Did you vote for God?

Sukie, an atheist, always believed that the state was secular and that the services it provides with our tax contributions were also secular, but when she lost her job and then broke a few bones and ended up in hospital, she was surprised to find all of her services being provided by a large religious organization and feared that her lack of belief may have resulted in less care.

“I didn’t vote for God when I went to the elections,” says Sukie, “and I want everyone out there to be aware that job centers and healthcare support services are now being run almost exclusively by religious institutions, and when you're down and out, so to speak, the only people the government provides to help you also want to save your soul.”

“I can’t be the only atheist appalled at the prospect of finally falling into the hands of taxpayer funded holy enthusiasts as old age advances because there is no secular alternative,” sighs Sukie. “I guess that’s why so many older people turn to religion as their demise becomes clearer – not because they believe in god, but because belonging to a religious organization gives you the benefit of social and physical comforts that remaining an atheist doesn’t.”

“Actually, we should be bothered because it’s not a good situation where people must bow to sky fairies in order to receive government services that they’ve paid for over their lives in the form of taxation,” says Sukie. “I can appreciate that the secular movement over the past 50 years has taken a lot of bums off pews, but I had no idea – until recently – that the religions had done a deal with government that ensures their adherents secure employment, power and wealth by other means.”

Read more by Sukie on this issue:

Would you like God with that?

faking religion to survive

Would you like God with that?

The trouble with vocal atheists like Dawkins and Hitchens, according to Sukie, is that they preach to the converted; they offer absolutely nothing as a replacement for the warm fuzzies that religions offer; and they are far too late to stop the juggernaut of religiosity that will some day soon lead to McDonald’s staff asking us if we would like God with our burgers.

"Dawkins and Hitchens and others of their ilk provide absolutely no kind of alternative for the warm and fuzzy side benefits offered by the theist belief systems,” says Sukie, “and that is only to be expected because they are intellectuals, upper middle class and have no inkling whatsoever of what life is like for the rest of society – lonely kids, the unemployed, the working poor, the sick and the aged.”

“That’s why, I suppose,” says Sukie, “that they preach, if that’s the right word, to the converted – people like themselves.”

“Atheism is a belief system that suits young, wealthy, healthy and hedonistic people,” says Sukie. “It’s logically correct, no two ways about that, but it has never been, nor will it ever become, an ‘organization’ capable of providing the huge good works that the religious organizations do.”

“If the atheists wish for a rational society, free from religious bigotry,” says Sukie, “then they should put their money where their mouth is and start providing the sort of services that society needs (the sort of services that are now provided by the religious organizations).”