An un-peaceful peace activist and atheism

July 18, 2007

About an hour ago my doorbell rang as I was watching an

interesting TV program on PBS.

It turned out to be a male peace activist who wanted to talk

about stopping the war.

In the first place, I did not want to talk to him. In the second,

I wanted to continue to watch KQED. That does NOT mean that I

think we should be in Iraq or other countries. I told him

directly that I was watching an interesting TV program and wanted

to continue to watch it and not talk. I then shut the door and

not slammed either.

His reaction was pretty hostile. So much for peace activism, huh?

The program I was watching WAS interesting. It was by a

thoughtful, Lithuanian Jew who emigrated to England during WW II

as a young boy. His father was a " You go to Temple because you

need it, " while he did not go himself.

Temple did not interest him. He did not know the language and

could not even read it since he had not been trained. Plus he had

no interest in learning it and felt no connection to either the

temple or the people who attended.

He is not a rabid atheist and attended schools where Christianity

was taught. His points were well thought out and intelligently

presented. He does appreciate the beautiful things that exist in

various churches. He spoke about how governments use religion to

help control the people. Naturally 9/11 was mentioned and the

beliefs and attitudes of those who perpetrated it.

There was a quote from George H.W. Bush about how atheists did

not deserve to be US citizens. I did not write it down so my

paraphrase is not exact. The idea is a bit scary though. People

came to this country to escape some of the religions that existed

at that time. In many cases, they had their own religion that was

outlawed.

It was food for thought even for non-atheist me.

Mary Nelson

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