Jobs and Atheism

Hey guys! I hope ya'll are doing great. Update on the whole job scandal: I will get put on payroll on the 6th of August. That means that I won't get paid for this week or next week, not to mention the month I've already been there, but I will get paid for any time after that. WHICH SUCKS!!! I'm kinda torn about whether I should stay or go. I mean I've already put in so much time trying to get this job that I feel like I need to just go ahead and finish it out. Besides I need this job if I ever hope to get into vet school. On the other hand though is the fact that these people will get a month and a half of my time and I get nothing for it. I just feel really lost and really confused about what I should do.

But I had another thing bashing around in my head all day today that I would like to share. OK, so my boss asked me today where I go to church. Not that unusual I get asked that a lot so I told him the truth and said that I don't go to church. His next question hit me like a ton of bricks: "Why, are you atheist?"

Alright like I said, I am used to people asking me about church and my religion and I usually just tell them that I am spiritual and I believe in "god" but I don't adhere to any religion and I don't like going to church. That way I can tell the truth without having the backlash that usually comes with telling people I am pagan. But I have never been asked if I am an atheist. I didn't know what to say I was so stunned. He honestly thought that not going to church meant that I didn't believe in the divine. Do people honestly not understand that "church" is only a Christian tradition. Even Muslim and Islamic traditions, which worship the same god as Christians, don't do "church". It was like he didn't even acknowledge that there are other religions and other choices. To him it the Christian God or no god at all.

I was actually pretty pissed. This is an excellent example of why I turn my back on the Christian tradition. Now I totally believe that there is no right way to the divine and I honestly don't have anything against the belief in Jesus Christ. What I don't agree with, and the main source of my bitter attitude toward Christianity, is the centuries of brainwashing people into believing that it's either the Christian way or the highway.

The whole situation had me flashing back to the day when I finally made my decision to become pagan. It was during the time that I was floundering spiritually and I was trying to find answers and hope and I was going to youth group at my childhood church to learn more about Jesus Christ and the Christian path as well as doing research into other faiths. I had been going for about a month when they took all of the kids who hadn't be baptized or "saved" to talk to the preacher. He talked to us separately and asked why we had not been baptized yet. I told him that I did not want to go through with it yet because I still had concerns and questions. He asked me what they were and I told him that I didn't believe in everything that the church and the Bible taught: like homosexuals are evil and anyone who does not believe in Jesus is damned. He actually told me that I was wrong and that I should forget everything that I personally believed and replace them with what the Bible and the church told me to believe. No I am not exaggerating, those where his EXACT words. That was when I realized that I could never find what I was seeking on the Christian path and today's situation brought back all of those negative feelings.

Again, I don't have anything against Christianity in general and I believe at it's core it has great values and intentions. I do however, have something against Christians and their haughty attitudes and their narrow mindedness. We are in 21st century people not the freakin' dark ages. It's past time to realized that different does not equal wrong or evil or less than. We are not robots or the damn Stepford Wives. We are not all going to look the same or dress the same or even believe the same. So get over and shut up!