I was born into church-going-live-your-religion kind of family some decades ago (never you mind how many!).   I tried off and on through out the years to understand the religion of choice of my family and to find my own belief, or testimony, of that religion.  I found I did enjoy parts of it.  I never did find that testimony.  I prayed faithfully for most of that time trying hard to catch that feeling of connectedness to a higher power but found instead a deep dark void of aloneness.  The walls heard me better than any higher power did and I never prayed out loud! 

All that time I kept thinking something must be wrong with me that I’m not getting what everyone else seemed to be.  I did finally find a religious belief.  I believe I received no divine guidance or burning feelings, not because I was too dense to get it, but rather because there was nothing to get.  I got up off my knees, shook off the religious dust and walked away from all religion and I never looked back. 

Many of you, I am sure are shaking your heads at me right now saying poor little lost sheep.  I’m okay with that.  What you think of me is none of my business.  You own it free and clear. 

So now here I am on the atheist/agnostic side looking at the whole picture and a lot of what I am seeing in the behaviors of my fellow atheist/agnostics is no better than those they mock.  The believers.  The mere fact that they are mocking pretty well says a lot to me.  Why is it so hard for people to sit down and have an honest to goodness discussion about the issues, be they religious or political or any other genre? 

This has been an ongoing thought in my head for a while now but what has set me off today is a post on The Thinking Atheist group on Facebook.  All the way down the page are comments calling the other commenters stupid and sheep-like, etc…  “My opinion/intellect is superior to yours!” 

I ask you, how does this behavior jive with being a “thinking” atheist?  Or a “thinking” human being in general?  In all fairness, there are commenters that are able to present their views and research in an intelligent, well spoken manner.  In fact they probably outweigh the attention starved, loud offenders, but it only takes a handful to shut down the lines of communication.  How can any kind of meaningful and productive discussion ever come about if our only goal is to tell people how stupid we think they are? 

Just shaking my head today and wondering when will we learn how to talk to one another from the higher planes rather than from our knee-jerk, baser selves and hoping it is soon.