Hating to Hate

So the SSA at EKU is currently going through some issues as well as a (still) pending name change. All of which are currently making us sit still in the water taking any "blows" that come to us. Which is fine since we all know how to receive them and not turn our beliefs into a case of Martyrdom.

Ummm, maybe not.

I was going to save this post until everything got cleared up, but it's a Thursday morning, I am at work with nothing else to do, and in about eight hours all this will be taken care of. And I really do not expect anyone to read this before then (or at all...really?).

So one of our members this past weekend decided he really didn't like Christianity or CRU and went on a personal flier campaign bashing the two as much as is humanly possible (with the groups former name). The fliers (obviously) did not get approved to be distributed around campus so he opted for plastering our "free-speech wall" with them. Now I am all for free-speech, but I am also all for using such a freedom responsibly, and this was not responsible at all. Furthermore, it does something that I am all against happening not only in the group, but in the world as well:

Spreading hate.

Now don't get me wrong, I dislike religion as much as the next Atheist, but I also realize that every religion is made up of living, breathing, emotional, thinking human beings. While I secretly wish religion would disappear overnight to welcome an all-peaceful morning, I realize that any real attempt at doing so right now would require one thing that religions incorporate well, but really only makes matters worse.

Hate.

Now, what this member did was see a problem he wanted to fix, realized that it would take to long to make people tolerate us, see us as human beings, come to accept us, and eventually listen to us...well, lets paraphrase that into: "It would take to long to let nature run its course." So, he opted for the forceful approach. Let the Religious know how stupid and hypocritical they really are by rationalizing that the Religious will understand your approach and that the proverbial light bulb will light up and the world will instantly become a better place; NO MORE RELIGION! If only someone had thought of this approach before!

Yeah, that logic didn't strike me as revolutionary either. Actually, it struck me as exactly the type of mainstream religious thinking that I loathe. It reminded me of Fox "News" logic.

So what am I left to do? I am stuck with some of the blame, admittedly since I knew what was going on and did nothing to stop it until it was too late. I am not writing this to make excuses however, what happened will be fixed and this whole issue will hopefully be put behind us before too long, though I am left to help the group recover our "friendly" status with students on campus and hopefully make people forget about this whole thing.

But it did put into perspective the whole "oh, we're not 'that' type of [insert Religious person here]" situation Atheists so commonly hear when dealing with other Religions. I found myself saying, "I'm not the type of Atheist who hates;" though I found that entire phrase wrong. Atheists should not have to distinguish themselves from other Atheists on such terms because we should be logical to the point where hate should not even enter the equation.

But I suppose Atheism has no Dogma. I will just have to convey the importance of not hating as much as humanly possible within the group. And maybe find officers who agree with me...

TLDR; Is Atheism better than Religion if it mirrors it?

Round 1....CHALK!

So the week following the Secular Coalitions (Forever now to be renamed the Secular Student Alliance at EKU) chalking campaign got media attention, the Campuses' Christian affiliated groups (most notably Cru) have decided to go all out with their chalking. What once was plain, old, hell-condemning chalk is now bright, positive, and attention grabbing advertisements from those groups.

I find this amusing and all around a good thing really. I am not sure if they are just trying to get the media's attention too (which would be pointless unless either the news reached out to them to do this or they simply think Christian chalk is controversial in a Christian state) or simply to try and lash back at us. However, it does next to nothing for them other than make the sidewalk look pretty since:
1.) They have no problem reaching out to members.
2.) Everyone believes they're piping mad at the coalition and just trying to 'get even.'
3.)Has actually taken away their token hating (no more hell-bound bible verses).
4.)Makes people reflect on why they've went so all out...THE ATHEISTS!
















So while I obviously have no problem with them doing this, it simply shows other students how these groups will act when the ante is upped. We however, will continue to chalk normally and will pay no attention to their obvious bluff. Retaliation is forfeit in this kind of situation.

TLDR; We've got willing "competition."