Aloha y'all...

For those of you who don't know me, or used to know me a long time ago (even in Jr. High and High school), but may have forgotten, I am a free thinking individual, if you need a label to pin on me, you may as well use "agnostic" because after all, who knows for sure?. I was raised in the Methodist Church. When I was 11 or 12, I read the Bible, the Quran, and the Tao Te Ching and concluded for myself, what my beliefs were. Nothing has ever happened to change my mind. In fact the exact opposite occurred - time after time over the past 45+ years I have witnessed countless atrocities carried out in the name of religion, which only served to reinforce my way of thinking and my "spiritual" beliefs. Yes, I am an atheist. I do not hide that fact. If anyone were to bother to take a look at my facebook profile they would discover that about me. I am a member of the Wichita Atheists group and am happy to say that I've never met a better group of kind, considerate, intellectual and forgiving people in, well, a very, very long time. Not since back in my school days. As I write this, I realize that many of my "friends" from back in my Jr. High and High school days may "un-friend" me. That's they're choice and I have no control, nor do I want to, over their actions or feelings about me. The smart ones will see the utter ridiculousness of it all and remain my friends. The ones who decide that they could never imagine being friends with an atheist will do what makes them happy. Hey, whatever helps them sleep at night, I say.

As a whole (granted, there are extremists in every group), we atheists tend to be very open minded and have no problem with people choosing to believe, or not believe, whatever they want. We do not try to "convert" non-atheists to our way of thinking. We do not automatically disagree with something a person of faith says or writes. We relish the notion of coexistence - of "agreeing to disagree". Peace and love know no boundaries, religious or otherwise.

There is a saying that goes something like "Religion is like a dick. It's fine to have it. It's ok to love the fact that you have it. But please don't take it out in public and wave it around, and for goodness sake don't try to shove it down my throat."

My mother and other family members are "people of faith" and I do not love them any less. I have discovered, here through facebook, that many of the friends I had in Jr. High and High School, mainly those that never left Kansas, have evolved into super-religious, right-wing conservatives who think that George W. Bush was one of the greatest presidents this country ever had. I strongly disagree with them and wonder what must have happened between the '70's and now, that led them to form these conclusions for their adult lives. Again, I don't judge, I am simply curious.

As a group of young minds back then, we were all such free thinkers, intelligent people who did not swallow the propaganda being forced upon us in the Johnson/Nixon years, through the Vietnam war, etc. on into the Regan era. We, collectively, knew better, saw the writing on the wall, and questioned authority. We educated ourselves so that we could make our own minds up about any and all issues or ideals. We were smart. Very smart indeed. We probably are all still very smart and just ended up walking different paths that led us here to our 50's and 60's. Regardless of how we got here, I am saddened by what appears to me to be some sort of regional Christian "surrender", some sort of political brainwashing that goes with the religion thing. And I am saddened by the revelation that my old "activist" type friends are now gladly drinking the Kool-Aid which we all rejected in the 60’s and 70's. That said - I do not have any desire to "un-friend" anybody. I honestly think and feel that we CAN all get along. If you have strong religious feelings then great for you! If you feel like posting religious themed pictures or posts, then go right ahead! Wave your flag high! (Freak or otherwise).

But please don't hate me because I think differently than you. That, and the fried food, is what makes America so great. We have no control over how the rest of the world feels about us. I learned about 45 years ago to not waste ANY time or thought on things which I have no control over and instead to concentrate on that over which I DO have control. My writing this, even though I hope it won't, and believe it shouldn’t, will inevitably cause some of my conservative, religious "acquaintances" here on facebook to toss me out of their news feeds and probably stop being "friends" with me. Trust me. I'm not the type of person who feels bad or loses any sleep over that sort of stuff. You don't want to be friends with me anymore? Fine. In retrospect, I guess we were never truly "friends" to begin with.

Aloha y’all.

(Yes, I wrote this initially to post on facebook and will do so shortly...)