"Let's talk about the pleasures (in a Schadenfreude kinda way) of imagining all the nonbelievers dead -- whether they don't believe the right stuff about God, or don't respect Mother Earth, or are complicit with the government, or simply haven't built a bunker in the woods (after you warned them)."
Ok, so here is where I jump right into a big ol' pond of internet bloggers and also put myself squarely in the midst of a major debate and possibly offend folks. I'm an atheist. I don't believe in God, god, gods, spirits, souls, reincarnation, or any kind of psychic powers. The Schadenfreude of religious beliefs (and I include anything that is taken purely on faith without the intervention of "reality" and "facts" to be religious) about the end of the world is....one of the most troubling and ultimately destructive forces inherent to religious beliefs.
This isnt saying that only religious beliefs cause this sort of pleasure in mass destruction--it's pretty much human nature. I'll wager that if global warming ends up destroying the planet--there will be a lot of scientists grimly saying "I told you so" and taking the little pleasure they can from it--but I AM saying that religion has this sort of mentality emphasized, enshrined and worshipped.
It's this idea that not only is it OK that when the end comes you will be safe and sound while the earth and all the poor schmoes that didn't get the message are dying in firey, painful, torturous doom--but that you'll be happy about it, and gleefully watching your fellows as they die horribly. More--watching your friends and neighbors die horribly is somehow moral...This is terrible. This idea, this schadenfreude...this is...arg. I can't even express the kind of fury and anger I feel when perfectly well meaning people tell me that this sort of inhumane behavior is more moral and more socially accepted then my personal philospohy.
This sort of subject comes up a lot with the published atheists--this schadenfreude about the end of the world, the idea that the end of the world is something to be looked forward to, worked for, and joyfully recived--and this belief is shared by people who have nuclear weapons...
Damn right, that's scary. And maybe it would serve the world right if people stopped being hypocrites and started acting according to their beliefs and...
heh...there I go. Human nature in reguards to other people; that gloating and smug feeling you get when you are "right." I'm no stranger to the grim sort of "I told you so" thinking that comes along with seeing people follow a path of destruction partying and waving and being accompanied by a big o'l brass band. that "I told you so" sort of thinking that comes after youve tried to wave your arms and get somebody's attention and point at the cliff the mass is heading toward--and being laughed at, been told that you are being immoral for pointing out the cliff. That the cliff has an awesome party on the bottom, if you can just get past the sharp rocks...
Oh yeah. I'll admit to sharing that sort of feeling. I also think it is a profoundly immoral (or at least amoral) thing to think.
This, I think is the difference between the really disturbing schadenfreude and the lesser sort of satisfaction that people feel when they are "right" or have "won" an argument. To paraphrase Jeff Foxworthy: if you think that you should feel joy when others are suffering you might be a really awful person. If you think you deserve to feel joy amidst death and destruction you might be a really awful person. If you think it's your right to feel joy watching people you love dying by torture you might be a really awful person.
If you think that feeling joy when people around you are dying in a fire is awful or you feel guilty if you feel relived and happy that "it wasn't you"...that's not so problematic. I'd call it natural, and I actually take it further--
here's where some of you will probably get irritated with me. I'll posit that if you are a healthy, sane person--you will feel guilty about surviving while watching the world burn. You might even feel guilty NOW because you believe that your friends, nieghbors, classmates and people who've never heard of your particular religion will all be punished in some way when the end times come.
I'll also take that a step further and say that for the true believers--this is where the anger, the fury and the hatred comes from for people who don't believe what they believe. They DO feel guilty--and guilt is a terrible, awful emotion. Those unbelivers who are going to die horribly are making them feel guilty about something they have every right to feel--some even belive that this bliss will be forced on them, making the guilt even more irritating and awful.
I can't even imagine believing that a) the world will end horribly, b) that my loved ones will die because they didn't hear my message strong enough, because I wasnt good enough to "save" them, c) and that my God will ensure that I will enjoy watching them burn.
...I think I just talked myself into pitying some street preachers and a particularly evangelical family member. That chain of events sounds horrible. Like...something out of a nightmare. Seriously, no wonder people get mad at non-believers. They've got to think, at some level, that we will be subjecting them to that sort of hell--except that they obviously don't think it will be hell--which I personally feel might actually be worse--sort of an ultimate erasure of the self, since so much of ones identity is tied up in who they love and in their relationships. I mean...what if you retained some part of you that wasnt all blissed out? I think id be mad at us too. Oh, man. I've never been so happy to be an atheist. I'm so glad that the only thing that happens to us when we die is that....we die. That sounds so. much. less. scary.
...Now I will never sleep again 'cuase I've creeped myself out.
on the upside, I can probably write a damn good story off of that feeling so....boffo?
ewewew.
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