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Interweb: that wacky wasteland
By Marc | September 12, 2007
The Internet is a place that can be fun, informative, scary, and loony. We can broadcast our thoughts to the world and the world can share their thoughts with us. The downfall of this is that we can broadcast our thoughts to the world and the world can share their thoughts with us.
Atheists have existed for a long long long time. They aren’t going away. As much as we would like them to see what we see, it is a sad fact that there are people who just don’t get it.
In the United States, we have freedom of speech and freedom of religion. I am grateful to the Lord for these two freedoms we are granted in our Constitution. Without these, this site would not exist legally. Without these, I would not be able to take my family, out in the open, to church. In the same token, atheists are free to have their own views and not worship however they see fit.
But when insults are flung, twisted logic is applied, and plots are planned against what I hold dear, I have a problem.
Read the blog posts. Listen to the rambling rants. Check out the sites. Watch the videos of someone plastering their mug in the camera like a self-made celebrity. We all have an opinion, but the Internet gives us the sense that the world hangs on our every word.
With all this, it seems to me (just a theory of mine) that atheists are becoming more and more vicious with the web becoming more and more accessible to everyone.
Think about it. You can videotape yourself, saying whatever comes to mind (whether its your own thought or not), and upload it to a free online community. You can write in your own free blog and have your own free site. You can then direct traffic for free to your many accomplishments. You don’t even need an ISP. All you really need is an email address that you can also get for free.
When we are given a soapbox, we feel a sense of power that we are all supreme and able to bend the masses to our will. Combine this with a belief that we have no accountability to a supreme authority, and we believe our delusions and expect others to. Toss around big words and scotch tape some wikipedia “facts” together. Use terms like “proselytize”, “rational”, “brainwashing”, and “freethinker”. Maybe scoff, roll your eyes, and “deny the Holy Spirit”. You can even come up with plans to get rid of an entire group of people altogether. (You know, kind of like that one guy tried to do in Germany.) Now you’re a force to be reckoned with.
Soon you have people commenting on how brilliant you are and how you showed that “religious reich”. Eventually, just to make your public happy, you’ll do something like post a picture of the President next to a picture of a chimp or make up a little play trying to describe how much you don’t believe.
I love atheists. I love people who don’t believe what I believe. I have dear friends who do not believe, and there is very little I would not do for them. But I don’t love the hate. I don’t love the name-calling. I don’t love the slander. It’s very easy to fall into the traps of rage that seem to be set before me. It is also hard not to cry for those who are so absolutely sure that there is no God.
As a former atheist, I can see where I was headed. I had anger against people I didn’t understand. I bought into the rants on the web until I realized they were just rants without merit. I believed the accusations until I saw the logic was twisted. I read the list of Bible “inconsistencies” and believed it until I saw they had no context. I sought the truth and the Truth found me, waiting for me to turn around and look Him in the eyes.
Fame, especially self-imposed fame, is something that will go to our heads and can make us believe we are omniscient and omnipotent, like a god ourselves, unless we have a way to keep us grounded. The only way is the path that leads to the cross.
I pray for humility, and try to remind myself day after day that I am just a tiny little man on a tiny little site. I am not important. God is important. His love and His message are important. If this site grows, it is not because of me, but because of Him. I pray that I am doing Him justice.
If any of these words are not of Him, please let them be forgotten.
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