Misguided

So, today at school I was sittin' in class just mindin' my own business when this guy in my class came up to me and handed me a little business card type thing. He proceeded to give his pitch about how I should come eat lunch after class on Wednesdays at this "Noonday Cafe" place and that the quiet chick who sits beside me goes there and loves it.

"Weird," I thought, "I'd never heard him talk before until now."

After he got done with his marketing campaign and passed out a few more to some other class members, I looked at the card he gave me. It was sleek, chocolate brown, shiny business card like, a nice professional font. I flipped the card over and read "Connecting students to Christ and each other through service, worship, and community."  

Oh great. As much as I was not interested in your marketing strategy I'm even more turned off now. Hey, guy, I forgot to mention I'm an atheist. I could just imagine his enthusiasm waning, a look of horror cross his face followed by one of disgust that took a few seconds for his well-trained and brainwashed reasoning abilities to come into play. 

Atheism...it is like a foreign concept here, and foreign things are always intimidating to these kinds. Yeah, sure he has probably met several atheists in his life, but has he ever been confronted by one who looks and acts like I do? Has his stereotype of people ever been broken by someone like me? I highly doubt it.

He's not the only one. When I tell people I'm an atheist it is actually quite fun/funny. I can't tell just anyone, but when I can tell someone without there being negative repercussions from doing so (from simply expressing the truth and who I am) then I revel in the anticipation of what their reaction will be. I revel in the surprise of it. Sometimes (most times) people take it negatively (which is why it is so rare of me to tell people in the first place), but there are other times when I just can't help myself, I've got to see what they have to say about it. Actually, it's more than just what they say, it is in their entire being...how they confront something they've not even had the courage to entertain confronting in the past suddenly hitting them as reality here and now. It's in their expressions and in the difference in the way they deem appropriate to act around me now.

I just find it so amusing and interesting when people assume everyone else is just like them or, if not, should be, not just in their religious views but in every aspect of their worldview. I find it interesting when these people assume the entire world is just like the one they have grown up around. I also find it interesting when people think they know what other people think/believe without knowing a thing about them. Don't bother asking, no...that would just be so redundant, everyone knows that everyone in the south is a christian, especially sweet young girls like me. It is only the foreigners you have to watch out for, those god-hating satanists. But there is no possible way on earth that Shannon could possibly be like those foreigners. It is unfathomable that she is a god-hating satanist. Just look at her. She's cute. She is bright. She's a sweetie. So of course she is like US. No way she is like those other people. She must see things the same way that we do. (And this is where the surprised looks on their faces stem from when I tell them otherwise.)

And then, if I decide to tell anyone that I'm atheist (the conversation never usually delves deeper than simply stating that overly simplistic fact that reveals nothing about what i actually THINK) then usually it is hard for them to believe. Then they rationalize it: "She must be misguided and lost, poor thing. Now I must enlighten her and save her poor soul, then everything will be just completely perfect. That must be God's plan. I mean, who but a god could think up such a perfect scenario as that?"  Let alone the fact that it is not god but they themselves who thought of that scenario, and only because it is the most logical and non-contradicting one to accompany their beliefs. To question their OWN beliefs would be sacrilegious, so instead they must doubt MINE!  

To come up with a scenario as to why I believe what I believe that was more tolerant and respectful of our differences, one which did not accuse me of not knowing what I know, that would just be too much work. It would involve questioning this entire society. It would involve thinking about the possibility that their worldview could be limited, the possibility that the south is not the only place on earth where people know anything or where good people exist. And if one were to confront him or herself about these things it could potentially lead to a journey away from the perfection that they believe exists only in themselves and anyone else just like them (which is why they must assume people are like them if they look like they are in order to function in this world at all) and down a road where they become more similar to those god-hating foreign people that they fear. It could lead to them having ideas which are not popular and then being ostracized from people who fell into the same trap of circular logic that they once belonged to. 

And geez, who wants to go through all that when I am obviously just a sweet but confused girl who is need of being saved by someone who knows the truth about everything, because it's common sense, just look at society, look at what everyone else is saying, look at what the bible says. The bible says that everything in the bible is true, therefore it must be true huh?