It’s Past Time for Atheism to Grow Up

June 12, 2016
by Neil Carter

I find it difficult to write when I’ve got “too much” on my mind, and here lately that’s most definitely been the case. It’s bad enough that the daily news floods my feed with enough sickness and death and war to send me into the woods to unplug from it all. This morning my feed is filling up with news of yet another mass shooting, this time in an Orlando nightclub catering to the local LGBT population, leaving 50 dead and another 50 or so wounded. It’s hard not to assume that intolerance borne of religious conviction probably had something to do with this, but we’ll see.

On top of the background noise of the daily news, my social media feed has been further littered with infighting among fellow liberals (and yes, I’ve finally decided that label fits me at this juncture in my life) over which presidential candidate they want to represent them in a party which none of them seem to fully embrace. Come to think of it, that seems true within both major political parties in my country this year. I cannot recall a time in which more people on both sides of the aisle so bitterly opposed one another while also harboring so deep a disdain for their own team’s performance. The political process in my country feels like it’s unraveling a bit, and that adds to my personal angst.

Finally, within my own chosen virtual community I’ve witnessed a great deal of division and ideological warring marked by power struggles, more group infighting, and a whole host of people with tiny kingdoms to protect, each apparently willing to throw other people under the bus in order to keep from losing their own support systems (and in the end, that usually comes back to needing money). It has really done a number on my ability to sit down and write something coherent, rather than simply vomiting angst onto my keyboard.

This is just human behavior at the group level, I know. And no, believe it or not, none of this tarnishes my conviction that no matter how much we human beings are the source of our own troubles, we ourselves are also mostly likely going to be our only means of “salvation” from our own troubles. A critical analysis of history and of life in general persuades me to believe that nothing and no one can be counted on to swoop down “from on high” to rescue us from ourselves. We made these messes ourselves, and whether we like it or not we will have to be the ones to clean it all up.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/godlessindixie/2016/06/12/its-past-time-for-atheism-to-grow-up/