Happy Endings

I'm not naive. Seriously, I've been around the block more than a few times, and I know that Christians hate me. I know that they hate me even without having the chance to know me. I know that Muslims hate me. I'm sure there are Hindus and Buddhists and Jews and Scientologists who hate me, because hate is a very powerful force and it can be used to sway otherwise peaceful populations into thinking a certain way, or voting a certain way. I have always found that letting people get to know me and being openly gay is the best way to promote gay rights, and I am hopeful that once they know me and realize that I'm no threat to their way of life, they will do the right thing and stand with me when the rest of the country is against me. I believe that the only cure for hate is love.

I'm an atheist. I distrust every organized religion because they all claim to be true and by that claim, they deny members of other faiths the rewards of happiness. If you're cynical enough, you can poke holes in any religion, they all have flaws, they all have been tailored to some political purpose, or have some method for controlling the masses. Some ancient religious rules were made for the good of the population, like the rule of not eating pork, before we regulated what was fed to pigs, people got extremely ill from trichnossis. Eating fish on Friday also made sense, because the meat was delivered on Monday back in the days before refridgeration, and it was foul by the end of the week. Many rules made perfect sense, not killing, not stealing, not coveting (that's a tough one). Back in the days when there were not so many Christians, homosexuality was forbidden because the Christians needed more followers. If people stopped having children, who would build the Cathedrals? Who would fight in all of the holy wars? And more importantly, who would paint all of the Madonnas and Child works of renaissance Art that we all travel to Europe to see? Without the art, and without the Cathedrals, we would only be able to sit in the vineyards and drink Chianti and eat pasta. Hmmmmn...that doesn't sound half bad.

It's really hard to have no religion. It's difficult to live your live without the belief that you will not die, your spirit will live on. It's hard not to give into the urge to hate people who hate you. It's hard to question everything that you were taught when you were young. It's hard to love, but it's the only thing that will save us. I have no belief in the Gods that humans have taught me to believe in, and so I have no choice but to believe in the basic goodness of the human being.

Don't disappoint me.

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