An Atheist Christmas Gift!

I got an awesome Christmas gift in the mail yesterday! Fellow blogger and atheist Jake Bell sent this shirt to me (found on TShirtHell.com):


Now... when to wear it!? Honestly, I love it, but I'm unsure when/where I should wear this. I have a t-shirt with a Dawkins quote that I bought for myself, and LOVE, but have yet to wear. And I've been trolling Cafe Press, et al., itching to buy more atheist shirts...but...

Well, I know I'm very outspoken about this. Everyone around me knows and I've ALWAYS been one to make my opinions known. But this is different. Even when I still believed in god, I rolled my eyes at people with Jesus fish on their cars, etc. OK, so you love god, why do you have to show it off...

Then again...I suppose it's the same thing as wearing band or comic book (or ANYTHING) t-shirts. You like it, you want to support the thing you like and you wouldn't mind like-minded people noticing that you're like-minded. Hmmmm... (Stream-of-consciousness blogging this is! haha)

Still, though, I hate being accused of trying to force my "beliefs" on other people. (For some reason, people just don't understand how NOT believing in something is NOT a belief in and of itself. I BELIEVE there's no god, the same way you BELIEVE there are no tooth fairies.) Though I suppose wearing the shirt isn't forcing anything...plus in THIS case, it's funny, too. :-)

Huh. OK. Well, in either case, I'm waiting until after Christmas to do that. No need to get people all upset. (Though I don't think those I work/play with would care, but you never know.)

I've been thinking about this a lot today. As you may or may not know, I post a quote daily (Monday-Friday, unless I'm not at work) from The Quotable Atheist on Twitter. Today I found one I liked, but hesitated to post it. In the end, I posted it, but cut out a little bit of it, replacing it with a elipse (...). Here's the quote, I'll put the bit I cut in italics:

"Organized religion is a sham and a crutch for weak-minded people who need strength in numbers. It tells people to go out and stick their noses in other people's business." -Jesse "The Body" Ventura

I did this because I know I have a few Christian friends that might read that and I didn't want them to think I thought they were weak-minded. While I DO think the only reason they are religious and believe in god is because they were brought up that way, I don't necessarily think it's weak-mindedness that keeps them there. Often it can be the case, but I don't think it's always so. But I did like the rest of the quote because that is what bothers me so much about religion. You only have to look at how gays are treated (or how the Christian right would LIKE them to be treated) to know what I'm talking about.

I was STILL a little uncomfortable as I often think of this when I post these quotes, so I went further and posted this (took 4 tweets! hahaha):

I just want to say that I don't hold that all religious people are idiots or evil. And I'm not trying to FORCE my non-belief on anyone. I just think that religious ideas should be kept OUT of the way the country (& the world) is run & the bad stuff that comes from it shouldn't be tip-toed around. To my religious friends, I'm sorry if I offend you, but I'm not talking about you. If you were one of these people, I wouldn't be friends with you in the first place. End disclaimer. ;-)

Got a couple of positive responses from that. I just hope it gets my point across. I understand that religion might help some people and that if they just keep to it to themselves there's no harm. But there's just too many out there that try to make everyone live they way THEY think is right and they're basing it off old "holy" books with atrocities within their pages and what "holy" men who want power tell them. Aaaaanyway... kind of a tangent...though maybe not entirely. Just wanted to put that out there.


The End.

PS I really kinda like THIS shirt.

PPS I'm going to give you the little blurb for Jesse Ventura that The Quotable Atheist had for him. He seems so frakkin' awesome! :)

Jesse Ventura (born James Janos, 1951- ), a.k.a. "The Body": former governor of Minnesota (1999-2003), professional wrestler, sports commentator, actor, radio talk show host, mayor, Navy SEAL and, briefly, bodyguard for The Rolling Stones. Modeled his wrestling persona on "Superstar" Billy Graham — the wrestler, not the Jesus tag-team partner. As governor (Reform/Independence Party), described himself as fiscally conservative and socially liberal; supported gay rights, abortion rights, medicinal marijuana and church-state sep. Vetoed a bill to promote recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools. Achieved the highest approval rating of any governor in U.S. history. His supporters' slogan: "My governor can beat up your governor."

How cool is that?!?!