What matters

Last night as I was falling asleep with Chip, I started an intense conversation. Well I suppose it could have been intense, but Chip is very sure of himself in matters of the world and places beyond (both real and imagined), so the conversation was pretty brief and to the point.

"Do you think it's empty to think that this life is all we get? Do you think there might be something else after this?"

"No. You know that."

"I know, but I always read religious people saying they think it feels empty to consider that there's nothing else after this, like an afterlife of sorts. They think atheism is hopeless. I agree with you, I just wasn't sure you felt that way."

"It's just not possible to me that there is a God. And why, of all animals, would we get an afterlife? Do we think cats and cows and spiders get afterlives?"

"I know. I think it's sadder to consider that people spend their entire lives thinking there's something after this. People who lives their lives in self-imposed misery. Like the evangelical minister who preached against homosexuality and sexual deviancy who was found dead of auto-erotic asphyxiation wearing TWO rubber wetsuits and with a dildo in his ass. If he didn't think this behavior was unacceptable, he would have been safely engaging in it with a partner and wouldn't have died. Like Ted Haggard, who is buying meth and having gay sex with a prostitute because he doesn't feel he can be openly gay. Like Larry "Happy Feet" Craig, who is supporting crap like the Defense of Marriage Act while soliciting gay sex in restrooms, pleading guilty, and then denying his guilt. If he thought "God" approved of his being gay, he would have a boyfriend and would be having sex with him at home, not soliciting sex in a restroom. I feel sorry for them because something they can't help (being homosexual) is something that everyone has told them is wrong. They feel so conflicted because of religion, and that is a fucking shame. On top of that, Haggard and Craig, once caught in the act, could have used their situations for good. They could have said, 'I'm gay, and there's nothing wrong with it. My only crime is hiding it and being a hypocrite." Instead, Haggard talked about "sexual immorality" and further reinforced that being gay is a choice that he made and that it was wrong. Without religion, these people would feel free to do what makes them happy, and to not worry about "hell" and "heaven." Another sad example of religious extremism is the machismo of Muslim law. Women are raped, and their brothers and fathers feel that they have to kill them because they were "adulterous." And they do it. They actually kill their female relatives. There's no way that crap like that doesn't just destroy them inside, no matter how much they think "God" wants them to do it. You can't murder someone, especially a family member with whom you grew up, without dying inside a little. It's sad to me that people live their lives like this. I'm going to make the most of my life, because it's the only one I've got. The world will go on forever without me; I'm part of the beautiful cycle that is life, and that is OK with me. I'm not going to spend my life waiting for "the next one." I'm going to do whatever makes me happy and fulfilled now."

Time for bed.