I keep seeing people posting a picture of a t-shirt that says, "DEAR GOD, Why do you allow so much violence in our schools? signed, a concerned student. DEAR CONCERNED STUDENT, I'm not allowed in schools. signed, God." This makes me extremely angry. Why? Because I'm an atheist. I also have a little boy, 5 years old, in kindergarten. I live in a state that has a high number of people who own guns of all kinds, and where we spend less than any other state on mental health per capita. Friday's school shooting could easily have happened to my son at his school. But somehow, my friends and relatives seem to think that I, and others like me, am the problem. Because I don't want my son force-fed christianity as part of his public school education, the shooting was my fault. Never mind that the shooter's mother was apparently a regular church-goer. Never mind that the shooter himself had mental health issues that were going untreated due to the difficulty of obtaining mental health services in this country (because, you know, "socialized medicine is evil and takes away our freedom!"). Never mind that despite his mental instability, he apparently had no trouble LEGALLY obtaining an assault rifle. No, no. The problem is that all those evil atheists are trying to keep us good christians from praying in school. Cuz you know, as soon as an atheist is looking down the barrel of a gun, he OF COURSE immediately starts praying to a deity that he doesn't think exists.
There is so much wrong with this statement, it's not even funny. First of all, as I've stated many times before, the law DOES NOT prevent students, or even teachers and administrators, from praying in school, or from reading the bible in school, or even from talking to their friends about god in school, so long as it is done on their own time. Teachers and administrators can NOT lead the students in prayer because this would be discriminatory toward all of the students who do not share the same religious beliefs as the teacher. I frequently read my bible and prayed in school as a child. There were no consequences, because I was doing it in study hall and at lunch time, and not when I was supposed to be paying attention to the teacher in class.
Second, atheists don't believe in god. They do not suddenly start praying to a god they don't believe in or "searching for answers/truth" when they think they are facing death or tragedy, any more than christians start contemplating the existence of leprechauns at those times. If you want to argue that christians don't need to start looking for something to believe in because they already have god, then I will counter your argument with the fact that atheists don't need to "search for truth" because they have already found truth, and it doesn't contain god. Atheists have no need to believe in god because their understanding of the world is sufficient.
Third, you may find your religion comforting in times like these. Throwing around statements like, "Those children are getting the best christmas present ever! They get to be with Jesus on his birthday!" or "God must have needed more angels," may be comforting to you. To an atheist, these are appallingly disgusting things to say. You claim your god is omnipotent and omnipresent (but yet somehow is not present in schools? Not sure how you make that work in your convoluted little heads.) but for some reason is "unable" to prevent this kind of tragedy. So much for omnipotent. If he IS omnipotent, then he CHOSE not to interfere and save those children. Because it was, according to you, "part of his plan." What kind of a sadistic douchenugget includes the violent murder of 6-year-olds in his plans?? If he is allowing this kind of tragedy to occur for the sole purpose of proving his point (that he is not allowed in school), then he is a jerk of the highest magnitude. As a friend of mine put it, if your fire-fighter friend was visiting one day, and you had an argument and asked him to leave, and he did so (because he's a "gentleman"), and the next day your house caught fire, he would come back to your house and put out the fire, because that is his job. It is what he is expected to do. If he refused to put out the fire at your house because he was a "gentleman" and was simply doing as you asked by not coming back to your house, he would be vilified by all as a right bastard. Why is your god held to a MUCH LOWER standard than people? In addition, these statements assume that all of the children are christians. They weren't. One of them was jewish. There were probably others who were also not christian. So are those poor children now suffering in hell? Is that a comforting thought to you, as well?
So yes, I am angry about that picture, about that statement, and about other statements that hold the same sentiment. It could easily have been my son who died in that tragedy, and while I'm struggling with dealing with that concept, I am told that it is my fault for not wanting my son indoctrinated with a bunch of stupid made-up stories that paint a narcissistic abusive deity as the model of perfection and worthy of worship. If that is what you truly think, FUCK YOU. I have no more room in my life for you or people like you. I do not deserve the blame for this. It had nothing to do with religion at all - it was a crazy man with a gun. He SHOULD have been able to receive the mental health services he so desperately needed. He SHOULD NOT have been able to obtain an assault rifle. Why don't you place the blame where it belongs? On a broken insurance system in a country where people think their "freedom" means "I've got mine, I won't help you get yours, and just you try to take what's mine away." I refuse to let people blame everything wrong in our country on "the atheists." I am sick of the poor, persecuted christian complex from people who think they are persecuted because they can't force everyone to think the way they do. You're all fucked up, and I'm not going to play your game any more.
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