"Thou Shalt Keep Thy Religion to Thyself"

The late, great comedian and well-documented atheist, George Carlin is one of my heroes. I truly miss his brand of comedy and I particularly loved his focus on socio-cultural criticism of modern American society. One of my favorite George Carlin commentaries is his view on the 10 commandments (see video posted below). It is quite possibly one of the funniest and most meaningful moments that he ever spoke. He manages to reduce the 10 commandments to two and added a third - "Thou Shalt Keep Thy Religion to Thyself".  I've spoken a bit about my own atheism and I really find people who shove their religious views in other people's faces truly annoying - to put it mildly.

Yesterday, while at a professional development session at school, one of the new teachers hired this year sat next to me.  I don't know this woman, having met her once about 2 weeks ago (she's in a different department on a different floor so I never have anything to do with her), but she decided that she was going to stick her nose into my cancer and grabbed my hand to say a prayer. Trying not to be a complete bitch, I just tolerated this annoying moment and explained that while I appreciated her intentions that I was an atheist. To which she replied, "That doesn't matter, I believe in God." EXCUSE ME?!?!  My belief on a subject doesn't matter? Only your opinion matters? I started to get a bit ticked off. If the conversation had stopped there, it would have been fine. But alas that was not the case. She decided to continue to tell me how God was going to take care of me and I'll be okay under God's care, blah, blah, blah. Consequently, this conversation just pushed all my buttons! I finally had to be rude and tell her that I found her comments completely inappropriate in a professional setting and that I was offended by her continued conversation on the subject matter. I then had to get up a walk away before I said something really awful. Adding to this annoyance was the fact that I was feeling completely shitty thanks to the chemo side effects, therefore I ended up in a rage!

I have a belief - it's called science. And yes, I said that I hated chemotherapy and don't want to do it anymore but it's not because I don't believe in it. It's because it makes me feel like crap and I hate that I'm filling my body with deadly toxins which while it is killing the cancer, who knows what other damage it's doing. It's one of the many reasons why I will refuse future chemo treatments if the cancer comes back. Why do people insist on shoving their religious views on other people? In the words of George Carlin - keep your religious beliefs to yourself. I don't believe in some imaginary white-bearded man in the sky. It's utter bullshit!  Have some respect in the fact that I am an intelligent, rational realist who came upon this conclusion when I reached the age of reason.

I respect that people have their religious convictions and if that works for you, then so be it, but don't discount my right to not believe in your god. And I don't need people praying for my health. I remember my douche bag of a therapist, when I went through breast cancer treatment 6 years ago, had the nerve to tell me that "there are no atheist in foxholes." Eff him! There's an atheist in my foxhole and I'm proud to say that I haven't changed my convictions based on my health concerns. Can you tell I feel very strongly about this matter??

Tell 'em, George!