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As my little tagline up there says, I am atheist. I’m not unruly or uncivilized though. I have found peace in the writings of Lao-tzu. I have found the Tao Te Ching to be the most like my thinking. I do not consider Taoism to be a religion. I do not find spiritual context in it nor do I find any references to a god- just a way. I honestly feel that both Lao-tzu and Sidartha were atheist. They both spoke of believing in oneself.

Being Taoist means finding balance. Yin and Yang are the Taoist symbol. The absolute symbol of balance. I try to find that balance in my life. I’m rarely successful, but it’s always worth keeping in my mind.

The antithesis of balance is approaching for me. I am being sent for some training in the middle of the country. I will be gone from my family for eleven days; leaving on a monday and returning on a thursday. The friday after the training is, in my opinion, left for us to enjoy at home. It’s an effort to return us to our lives in which we live outside of work for an extra day. I honestly believe that.

I will be displaced from my family for quite some time. The longest that I’ve ever left my wife and kids at one time. I was looking forward to that friday as an opportunity to do something special with the family. My boss has other plans. Seeing that there may be a need for a 12-15 hour day that friday, he has told me that I need to report to work that day.

My ultra-conservative preachy Christian boss has determined that me spending time with my family can wait an extra day in order to feed his misery loves company complex. I certainly will not be able to shorten the amount of time that we will be there. I will have nothing to add that likely wouldn’t be taken care of without me. To put it in blatant non-politically correct terms, my boss is being a dick.

Now, I’m going to try to avoid this being a huge rant against my boss, but it’s pretty unfair this treatment. My boss has used his son’s senior year as the reason to get out of almost every long day for the past year, I find him to be more and more a hypocrite all the time. OK, I’m done now.

Back to philosophy and why I enjoy the Tao Te Ching so much. I guess I have to find that balance someway. My peace is there; I just lose sight of it on occasion.

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Say what you will about the sweet miracle of unquestioning faith. I consider the capacity for it terrifying and absolutely vile.

That quote by Kurt Vonnegut says it all to me.  Faith is the answer to everything.  Faith is the ruin of everything.

People fight for faith, live on faith, and kill on faith.  They are unwilling to take any accountability for their own lives.

The ability to think for oneself is often ruined when people choose faith over reason.  People are taught from a young age to have faith, which, in my opinion, is the same as telling children not to think for themselves or question.

The folly of mankind will always be our capacity for unquestioning faith.  How many great people has faith stopped from asking the next question or taking the next step?

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I know, it’s a bit fuzzy. I really tried to make it less so, but driving 50 mph down the highway makes it real tough to get that perfect shot of the 70’s Econoline with “Jesus” painted on it and “Godz Gang” written even smaller underneath the driver window. You can click on the picture. Maybe it will be easier to see.

I simply found the image amusing. A van devoted to being the official transportation of “Godz Gang.” Does that mean the Air Force 1 is no longer the official transportation? I always thought the US Government had been bullying on God’s behalf since the 2000 election.

Maybe this one is a smaller spinoff. A small town farming community needs a van and a gang to look out after their best interests.

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This is a little more of a rant than any fact or foundation.

Somebody who works for me has decided that everybody needs to see the movie “Facing the Giants.” I am sure that her church is pushing for this to help spread the word and get people motivated to support God as God supported the coach and team in this movie.

I did not watch it. I am not a big fan of movies. I always feel as if I lost a couple hours of my life. Not only would I lose a couple hours of my life with this movie, but I would be sickened for days is my guess.

I did some reading about this movie. So the coach is down and out. Six straight losing season. Magic number seven is upon him and after some major amounts of praying and asking for help in both his personal life and on the field, the coach finds the magic he’s been needing. It’s “Bad News Bears” or “Mighty Ducks” or whatever other youth sports flick for Christians. I don’t have a problem with that.

Unfortunately, she’s pretty disappointed that I did not watch the movie. I responded by reminding her that I don’t believe and a movie is very unlikely to do much besides frustrate me. I really do enjoy seeing all sides though. Just not in propaganda form.

During our last conversation she mentioned that one of her coworkers would not get the opportunity to watch it. Why? He’s Hindu. He doesn’t believe in what she believes in. I guess there’s hope for me, because when I reminded her that neither do I, she told me that I at least I know who her God is. What the hell?

My boss is a huge Christian and supporter of all workers in the account that are also Christian. Faith based office politicking is fun. He told me that he’s pretty disappointed with me for not watching the movie. That I should watch it at some point, although sooner is better than later.

So here’s my real rant: Why do Christians get away with preaching their belief system in the workplace? Why does my boss get away with suggesting the entire group pray for a fellow team member or suggesting that my dad is in a “better place” after he died last year? Why is it OK for my company, when seeking a charity to help, takes on a Christian charity? Are all non-religious charities unavailable or already have too much money? I don’t want to support the cause. Why is it that the only time these instances make news is when somebody who doesn’t believe tries to fight back (see Pledge of Allegiance case)?

If people point blank as me what I believe in or what church I go to, I tell them that I am atheist. If they insist on asking why or looking horrified at the thought, then I tell them it’s based on how I was raised and my education. I try not to volunteer this information to anyone.

People should not be allowed to come in to my work area and push a religious movie on me. My boss should not encourage such actions. Besides, the reviews I read said it played like and after school special and the acting was some of the worst they had seen.

Here’s my favorite part, though, and the reason for the title.  As I was talking to this woman, she mentioned how angry she was at some people.  She told me that if “she wasn’t serving someone, well then things would be different.”  Basically, the only reason she’s not violent with people is because she serves God.  I think it would be much nicer if she was a good person just for the sake of being a good person.  Isn’t it somewhat false otherwise?

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A friend of mine worked at a Goodwill. Not just any Goodwill, but a nice Goodwill. At least that’s what she told me. She would sometimes bring me in some trinkets of different varieties and leave me notes as to why she picked it up. There are some pretty crazy things at Goodwill. That’s what I learned.

One morning there was a bag on my desk at work with an action figure inside and a note. The note was long the lines of what would a child do with a toy like this? Stand him on top of the hill above the GI Joes with his arms raised hoping that he can carry the army to victory? She had a few other ideas.

The toy she brought in is pictured. I was amused and I still have it, although I’m a little disappointed that I do not have the deluxe model with glowing hands, fish, five loaves of break, and a barrel to make wine in. Humorous I suppose, but not really practical for children. For me, the entertainment is there.

This is a toy that is product of Seattle based Accoutrements. At accoutrements, they have Saint Vivian, Patron Saint of Hangovers, Last Supper After Dinner Mints, and the Moses Action Figure as well as several other religion based toys. Based on the toys I mentioned, these are more of a humorous device than much else.

Other action figures created by accoutrements include a Benjamin Franklin, Einstein, Carl Jung, Alexander the Great, and Obsessive Compulsive, among many other seemingly unrelated ideas. They also make the quite clever Cubes sets, which are office people with cubicles included.

Humor. Until I saw the Nightline piece the other day. Walmart will begin carrying faith based toys by the tons real soon. One2believe is creating toys for market at Walmart (where else?) and hope to get real rich. I’m sure they will. With faith based toys and other marketing becoming even more huge in this country, these will probably be snatched up by every church hoping to make their Sunday School playroom a little more Bible friendly.

My question really is, what about the general public? It’s a niche market and doesn’t really appeal to the masses- I wouldn’t believe. How long can a child play with Esther or Samson or Moses with his tablets or Goliath? Samson looks very much like the Disney Hercules by the way.

Anyway, I don’t support Walmart and I won’t support faith based companies. I will have to let my friend know that I am not in the market for any of these toys.

Faith based marketing to be continued…

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