I'm sorry. I need to rant a little here: Stop villifying me

When I was a teenager, I can't tell you about the frustration I felt when I encountered an all out Mormon basher.

"You don't believe in Jesus Christ!" one young man would say.

"Yes, we do," I'd explain for the umpteenth time.

"No you don't. Your religion is just a cult that believe that women in Heaven are eternally pregnant because you hate women!"

Yes. I actually had someone say that to me. Wasn't true. Evidently, my very existence of being in a different religion from theirs was enough to brand me evil and wicked without any additional evidence.

Now, those who have been following this blog and podcast know that I'm an atheist. I've come to the conclusion that there isn't enough evidence to support the hypothesis of a divine being, personal or otherwise.

This belief effects no one but myself, and perhaps my family. It has no bearing upon what you believe. I have no intention on dictating what religion you should or should not believe in. I may ask that you not force your religion upon me and my family, but that's as reasonable a request as asking that I not force you to renounce your religion.

You know - that whole "freedom of religion" and "separation of church and state" thing.

I've visited over 22 churches, and produced 18 audio shows about different religions. And I'd like to think that I've been polite, respectful, and open about each of them. I've never laid a value judgment about whether I think any of them are "bad" or "wrong", but let them speak for themselves without demonizing them.

I think I've earned the right to say - I'm kind of pissed off about how I'm depicted by some people just because I don't believe the way I do.

Take a look at this horrible, bigoted billboard. This is how people from something called "Answers in Genesis" think I am - someone they've never met before.

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Seriously. Not believing in a Divine Being means that you're going to kill people. Boy, I'd certainly hate to think about, say, a religiously minded person killing a doctor because they disagreed with their practice, and then painting them all as being of one brush.

Then there's the horrible, stupid, bigoted commercial to go along with it:

Is that how it works? If you don't believe in God, you deserve to die? And this isn't the only video that makes that conclusion:

My Prof Got Run Over By An iPod (Biology) from Mark Nauroth on Vimeo.

Ha-ha. Oh, the laugh. If you disagree with someone, they should be killed into a big, bloody smear. Great way to settle a discussion. Not with debate, and reason. Not by acting like Jesus did, and loving your enemy, by doing unto them as you would have them do unto you.

No, the rule for some people is if you're atheist, you deserve to die.

I don't think that every Christian is a saint, any more than I think every Christian is a close minded creation spouting killer. I don't think every Muslim is a good person, or a bad person. I certainly don't think that all atheists are good, or that they're all bad. Like any group, there are good and bad and black and white and gray and all shades of the moral compass. People have used religion to justify horrible acts in the name of their God, and they've used religion to do amazing good in the name of their God. Some atheists have used their proposal of the lack of a supreme being to justify doing bad things, and others have used that same proposal to break the bonds of ignorance and bring good to the world by being good for the sake of goodness, not because they feared some punishment or hoped for some reward from a divine being.

I don't think I'm asking for much here. I was taught all my life when I was a believer in a god that you treat people with respect and dignity, and judge them by their words and actions. I was taught that when Jesus said "by their fruits you shall know them", that went for all people.

I don't think it too much to ask for. Do you?