|
You said to write you, pally. You brought this on yourself. :) I have yet to establish a concrete starting point for my atheistic personal philosophy. Let it be said, however, with considerable credibility, that I have never held a particularly strong belief in God, Allah, Jehovah, or whatever it is people refer to their supreme being of choice as these days. I was raised in a Christian household, but it was only Christian in the capacity that there was a garland-decked pine tree in the living room every December. We attended church only twice during my entire childhood (not counting funerals and weddings), both times as a favor to a friend of my father's. My best memories of my family's short-lived piety was a moderately entertaining sermon, and an extremely poor violin solo by a member of the choir. I left both times with no intention of returning. I remained a borderline Christian for several years. I said my prayers before bed until I was roughly thirteen; blessing my meals before eating petered out around fourteen. As I slacked on my religious obligations, I couldn't help but notice that the threatened repercussions of not honoring God had yet to show themselves. Like a willful toddler testing the limits of a permissive parent, I pushed the envelope. My first forays into atheism were under the guise of humor. I write and draw comics, and in one of my stories, the main characters would burn fifty gasoline-soaked garbage bags, filled with aborted fetuses, on the front lawn of the Vatican. ("We baptize you with FIRE! SOULS FOR THE CHURCH! SOULS FOR THE FUCKING CHURCH!") I penciled the page, inked it, lettered the dialogue in, and sat back to await the impending lightning bolt. Nothing. It was at this point that I decided that, if there was indeed a God, he was failing miserably at impressing me... which I imagine would be really a very simple thing if he was all-powerful. He couldn't spare a single precious moment on his infinite calendar to nudge me back onto the Straight and Narrow? Curious. I'm certainly not hard to please; a burning bush on my nightstand would have been more than enough. My sacreligious cartooning continued, much to my parent's ire. My mother, most notably, attempted to burn the original pages of one of my more disrespectful works. Beyond that, no repercussions were visited upon me, much to my amusement. My festering disbelief in God became full-blown upon my graduation from high school and enrollment in college. Unfortunately, the school I've chosen to attend is rife with Christian activity. Its reached an almost-oppressive point, with constant blessings and prayers held during class meetings, club meetings, and almost every other public and private activity imaginable. My boiling point was finally exceeded just this year, when someone with a stick of "sidewalk chalk" scrawled JESUS LOVES YOU!!!!!!!!!! all over a patio area on campus. Incensed, I set my alarm for three AM, bought my own box of chalk, and editorialized. THE VIRGIN MARY: ANOTHER UNWED TEEN MOTHER I went back to bed, but was too excited to sleep much. I reawakened at 10:00 AM, and went for stroll. My impromptu graffiti was mostly intact, except for GOD IS DEAD. It had been scrubbed.. SCRUBBED!... right off the sidewalk. Soap suds were still visible. I couldn't help but smile. Since that day, no more religious graffiti has appeared on my college campus. I feel satisfied just letting everyone know that there are indeed Freethinkers on this campus, despite their best efforts. Their assertions of myth will not go unchallenged. I still make atheistic cartoons and comics as part of my regular themes, and will probably continue to do so for some time still. I find that, while many people will ignore weighty tomes of dry, clinical Biblical dissections and dismissals, they seem eerily willing to read a mini-comic about the matter. If Jack Chick can do it, so can I. Thanks for reading. - Chuck (a girl.)
|