
“And if you’re willing to grant a fetus rights above those of the mother—if you deny her the right to terminate a pregnancy even if it’s harming her and threatening her life—then what are you saying? What you’re saying out loud is that life is sacred, but what you really mean is that some lives are more valuable than others. That some people’s rights are more important that others’. Straight people are more valuable than gay people. The life of a fetus is more important than the life of a mother or the life of a living human being with a spouse and children. And your beliefs are so perfect, so without flaw, that they give you and your fellow believers the right to advocate the killing of someone who disagrees with you.
“In a perfect world, beliefs would be argued on logic, all the way through. When you argued against gay rights or against abortion, you’d argue the facts, the science, the logic. But you don’t. You argue to a certain point and then fall back on God’s Will. For you, it trumps everything:  logic. History. Medicine. The lives and well-being of actual living beings.
“But it does not. When you argue, argue your own point of view. Say what you believe, what you know to be true. Those arguing against you will argue what they believe and what they know to be true. Sometimes you will win, and sometimes they will win. But at least, at the end, it will be two human beings arguing their differences without resorting to invoking the opinions of imaginary beings.”
It drives me crazy when people try to hide their ugliness and selfishness and hatred behind something else, something that they think justifies everything. And because religion is sacrosanct—because we don’t dare stand up and question anyone’s religious beliefs (unless they’re Muslim or something else all icky and wrong, and then, gee, fair game!)—it’s the perfect trump card:  say, “It’s God’s will,” and the rest of us are supposed to nod in agreement and say, “Well, gee, I know you’d like some basic human rights, but it’s not written in the Bible for you to be able to have them, so I guess you’re out of luck. But if you’d like to help us fight those infidels over in Iraq, we’d be happy to give you a gun and $4000 a month, as long as you don’t, um, mention that you’re gay or anything. And if you don’t feel like going overseas where it’s all hot and stuff, we have this holy war against abortion providers right here in the good old US of A, and you’ll  still get to shoot people!”
Yep. Obviously the kind of thing that just drives me crazy. Mea culpa.