Tuesday, February 21, 2012

The Facebook Conundrum: To Respond, or Not to Respond?

So...one of my biggest problems has always been silence. Oh, I like silence in my home, enjoying the calmness of having only my thoughts for company. I get a lot of good ideas that way. No, my problem with silence is my holding my tongue when I know I should speak out, especially in the face of overwhelming stupidity.

I usually do this to keep the peace. It's what I've always done. But with things like Facebook where people can post the most dumbass things it really begins to weigh on a person. When people post a status such as, "Jesus is my lord and savior! Click "Like" if you agree!" or "Please pray for my family. blahblahblah" I swear I want to smack them over the head verbally. I want to tell them what a fucktard they are being and that no magic sky daddy is going to save them because he was invented by simple minded desert dwellers who had NO idea how the fucking world or universe operated!!!!! That magic book you're waving above your head isn't worth an ass wiping! You're living your life based on archaic mythology that has no bearing on our modern world! So shut the fuck up!

...But I don't say any of that. I don't open my mouth, I keep it shut tight. I don't even allow my fingers to graze across the keyboard. That alone is too much temptation. That's when questions start running in my mind...Is it appropriate to respond to someone else's post? Could I say anything that wouldn't be considered an attack? How would this affect my relationship with this person? If they are family, will this exchange get back to my parents?

All of these questions keep me at bay. They stay my ready hands. And I...cannot...fucking...stand...it...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am truly sick and tired of the religious community being given more free speech immunity from attacks than the secular community. A Christian in America can post all the "Jesus" bullshit posts they want and they get rounds of applause and agreements from the sheeple around them. But is anyone allowed to challenge them? Hell no! They and their minions gang up on you and attack your character, your morals, your values. They say you are a terrible person because you don't believe in anything. They have the inability to be logical, and no matter how innocuously you word your disagreement you are greeted with a firestorm of hostility. On the flipside, if I post something about my atheist opinions I run the risk of being ostrazised, attacked, etc. I've had family members and friends end relationships with me over my atheism.

So all of this was going through my head when I came across a post by my aunt on facebook...


 




I wanted to respond. Oh fucking Jesus H. Christ, how I wanted to respond!! This overly simplistic, irrational statement is what they really think of atheism. They have missed the point entirely. The logical person in me wanted desperately to pull out all the scientific evidence I had stored up in my mind and explode all over the post.

But I didn't. Was I right not to? Or should I have said something devoid of passion, but with a neutral voice of reason?

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