DangerousTalk

I am one of many atheists who have gotten quite a number of death treats over the years because I just so happen to be skeptical about ridiculous claims of deities which come from a books thousands of years old and read like a bad fantasy novels complete with magic. I have never really taken any of those threats seriously. The one that I was most concerned about was an anonymous postcard I received in the mail following a story which appeared in the local newspaper about my trip to DC as an atheist during the “God in the Pledge” Supreme Court Case. My address was unlisted so I took that threat just a little more seriously than others which I had received. I showed it to a police officer friend of mine, but he informed me that there really wasn’t anything they could do any way.

Often times I would get threatening phone calls when one of my letters to the editor dealing with atheism made it into the paper. One guy even left the threat on my answering machine. That took some balls. But I never actually thought anyone was watching me or was actually going to do anything. It was all just talk; bark and no bite.

Over the years, I have debated and discussed religion with fundamentalists in person and on e-mail and message boards and continue to blog about religion every day. I have had fundamentalists walk over to my car window at gas stations to tell me about Jesus (I have atheist bumper stickers) and even had a Christian dent my car because of those bumper stickers. There have been many heated encounters with Christians in my life and even one who later ended up in prison. I have even met a Christian who told me that if he didn’t believe in God, he would have no problem raping women. Fundamentalists can be quite scary, but I really never felt like I was in danger. Like I said, these people are mostly all talk.

However, how can we tell who is all talk and who is really dangerous? YouTube Christian Anthony Powell, AKA “Tony48219” was one of those fundamentalists who people just wrote off as harmlessly nuts. Most people discussed religion with him thought he was all talk and no one took his anger, hate, threats, and plain old nastiness seriously… until Friday when he shoot and killed someone and then killed himself.

I am not saying that fundamentalist Christianity made him kill people. I am saying that fundamentalist Christianity attracts crazy people and hides their craziness under a cloak of acceptable craziness. When a fundamentalist Christian goes off on a rant about the evil gays and atheists and tells people that they will be tortured for all eternity in Hell, no one takes that seriously. When a fundamentalist Christian says that they hope someone will be tortured in Hell for all eternity, no one takes that seriously. When a fundamentalist Christian says that he or she is part of the Army of God and will bring God’s justice upon the agents of Satan, no one takes that seriously either. But maybe we as a society should take those things seriously. Maybe if we did, Asia McGowan might still be alive along with so many other people.

Filed under: Religion