A few days ago an atheist by the login name of croixian1 left a comment telling me that God was a “magical faerie” and asking me to visit his site.

Anyone who knows me at all would realize that I then had to visit. No one is ever allowed to question my faith and have me not respond in some way. Really. Croixian1’s site offered very little that I found compelling, aside from a post which called the recent overturning of the gay marriage ban in California a “bad day for bigots”. Well, Thank God I’m not a bigot! It was a good day for me.

In the side bar he linked to a bunch of other sites that are supposed to also help me realize why God is Imaginary. Most of them talked about thinks like there being no quantitative proof that prayer works, or talking about the inherent hypocrisy in Christianity and how Christians don’t actually behave as if Christ were real.

Guess what? I agree wholeheartedly with many of their assertions, but I still believe that God is real. My favorite of the sites, simply enough called God is Imaginary had a list of several things to contemplate as “proof” of God’s unreality. I take issue with several of their points. I won’t go through them one by one all in one fell swoop because who has the time… but I will address a few here. Like their “look at your church” point, in which they describe a church that is moving onto 33 acres and building soccer fields and a new building with a “huge” sanctuary and library as “your typical church.” I don’t know what America those guys live in, but in my small town the “typical” church seats about two to three hundred, barely has sufficient parking and doesn’t pay their pastor much. In small towns the country over that is the case. Why a few hundred “mega” churches are accepted as the norm and the standard by which all churches should be judged baffles me. It’s simply not logical.

They also offer the fact that “You ignore Jesus“. I hope they didn’t mean me. They show several verses in which Jesus talked about the fact that we should sell our possessions to feed the poor, not acquire wealth, and serve God not money. All great verses. All teachings that I follow. We live in the first floor of a rental house and live sort of communally with our upstairs neighbors, sharing the work and sharing our things. We drive two vehicles, one a van we bought from my parents very used and the other another used car. We paid cash for both. We don’t have credit cards. We don’t have many possessions at all. We live a lifestyle of sharing and giving and work with our church to take care of our neighborhood homeless. My husband and I follow those teachings. So, people who made God is Imaginary, you lose on that point as well. Are there many Christians who don’t follow those teachings? Yes. Are there many who don’t know Christ? Yes. But this little Christian does.

There also seems to be a focus on the fact that many Christians don’t believe in evolution and thus Christians are irrational. Guess what? I don’t believe in the “Young Earth” teachings. I believe that evolution isn’t necessarily at odds with faith. If to God a second is a thousand years and a thousand years is a minute, then how do we know how long those seven days took? The Bible was written by humans and thus is open to human flaw, as human understanding simply cannot encapsulate the Godly mind. We don’t know how our Earth was created- but believing that it was created is still entirely possible.

I looked at the entry titled “Think about a Christian Housewife” because I am one, and I wondered if they might have anything interesting to say about me. They posed a situation in which a housewife prays for God to help her clean a mustard stain off of her favorite blouse and that prayer was “answered” and then they ask why the same housewife couldn’t just, you know, pray for poverty to be eased or the hungry to be fed.

Kiss my Christian Housewife Ass.

I never, ever, pray over such trivial things as a stain on a blouse. If I did, I’d spend my entire life in prayer as I’ve got two very young, very messy children. And I DO pray for the poor and the hungry. I DO pray for world peace. I pray for a lot of things which the people who penned that site have absolutely no concept of. Do I believe my prayers will be answered? That’s an insanely complex question to address and would take an entire post in itself, if not a series of them.

But one thing I am sure of:

If Christian Hypocrisy is the Atheist’s strongest argument against God, Christianity needs to change.

1. Part of being an adult is learning to regret.  When I was a child, I didn’t regret.  I always felt justified by what I felt in the moment.  Now that I am an adult, I have learned that my feelings are not a justification.  So now, I learn to regret.
2. If I were to believe that people are inherently evil I would also have to believe that society is evil, and since society elects government and holds them accountable that would make government evil, and all of that would lead to me never wanting to leave the house.  I’m glad that I believe in the goodness of humanity.  It makes life easier to live.
3. Not all things are either one or the other, some are both or neither, and that is maddening.  It is maddening when I try to make a rational argument and have to find myself debating both points or none or introducing new arguments just to clarify.  I wish rational debate were as easy as saying, “zero is nothing,” when zero is something.  Damn it.
4. Let your yes be yes and your no be no.  And, when necessary, let your maybe be maybe.  Again: damn it.  Life can be hard sometimes, so whenever possible be clear and hold to your convictions.
5. Act as you wish others would act, treat others as you wish to be treated, and in all things hold to compassion as the highest ideal of mankind.  I have seen in my life, many times, that all of the love and good I sow around me is returned sevenfold.  Those who live a life exemplary of love as God’s highest calling are never left with empty hands.
6. Don’t be afraid.  Why should you be afraid?  Life is a transient thing, it comes and it goes, it waxes and wanes, there is pain and there is light.  Like swimming in the ocean, if you clench in fear you will be drowned.  If you surrender control, you will be buoyed.  So swing your arms wide, feel the saltwater at your back and the sun on your face.
7. Gratitude is a virtue- and a great one.  Those who are able to feel profound gratitude always seem to find things to be grateful for, and their life is full of the knowledge of blessings.  It’s a virtue I don’t always have but one that I pray for, because I want to be the kind of person who never lacks for a card to give or a note to leave or a phone call to make, just to say thank you.

Take some time this weekend to empty yourself, to sit in the sunshine and simply feel the vibrancy of the world around you.  Allow your thoughts to think themselves.

Be grateful.

It’s spring, time to air out the mattresses and the men, so to speak.