Posts tagged: life
Being godless in the workplace
This is more of a rant than a well-thought out post.
In just a little over one month into my new job (more on that in a bit), the issue of and concerns about my humanism/atheism has already come into conversation twice. I work in a Fuji digital/film processing lab in southern middle Tennessee. Every night I’m subjected to christian propaganda in the form of general conversation and apparel (i.e. t-shirts with such witty wording as “Not perfect, just forgiven”). I carry a book with me almost every night to have something to read during my breaks and lunch. So far I’ve steered clear of taking such blatant titles as “The God Delusion” and “The Portable Atheist” with me mostly because I feel the issue of my non-belief is not an appropriate area of discourse for the workplace so I usually take a general science book with me. But “science” itself, it seems, is enough to get the dusty cogs in their brains going.
Twice I’ve had the question put forth to me, “So, do you believe in God?” And twice I’ve answered, “No, I really don’t believe in anything supernatural.” The first person asked an interesting follow-up question, “So.. are you, ya know… happy?” … The second was more down-trodden, “Man, that kind of makes me sad to hear that. Everybody has to believe in something.”
In the two brief discussions I’ve had with these two people, I’ve tried to entertain their personal beliefs without stepping all over them. (I save the stepping for the intertubes.) I’ve even held back a few questions and laughter that would serve no good purpose. One of them kept coming back to the “debate” with questions like, “So how do you explain good and evil?” to which I replied, “What else would there be?” and “We just made all that evolution stuff up.” To which I quickly replied, “No, we just figured it out. There’s a big difference.”
Both seem to be very fond and ignorant of the Bible… “The words in red are what Jesus said.” … as well as ignorant of other religions and modes of spirituality. It’s pretty obvious they’ve never experienced a spiritual moment from anything other than the religion they were brought up in. They’ve never explored the topic of religion in an academic sense and are oblivious to other culture’s religions. I keep wondering what our country would be like if we had comparative religion studies in our high schools. I’ve explained to both of them that I’m a bery spiritual person, just not a religious one… I find my spirituality in the awesome mysteries and wonder of the universe. Pictures like this evoke a spiritual response from me. Hell, just thinking about how massive our universe is evokes a spiritual response. I’m reminded of one of my favorite Carl Sagan quotes…
Many religions have attempted to make statues of their gods very large, and the idea, i supposed, is to make us feel small. But if that’s their purpose, they can keep their paltry icons. We need only look up if we wish to feel small.
Putting “Life” into perspective is a humbling and empowering experience that everyone should take part in. It allows you to see life for what it truly is. An amazingly rare and wondrous thing worth saving and worth making it better for all. Viewing the Earth from space allows you to see the made up lines we’ve created to separate ourselves from one another and to see our little insignificant planet as a single organism that must work together in harmony if it is to survive. Realizing there is no supernatural afterlife awaiting you when you die begs the venture of making all there is to make of this life. As Richard Dawkins put it…
The ‘here and now’ is not something to be endured before eternal bliss or damnation. The ‘here and now’ is all we have; An inspiration to make the most of it.
As it stands, I’m going to continue trying to avoid the ‘I’m a godless heathen among you’ conversation while on the clock.
I’ve now broken two principles because I need this job so much at the moment … damn you U.S. economy. Granted, the $1,300 paychecks are nice, but they don’t make me feel any better about myself. The whole situation is a bit loony. I’m attempting to be a nobody that stands out amongst the crowd. Does having a contradictory goal affect the outcome? Hmmmm.
Okay… my little rant is over… When I write a real post regarding my new job, some of this will make a little more sense. Right now, after a 12 hour shift… I’m pooped. Lights out.
On life, being jobless and my lack of recent blogging
A few readers have emailed me asking why I haven’t written any new posts or if something has happened recently. Well, yes…
I’m jobless.
During the last week of August, the owner of the company I worked for gathered everyone together for the first ‘mandatory’ meeting in the company’s history to announce that he’d sold the business. “Nothing will change.” was the mantra of the day. I heard it from his mouth several times during the meeting and continued to hear it as we were introduced to our new boss. The only problem was… something was changing. Mainly my job ceased to exist. And that’s a pretty big change for zero day’s notice.
I’ll spare you the slimy details and some rather mean-spirited ranting and just say that I’ve been having quite some trouble finding replacement employment during our country’s economic disaster.
Although I’m trying to keep my chin up, a depression of sorts has been hanging over my head like a bad cartoon cloud for the last month now and I’ve found it very difficult to focus on anyone else’s happy, job-filled life. To put it frankly, reading about other people’s vacations, family trips, purchases and day-to-day activities just makes things worse. So I’ve found myself just blazing through my feed reader, ignoring everything that wasn’t a job listing or a potential source of income.
I’m by no means angry at anyone (other than my ex-boss for not giving us a notice the company was being sold to a firm 30 miles away) but I am a little bitter all the same.
During this last week of Sept. and the first couple weeks of Oct., I’ll be moving out of the apartment I can no longer afford and regular blog posting will be very slight until things start moving for me again. I appreciate the kind words of encouragement I’ve already received and offers to put me up until I can find work. My housing situation is taken care of at the moment (thanks Mom) and all my time and efforts will be directed towards finding some form of regular employment.
With all that said, If you know of anyone seeking print or web design, please send them my email or direct them to my oDesk profile … or if you’re financially sound at the moment and just feel sorry for me, consider making a PayPal donation. Every penny helps.
Hopefully things will perk up here sooner rather than later and I’ll be able to continue daunting creationist IDiots, spreading the godless good news and ranting my usual rants. But until then expect posts to be short, few and far between.
