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The Myth of Christianity
by Jason Simmons
Catkgian Staff
Often I hear and real the preaching of
people telling everyone to look towards
God to provide a path of enlightenment
and to find answers. I have yet to
understand why these righteous people dr
not ask us to look into ourselves for the
answers, assuming such answers exist, and
to utilize our own talents to promote our
well being. Why look externally when
our success relies upon our own dedication
and adherence to responsibilities? We can
not sit back and wait for things to
magically appear, we must make things
happen. Do not follow luck, but create it.
Our inborn talents give us a specific
edge that makes no single person the
same. Dedication, persistence, work ethic,
and problem solving are the workings - of
our brains, not that of an entity. Such as
in everyday affairs like our omnipotent
college work, myself as an example has
been receiving A's and a few B's during
this semester, not because of a belief in
God, but due to my own dedication to my
I was leading a letter a lesbian had
posted to the LGBSA list-serve last week.
She seemed to be stressed out about her
job situation, and it went something like
this: "...I want to tell my coworkers I'm a
lesbian, but I'm afraid of the
consequences..."
I've always felt that there was a certain
inconsistency with queers thinking they
needed to come out to straights. I have
never had a co-worker or new acquaintance
hesitantly approach me and in a hushed
voice say, "I'm... I'm ... I'm a hetero
I'm a ... I'm straight." Have you ever
seen anyone wearing a button that read: "9
out of 10" or "Heterosexual Ally" or
"Take Heed, We Breed?"
Speaking from experience, I know all
there is to know about being gay in an
anti-queer job. I work weekends for a
forester and weekday mornings at a
shipping dock. Foresters are a breed of
people -- mostly men -- who primarily
like to talk about hunting, fishing, and
sports, and they usually assume any gay
man will automatically want to bed them
down. Dock boys are men who talk about
females and female private parts and they
swear and they • grab their crotches' (their
own) and they spit and they blow their
nose by placing their thumb against one
nostril and forcibly exhale through the
other nostril. These are less than ideal
jobs for being gay in.
But I have had jobs where I was out:
cashier, bus-boy, sales clerk, etc., and I
never actually CAME out. My co
workers figured it out on their own, as I'm
sure my current co-workers might
eventually do. And I've never had any
serious problems related to being gay. Of
course, I wasn't planning on any of these
jobs as a permanent life-long job, so I
didn't care much about the consequences of
anyone discovering "The Horrible Truth."
But I learned some valuable rules from
these experiences. People who know you
will usually treat you the way you treat
yourself. Now, this might seem a bit
profound coming from someone like
myself who is merely a Math major, but
here's what I mean: Since I myself felt
comfortable with my queerhood and didn't
care who knew, most everyone else felt
comfortable as well. And the very few
who didn't like it kept their hill-billy
attitudes to themselves due to peer
pressure.
school work. I looked within to temper
my desire to play and frolic in the woods;
to give up the temptations of
procrastination was my choice, and I
worked through my nights to receive my
grades. I made a commitment to myself
to improve my college grades.
By now I know you must disagree with
my viewpoint. God is an all
encompassing entity filled with
benevolence and forgiveness. It is also
our Creator. So where is It? Where is
proof in Its existence? The Bible is the
answer one may be tempted to say, but it
is merely a book that may be written by
the greatest con-artist mankind has yet to
acknowledge. But the Book has no proof
that it came from God. Just because the
text says it is from God, does it mean it is
true? Do you believe printed material has
to be true?
I also acknowledge the fact that I can
neither disprove God's existence. The
existence of God can not be proved either
way. That is why most theological
discussions between those of opposing
beliefs often end up in arguments. One
Letter to the Editor
But don't forget that I never actually
came out to anyone. I'm not saying I hid
it or lied about it, I'm just saying I didn't
go out of my way to be flaming or
shocking. I purposely didn't wear "gay"
clothes, but don't we all have a certain
way we need to look for our job? There
are certain dress-codes and "behavior-codes"
we have for when we're at work and when
we're at home and when we're at the Mall
and when we're out cruising the bar for
meat, and this is true if you're queer or
bisexual or heterosexual or do animals.
This is not being insincere! And anyway,
gay or straight, a $5O GAP shirt and a G
string wouldn't be appropriate for the.
loading dock!
Some people might think I'm a big fake
or a manipulatrix. But I believe it's more
important to be ourselves and do our job
than to worry about our fellow workers
learning of our secret identity as a queer
agent. I do good work at both my jobs
and lam well liked by everyone. So if
my co-workers eventually use all two
digits of their IQ to figure me out, then
(just like before) they'll already know me
for ME and not just that my partner has a
unit instead of a vaj!
And people will figure it out. People
are animals, and just like the lower
animals (for all the vegetarians and animal
rights people, when I say "lower" I mean
the other animals besides humans, and
iO.'W-FAitlY afvm
CoNstove. Liww.
Opinion
just can't prove one's point upon another.
Evidence leaning towards each theological
spectrum may be given and supported, but
too many unknOwns are intertwined in the
logical equation of theology; just as X has
more than one answer in an algebraic
equation.
Oh, and yes lam an atheist. I have felt
this way since I was young as I can
remember. lam neither cruel nor cold
hearted. I may not believe in moral
standards in the sense that most do, but I
do have values that are preferable to act
upon. It is preferable to be kind and
trustworthy. It is also preferable to be
treated as such. The word atheist is not
synonymous with evil or bad; it is only
another logical viewpoint.
I wish not to impose my beliefs upon
others despite their criticisms towards
mine, however I wish only to briefly
present another belief. My belief in
particular, tends to look inwards towards
myself to do good and accomplish my
goals instead of looking outwards towards
a god that may or may not exist.
I'm not trying to make a morale statement
that other animals are less valuable than
people, even though it's a scientific fact
that we ARE higher up on the food chain
than them), people would be able to figure
things out a lot faster if it were socially
acceptable to greet each other with a good
butt-sniff instead of the less interesting
hand shake.
To conclude, I would like to ask the
gays and lesbians why .you are at your job.
Are you there to be queer? Is being queer
a requirement in your job description?
Just be yourself! My personal belief is
that you are not a queer person, but you
are a person who happens to be Queer!
If you run into problems because you're
queer, just remember this: there are
always going to be job problems! You
are not having problems on the job
simply because you are a lesbian! A
person will have job problems if the
following two conditions are true: they
have a pulse and they have a job. Gay,
straight, or whatever, some people are
going to be cutthroat and mean on the job,
and that's just the way it is!
So keep your chin up, make sure your
outfits always match, and enjoy the
challenge of being queer!
Dan Ester
Senior Math Major
4eirkiaVlnsame-oriag ... ,
61411GRAli
Thursday, February 22, 1996
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