Last night, I spent some time on CNN.com as usual. I like to stay abreast of the news, see the funny bits, laugh at the politicians lining their own pockets, put my head in my hands as I see the holy rollercoaster right do their thing, which brings me to my latest pair of pet peeves: Individuals thanking God instead of the science that saved them and attention whores.
I must rant for a moment because when I saw the source of my latest pet peeve, it really sent me over the edge. I sat there in pure shock and was annoyed to kingdom come.
Everyone knows I'm an atheist. I'm not ashamed of it. You may believe in a deity, but I don't. I've seen far too many things in my life that have told me there is no God. I was raised with the fire and brimstone and the wholesale indoctrination of fear through religion..."If you do X, you're going to hell, if you do Y, you're going to be saved." Really? And who says? A bible written by man? Good rule book and all, but really...we're supposed to just go on faith and take it as run? Yeaaaaaah, I'm buying it, especially from ministers who pound the pulpit and preach the ten commandments but then go and politely screw their neighbors wife. Or, this is one of my favorites, those fake Christians who say they are so Christian but then go and do completely unchristian things, such as pocketing the change when you ask them to pick you up a soda pop, or the supposed "Christian" co-worker who lives to screw everyone over and marry strictly for money. To put the cherry on the cake, I love the folks who tell me I'm going to hell just because I don't share their belief system. You know, you can say you're holier than thou, but 100 to 1 you've stepped on yourself pretty hard enough times so that if there was a God, he'd surely laugh you out of the pearly gates because he can only forgive so much.
This all started for me on Thursday morning. I got up, checked Facebook, read what was happening with some folks and sure enough what do I see?
Some bonehead all enthralled and shouting from the rooftops that their disease is cured, only to put on the end the statement, three words crediting God for saving them. This is when I stopped and went WHAT? My common-sense-o-meter went off the charts. Let me just get this straight, you were just pulled from a burning building by a fireman, but instead of thanking the fireman, you're thanking God instead? REALLY? You don't say jack noodle to the guy who rushed into the burning building, battled the flames to get you out and safe, but you'd rather credit an invisible figment of your imagination for it? REALLY?
Personally, if I had a disease cured, I'd be kissing the butts of all of the researchers, all the folks that donated funds to research, the people who invented the medicines who saved me, the doctors and nurses who cared for me and most of all, I'd yank my head from my ass long enough to realize that God had nothing to do with it. Medical science is what saves lives, not some imaginary flying spaghetti monster! Good grief, that's like thanking the policeman at the scene of the fire you were just saved from instead of the fireman.
Yes folks, that's my very exasperated "oh shit" moment of the week. Really? They're thanking God when it's science that saved them. That's one for the ages, and from my point of view, it shows me how backwards some people can be. WOW, I'm still just SO annoyed with that one. Forget science, God saved ya...oh kay...right on for you.
You could argue that faith heals, sure...if you go in for that mumbo jumbo...those big tent revivals, snakes, chickens and whatall with a minister yelling "BE HEALED" then he slaps you on the forehead real hard and it doesn't do shit. I think it's more that people are so scared of what's happening to them, they'll shove their head in the sand called religion so that way they won't have to muster up the courage to deal with their situations head on. Maybe prayer is just a way to occupy the mind and/or project good energy. Both are useful, but to blatantly ignore the facts and arrogantly dismiss the science? I just can't go that one with you.
When you're abused everyday for close to 30 years and you pray to God for him to save you and he never comes, never shows up and you never see an ounce of relief, I'm sorry, but no amount of convincing will ever make me believe there is a God controlling it all. But, I also don't garner readers by telling 95% of the planet that their God is a delusion either. So, I'm a confirmed atheist who absolutely grinds her teeth when she sees anything "religious" in nature, from the right wing nut jobs on down. I respect folks who want to do their religion thing, I just can't stand the ones who have religion and hypocrisy walking hand-in-hand down the street together. I'll always respect folks and their religious leanings, but please don't ask me to throw my common sense out the window when it comes to religion and what people do in the name of it. Don't sit there and preach God to me if you're not living a life without sin. You know, I screw up, I do things that aren't quite right sometimes, but I don't depend on a religion to forgive me, I don't hide behind a religion to belittle others and I sure as hell don't credit deities with the good things that happen to me. Then again, I don't go crying to a deity when things go bad either, I just suck it up, deal with it and move on.
So, outside of my rant about religion, let's get on to the second pet peeve of the week:
Attention Whores.
I have a real issue with people who feed on attention like it was some sort of food. I don't get it, really I don't. Everyone loves attention. I'll go that, I mean, who doesn't? But, when it gets to a point that they intentionally disfigure themselves, go on a dramafest or make a bigger deal out of what's happening to them than is necessary just to garner our attention, that's when I get annoyed.
I was a neglected kid. There were no two ways about it. But I didn't sit there crying to everyone who would listen "poor me" when life dealt me crap cards or whathaveyou...I went politely about my business making my life better. Instead of crying for attention, I dug in and gave myself attention. I wrote about it, laughed about it and politely moved on. I don't dig on emotionally imposing on others just for the sake of validation. Yes, we all want acceptance, but really, when you go into the ground, who cares? You're the one who has to look yourself in the mirror and decide whether or not you like yourself. You're the one who has to live with the choices you've made or the proper screwings you got from others. When you dump your issues on others, it's draining. It sucks the life right out of the people who get it dumped on and they sit wondering why the hell they're having to hear about someone else's problems instead of dealing with their own.
I don't understand or dig on people who feel the need to make sure to squeal from the rooftops that they're sick when the illness really isn't that severe, but they go and do all sorts of unnecessary rah-rah so they can look like a martyr should things go wrong. But those attention whores love nothing more than to project all of their issues and news about their illness and shove it down your throat without a second of though about how it affects you OR if it even pertains to you. But heaven forbid if you go and try to help them...they'll just turn around and make you feel like a moron for even lifting a finger to be supportive instead of giving them the dramatic attention they crave and feed off of.
World's worst thing to me is a combination of the holy rollercoaster with the attention whore. Good grief! That's like a double dose of repugnance coming to camp out on your front doorstep. No matter what you do, you just can't quite seem to escape the sight of a fireman saving a person from a burning building, then seeing that same person thanking a deity for saving them. THEN on top of that you get them looking at you like you should be praising the deity too, but not before you've given them enough attention so that they can feel like a victim, roll around in it for as long as they can tolerate your presence, then when your attention gets old, they move on to others to suck the energy out of them too. By then, they've forgotten completely about the fireman who saved them and they're posting on Facebook that God pulled them out of a burning building so they can have 100 friends post "All praise be to God" on their page.
Come on, do it with me...it's like the faith healer, gently place your hand on the side of your face and shake your head. It's called a facepalm folks...and you know what, I do it all the time.
The human race never fails to disappoint me, or at least give me comedy.
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