The Joke’s On You

I guess that by virtue of me blogging about atheism, some religious people believe I want to either convert them or educate them about atheism. I don’t.

I’m not an atheist ambassador. I’m not an atheist apologist. I’m not an atheist evangelist. In fact, the only reason I care at all about what a person believes regarding the gods relates solely to my desire to observe and learn. I like hearing what people believe, because it is only through observing the religious first hand that I can come up with new ideas about atheism.

I notice a stale air around most atheists, a lack of originality that I imagine is largely due to many of them all reading the same works written by prominent atheists. It’s no skin off my back, but that isn’t what I could ever do; it would bore me. It makes for tedious reading to see dozens of people all parroting the same exact ideas, often in the same words.

I like to spice things up with jokes. I’m not sure humor expands the mind, but I know it sooths it. Sometimes humor can make you think, but usually it just does the opposite: it takes your mind off of things and brings you back here, in the moment. A good joke can make you forget all your worries, if only for a moment.

But some people don’t want to laugh. Some people seem to get their rocks off by feeling offended by everything. I always assume these people are stupid and didn’t get the joke. It’s perfectly normal for a joke to not be funny (I know that’s often the case with my jokes), but it’s entirely ludicrous that people get upset about a joke.

People just don’t like to feel laughed at, especially when talking about something they believe is very serious. If you go through life not being able to laugh at yourself, you will miss half the jokes. Why deny yourself that joy? If someone is laughing at you, join in, and suddenly they’re just laughing with you.

Religion is full of jokes. In fact, there’s no excuse for not seeing the humor in religion. Believers sometimes may whine about “respect,” but I have never met a person who doesn’t love a good religion joke… about someone else’s religion. The very same people who will try to shame you for telling a joke about their faith will laugh at a joke about Scientology, or Mormons, or Buddhists.

A joke directed at you or something you care about is supposed to keep you humble, and if you find the very idea of joking about something to be wrong, it’s because you have too much pride. You can’t trust a person who will laugh at others, but not themselves. Someone like that is bound to be a bad person.

I write to entertain, not to persuade or inform. Maybe someone learned something from reading my blog, or maybe someone even read a post that made them stop believing (though I doubt it), but that isn’t why I sit down to write. No, I sit down to write because it’s incredibly uncomfortable to type while standing… and because I like making corny jokes.