Religion's Place in Discrimination

I've been reading newspaper articles, essays and blog posts written by religious opponents to gay rights for a while now, and I've come to the conclusion that it's almost impossible to reason with them. Not because they're stupid (although many of them do seem to be), but because their beliefs have become so ingrained into their that they can't, even for a moment, question them.

I'm well aware that everybody is biased in one way or another, and I'm certainly no exception. Regardless of how rational I attempt to be, I know that a lot of my beliefs are probably influenced far more by other, decidedly less 'lofty' considerations than dispassionate reason. And yet I've questioned - really, truly questioned - everything that I believe at some point or another, and will continue to do so in the future. I have no book of final truth to fall back upon; what I think lives or dies on how well I can defend it against those who disagree with me. I can only imagine what it must be like to be able to deftly deflect contrary opinions with chapter and verse, to insulate oneself so completely from rational argumentation that it ceases to have any relevance. I wouldn't particularly like to live in such a state, but many appear to enjoy it.

What the opponents of gay marriage don't seem to realise is that, for people like me, retreating behind a book is not good enough. I don't care what Jesus said or just how maximal is God's perfect goodness; I don't care that they were brought up in an environment that makes it easy for them to believe stupid things. For any rational human being, that is not a good enough reason to support laws that make a mockery of human rights.

Even worse are those who hold up a few token examples from the news is if this is all the justification they need for their senseless bigotry. It's true that not everyone involved in the gay rights movement behave as they should - only a fool would claim otherwise. But that is not to say that the actions of a few who can't keep their emotions in check somehow invalidates the movement as a whole. What most Christians don't seem to realise is that I and many others are just as disgusted as they are with the activists who decided to assault an old woman or damage church property.

What is religion's place in discrimination? It lets those who perpetrate it sleep at night.

The Christmas Issue

I recently signed up for the OneNewsNow mailing list (don't look at me like that, it's hysterical), and so have been inundated with joyful messages over the great moral victory that was won in California by a legion of bigots. I've also been offered attractive savings on banal 'It's OK To Say Merry Christmas' pins.

This whole 'controversy' is just insane. A relatively small group of vocal Christians appear to be engaged in what I can only describe as large-scale roleplay, acting out a grand dystopian narrative where their vaguely defined left-wing overlords have successfully made it illegal to say the word 'Christmas'. Very often it is implied that 'the atheists' have had something to do with this, an idea actual atheists find incredibly confusing. If I may generalise here for a moment, we don't care. I say 'Merry Christmas' all the time. I'll have a brightly lit tree in my house come the 25th of December. I'll exchange presents. I'm planning on attending the Christmas choir recital being held in my university. I love Christmas.

If the holiday really does have an 'enemy', it's proponents of multiculturalism rather than atheism. The push for a generic 'happy holidays' was an attempt to include people who don't celebrate Christmas - Jews and Muslims, for example - in the traditional Christmas retail extravaganza. (If that sounds cynical, wake up and take a look around next time you're walking through any large town or city.)

So if you want to say Merry Christmas, go ahead. Nobody is stopping you.

Introduction

The recent political activity in the USA has spurred a lot of people into action for a lot of different reasons. Obama's victory has made many Americans hopeful for the future, but it's overshadowed for others by an extremely disappointing and, in my opinion, dangerous development in California: Proposition 8.

As a gay atheist who strongly supports secular politics and values, I feel that I can no longer ignore such a blatant misstep in the development of human rights. This blog will be a place for me to add my voice to the thousands that are already raised in protest over Proposition 8 and the general erosion of the movement for equality.