It is surprising the number of people who can dish it out, but can’t take it any more. 😉

     I have this one, problematic, contention with Christmas these days.

     Most of the people I know, they celebrate Christmas. They agree, Christmas is the season for giving. It’s the time when we, as human beings, connect with each another, give one another gifts, give our best wishes and say, “Hey, all this crap you’ve done for the last year? It doesn’t matter. It’s Christmas.”

     And that’s where I have to draw the line.

     For me, myself, Mark — as some of you can get from the byline, and others can’t — Respect and Love are things that are earned and cherished. I don’t bother with trivialities, either. I can Respect the guy who “forgot” the discount I was supposed to get on an oil change a lot more than I can Love the idiot who had me evicted because I couldn’t show a receipt for the cash they know they received, right?
     It’s pretty simple stuff. And, perhaps cynical on my own part, I’ve always kept the same rules for Family, and the friends who call themselves my family.

     One of the things that’s really gotten under my skin the last few years are those friends, family or whoever they might be who want to castigate this season into some “Evangelical Christian holiday.” They claim this Holiday discounts every other Religion, and is therefore wrong in some way, and that everyone must say, “Happy Holidays!” or they’re angry, pissed off or will, in some way, disavow us in the future.
     Especially if … they’re Atheist.

     That, in my book, is Disrespectful.

     I look at it this way … If you’ve been an absolute asshole about anything even remotely religious all year, and suddenly wanna wish me a Merry Christmas, I’m seriously gonna wonder whose Kool-Aid you’ve been drinking. I mean, seriously, if you’re an Atheist, you don’t believe in Christianity, Islam, Judaism or even Buddhism, so pretty much, your opinion doesn’t count for shit, ya know?

     Those who believe in a higher power, whether it’s God/Al’ah/Shiva (yeah, SAME GUY!), Buddha, J.R Bob Dobbs, Mickey Mouse, the Flying Spaghetti Monster, or the f#*&ing Almighty Dollar, regardless, we all have Faith in something. It doesn’t matter whether you call it Holidays, Eid, Qanza, Hannukah, Rebirth, or the Dow Jones.

     And for that person (and their spawn, by birth or mouth) who, a few years ago, stained my life exceptionally well with a false eviction? Thanks for trying to give a bit of recompense. What you sent went a long way to make several other people very happy. It doesn’t mean I’ll trust you ever again, that I forgive you — in any way — or that there will ever be any sort of reconciliation, Respect, or Love.

     I can, at the very least, wish you a Merry Christmas.

     But I guess the Atheists wouldn’t get that… Shit, man. If Charlie Brown gets it, why can’t you?

One of the biggest problems with people who claim to be “atheists” is their arrogant stance that Christianity is a complete hoax and that anyone who believes anything remotely religious is a complete idiot. They claim religious zealotry and intolerance are their driving force, yet are often even more full of vitriol than those who they oppose, so much so that they attack even moderate and tolerant Christians.

It’s confounding to find many U.S.-based atheists making apologies for religions such as Islam, while obsessively decrying Christianity. There’s also the issue that they’re overwhelmingly Democrats, claiming that Republicans are “all Evangelical Christians” and are “afraid of facts,” yet they refuse to believe the fact that 60% or more of Democrats are just as deeply religious, the fact that there are plenty of Christians who are gay, or the fact that Fred Phelps, the leader of the hate group The Westboro Baptist Church, is, in fact, a Democrat…

If they’re acting like this “for the common good,” as so many say, then at some point, you have to wonder “whose” common good, given their propensity towards pedantic, personal activism. Knowing a few of these types “modern atheists,” I often wonder: “Who’s the bigger zealot?”

But I always come to the same conclusion — hypocrisy is hypocrisy, and a zealot is a zealot, regardless of their religious or political ideology.

     Today’s Asshat comes to us from a magical place where there there was never slavery, no judgmentalism, and is completely devoid of religious and political extremism.

     Yes, of course I’m joking.

     He’s from north-central South Carolina.

     I can only assume this is some ridiculous retort to a recent statement I made, “I’m a lot more than just the sum of my experiences…”  But I wonder why he didn’t leave it in the comments, in that context, instead of giving me such impressive ammunition for an Asshat of the Day post?

     Via the Contact form, this so-called Doctor of Psychology writes:

From: Dr. H.T.B., Psy.D
Date: July 31st 2007, 9:34AM

It is wrong to think that you are more than the sum of your experiences.

It is even worse to combine it under religion.
Your deep faith commits you to slavery of a false ideal.
You are subservient to other masters.
You have righteous indignation.
The worse you feel the more you believe.
Your free will disappears.
It is an arrogant philopshopy of exclusion that breeds hatred.

You are the sum of your experiences and nothing more.
Your are flirting with disaster to think otherwise.

     I’m impressed with your amazing powers of observation, dude!  You must have been wearing your tinfoil hat to have such keen insight into all of the secret messages in the post.  *snicker*
     If you got all of that from a blog post, you’re more f$&*ed up than a football bat.  

     Where did you come up with the idea that I had “deep faith?”  Where did you come up with the idea that people who spiritual or religious are a bunch of exclusionary, hateful bastards?
     While I can agree with this viewpoint in certain cases (i.e. followers of former Asshat Award recipient, Fred Phelps), it’s certainly no reason to condemn every one of them.

     Doc, you apparently think anyone who mentions a Maker is a religious zealot, who’s a slave to false ideals and just out there to screw with people.  People like you, perhaps?  Did you have a bad experience with someone who was deeply religious?

     Seriously, I think you might need to try some of the advice you’re so quick to dole out.  Maybe you should take one of those pills…
     You know…
     The ones with a small risk of sexual side effects, but they are rare?
     Of course, both taking the pill and noticing any sexual side effects would require removing your head from your ass… You’re flirting with disaster to think otherwise.

     It’s a little disturbing that someone who claims to be a Doctor of Psychology doesn’t remember the basic tenets of his practice.  Perhaps some remedial study is in order…
     We are all the sum of our experiences, but it’s the way that we deal with them that defines who we are.  We can succumb to bad experiences and reflect them into our every day lives and be unhappy, or learn from them and move on in order to better ourselves and become well-adjusted.
     Me, I’ll take the latter.