Last night I watched Bill Maher's movie Religulous which just came out on DVD. Now, I completely understand why many people are turned off by Maher (Megan can't stand him). He can be pretty smug and condescending. You know what, though? It's refreshing to see the smugness and condescention going in the other direction for a change. There have been many times where religious-types have implied that I am somehow incomplete because I don't subscribe to any organized religion (mainly theirs).I remember riding the chairlift with a guy who was on my ski racing team last year. I don't know what triggered it, but he asked me which church I went to. Note that he didn't ask me IF I went to church, but which one. I try to be patient with people like this, so I explained that while I was raised Lutheran, I no longer attend church nor do I consider myself a Christian. His response: "Well, that's no good." Had it not been for my polite Midwestern upbringing I would've told him to go fuck himself. No good? For who? I find it odd that I'm the one who has to explain why I don't believe something rather than the other person explaining why they do. In the film there are many people who get uncomfortable having their beliefs challenged. I say good. Without challenging beliefs, there's no progress.
The thing is, I'm fine with beliefs. I have some of my own that I can't prove. For instance, I believe in life after death. Am I 100% positive that it exists? Hell no! For me it's 50-50. It's the certainty that people of faith have that's so maddening and leads to so many problems in the world.
If you're new to this blog and you'd like to read more about my "spiritual journey", I did THIS LONG POST about it a while back.
