Dear atheist, stop talking about Jesus

If you want Jesus to go away you have to stop talking about him, and it’s perfectly okay in modern society to not believe in God, but you have to stop telling the world about it at every opportunity, or you merely affirm its existence. Let me explain:

I have been fortunate to spend this Easter in Dublin, Ireland. As we all know the Irish are stereotypically a religious bunch with the Catholic church to this day shaping much of Irish culture. Like most people in the city however I spent the weekend moping about in frustration at the fact that all the shops were closed so kids can have an egg hunt while us adults use alcohol to try and understand why the chocolate bunny is part of this holiday.

I also noticed on twitter and in various publications prior to Easter the new trend of conversing endlessly about those laughable aspects of the Bible/Koran/Torah. Indeed most of my South African and Irish twitter friends revelled in their wit and rhetorical questioning of the crucifixion in every way shape or form. Some jokes were funny and in others one could sense a bit of self-doubt, such as in the numerous tweets of comedian Ricky Gervais who tweets about nothing else but religion.

Now I am far too lazy to ever suggest to anyone what they can or cannot speak about. I have a bossy older sister and being told what to do is at best uncool and at worse a painful experience. Yet this Christianity-bashing by atheists has to be questioned and I am happy to do so right here on this fine platform. I have always argued that atheism is hard work as you have to spend more time disproving the existence of God than Christians, Jews and Muslims spend affirming it. For that reason I became an agnostic. Us agnostics sit on the fence and go on with our lives happy in the knowledge that we simply do not know what’s going on. We do not know and we do not try to know. Ignorance is true agnostic bliss. Some call it “leaving your options open”.

From my vantage point the average atheist today spends more time talking about Jesus and God than fiercely religious people, who for the most part leave religion for a Sunday mass and who might have the odd conversation about it in the pub once a month or so, while the supposed non-believers blabber on about it non-stop! Think about it this way:

If we talk about life on Mars it matters not whether this planet exists in real life. Most of us will never truly know if Mars exists or not. Yet by debating the existence of the planet and whether it has potential to sustain human life is what makes Mars real to us. Mars exists because we talk about it. The same goes for Jesus, God, Muhammad and all the usual suspects. It matters not if these concepts or people ever existed but the fact that we talk about them makes them real. Therefore if you do not believe in God, it’s best not to sprout on about it day and night, as you merely affirm its existence. Yes it’s true — atheists affirm the existence of God daily!

If you find the idea of religion so outrageously stupid and worthy of your comedy, at least ask yourself why you spend so much time talking about it. At least question why humankind has not been able to come up with a new idea to amuse itself? To me most aspects about religion are slightly whack, but judging by debates in so-called liberal, educated circles, it’s still the only game in town.