Man Behind Bars
The following is Part Ten of the Reed Secular Alliance’s prisoner letter feature. Every so often, a real prisoner, “Prison Bob”, incarcerated in Oklahoma, writes a letter for the website. Since he has no email access, we transcribe the letter and post it here. Previous editions can be found by clicking “Prisoner Letters” in the Categories at right. We hope you will enjoy this series.
Everyone around here thinks of me as “that angry atheist guy”. Don’t talk to him, “He hates god”.
In my own defense, I’m not always or even often angry. There’s nothing here [in prison] really worth my anger. It’s one of those things that helped get me where I am today, which is locked up, behind a fence.
I do, however, get irritable when a religious neophyte approaches and asks me if I’ve accepted a purely fictional and mythological entity as the central anchoring structure of my moral life experience. Because, that is what they’re asking.
That question made me uncomfortable before incarceration, and it does no better now.
It makes me uncomfortable for the same reason that the frozen pizza commercial – where the lady wants a crust that rises “naturally” without chemical leaveners – does. I know what they mean. I also know what they said. “Have you accepted JC as your…” makes me antsy the same way the concept of “all natural” sets me off. If you think it through, everything is all natural.
No, many things we use so readily today don’t occur in nature, but neither do Beefsteak tomatoes, or min-pins, or half a million other things. Yet, there is no combination, however derived, that did not begin as all natural.
I understand the psychology of the sale. I understand that the actress lady probably doesn’t actually care, or even know what’s in her pizza crust. And I am oh – so aware that if people took a moment to think it through, they may opt for bicarbonate of soda, as a leavener over yeast farts.
It’s all about empathy.
Just like when a [insert denomination here] asks you: “Had a bad day? [Insert major deity here] can help.” Or “Have you accepted a recycled, re-branded myth as your overlord?”
People think I’m angry about religion, but I’m not. I”m abrasive to shut people up. We all talk too much. Self included. I’m not noticed or disparaged when I’m working out, or quietly reading book after book. I’m not noticed or even heard from when I’m working on a story. But let one person come up to me and say: “I don’t mean to cause a debate…But,” and suddenly I’m “that angry atheist”.
And that isn’t even correct. I know that there are thousands of gods. Humans make them in droves. You can’t get away from them. Anywhere.
But, if there is an Ultimate-Supreme, None Other But This One who started “it all”, it would have to be Infinite Random Chance or Julian.
Julian Bless us everyone.
-Prison Bob
P.S. – Don’t know a Julian, but do like the name.
