The New Curse

Well, here I am with my 2nd post and there's just a little bit more housecleaning to do before I get into my topic.

First, I know I'm going to get these questions so I'm just going to answer them up front.

1. Why is this blog anonymous? Well, there are a couple reasons really. I am a professional with a couple very successful blogs in my industry and knowing what freaks x-tians are, I just don't need the headache of having to defend my religious thoughts in my professional life. I had a friend who recently did go through that very same thing. He had a personal blog like this and it caused him nothing but grief. So for that reason I've decided to keep my name out of it. Also, it shouldn't matter who I am. You either agree with me or you don't so my ideas stand on their own merits. And lastly, all religions have nuts. In fact, religion is kind of a mixed can of complete nuts. And frankly, I don't want anybody to be able to look me up and plant a car bomb or anything. I have a family and I don't want them hurt (wow, you mean I don't believe in God, yet I can still care about other people?). And let's be honest. No matter how unlikely, it's still a concern, so I'm just removing this from the equation.

And to be honest, I can't remember the other question I had in mind right now so I'll post that one when it comes to me... oops, get used to that.

OK, now on to my topic for today.

One thing that bothers me is how arbitrary religion is... especially in the area of cursing. Now, those who know me best know that I curse my fair share. In fact, I suppose I curse enough for a couple other people's fair share too. But what gets me is how arbitrary religion is about cursing. Take my mother for example. She's a very strict baptist, yet she curses all the time. In fact, I'm pretty sure the first time my daughter heard fuck was from my mother the southern baptist. Now, having grown up x-tian myself and having read the bible, I don't remember seeing anything in there where it says don't curse. Yet all the x-tians almost universally preach against it. I'm not sure why except that maybe it goes along with just the general prudishness you need to try to control other people's lives. Because that's what it really boils down to isn't it? It's just another way to control people. But again, it's arbitrary. Because the bible doesn't lay down the law about cursing, they're able to put whatever weight to the words they want. So fuck is heavier than shit which is heavier than damn, etc. And these weights change depending on who you're talking to.

However, that said, I've got kind of a new car syndrome going on with cursing. I've been building up to official athiesm for a long time now... many years in fact. And it's only been withing the past couple years that I've been doing any significant reading on the topic and it's finally been able to push me over the edge to actually come to grips with what I am. Before I just said I was agnostic or something like that. Now, I'm a proud athiest and I don't curse any more or any else than I did when I was an x-tian. But what does bother me though is the new curse words I'm finding in my life. Things like 'God bless you' and 'Have a blessed day' are really becoming offensive to me. It's like when you buy a new car. You never really noticed Priuses before, but now that I have one, they're everywhere. The world just gave birth to the Prius. So I've definitely got the syndrome. The new athiest syndrome. I never really noticed before how many people throw that bullshit into conversations. God bless you... hey, fuck you too! It's offensive that you have to push your religious beliefs off on to me every time we meet. It's that pervasive nagging that makes religion a mosquito. All they do is buzz around your head and try to suck your blood when you're not looking.

I get sales people calling me at work all the time. And sometimes I get one of those nasty curse words from one of them. Like I'm supposed to listen to you about your dumbass product because you jizzed Jesus in my face. And who the fuck do you think you are anyway? You don't even know me and you just assume that God bless is something I'll appreciate? What if I did the same thing? Wouldn't it be great for me to end every phone conversation and email with 'God doesn't exist'? Who do you think that would piss off? And how about if I were black? Could I get away with saying 'kill whitey' all the time?

It's like those fucks on the side of the road begging for money. These guys refuse to get off their asses and get a job, and they spend all their money on booze, yet because they put God bless on their sign, I'm supposed to be guilted into giving them money. Frankly, it's just fucking offensive and as far as I'm concerned, the only real curse words are those mindless religious propaganda phrases designed to find out if you're 'in'.