Episode 94: Everything In Doing Time

You know, when I actually made my approach and offered a few responses to the atheists on YouTube, I honestly expected some backlash. Most of the atheists I’ve ever met were decent people, without a nasty bone in their body even in the face of people of any religion who were at their most venomous. Very rarely have I ever met someone of the atheist persuasion who decided that becoming hateful during a debate or even a discussion would aid in any progress.

Given, my own perception of atheists was that many of them backed science and the scientific method. During my limited time on this planet and within this temporal existence, I’ve had the pleasure of actually becoming familiar with the methods of a true scientist. If something can be proven after full review of facts, then it is scientifically established as fact. If something can not be proven after a full review of facts then the question that begs itself is can it be disproven? If it cannot, the scientist will, of course claim that it is, in fact, a mystery and it is left to the individual to use faith to determine whether it is truth to them or not. If it can be disproven, then the subject being reviewed is said to be fantasy.

Many of the atheists that I have had the pleasure of meeting and engaging in (often stimulating) discussion have taught me this very method. While it’s true that the existence of God cannot be scientifically proven or quantified, it also cannot be disproven. It is then left up to me which religious practice to which I’ll subscribe or whether I’ll subscribe to one at all. It is also left up to me what I will and will not believe and how I will form my basis. Granted, the atheist friends of mine who have discussed this with me support and respect my decision. On the basis of that, I have also done what I feel is the right thing to do. I have talked with them about it, rather than talk to them (there is a difference) and now, the decision is solely up to them. It is their soul and not mine for which I have to worry. Granted, it saddens me at times that these people do not believe in the One that created them but, as I’ve said, it is not my mind to make up on the subject.

Obviously, I’d met a few who use atheism as an excuse to make asses of themselves or maybe they just do it to rebel against a perceived enemy. Still, I never once based my opinion on all atheists to be like them.

I never did, that is, until I made three videos respectively in response to three other videos on YouTube. That’s when the really nasty ones came out of the woodwork. Granted, I’ve met a few who could post intelligent retorts and state their points. I see no reason to argue with them because, the way I had it figured, I’d given a crowd of atheist whom I’d perceived to be intelligent grounds to be as irrational, irresponsible and as unreasonable as these people claim that I am. Keep in mind, I do not make the previous statement simply because these people have vehemently and rather immaturely disagreed with me. Absolutely not, they have the right to disagree with me and vice versa, however, I will illustrate in full just how irresponsible, unreasonable, irrational, disrespectful and immature these people have been and I will do so without the mudslinging as these types are incapable of doing.

Several months ago, I’d posted responses to the videos called “How To Convert An Atheist,” and “Two Christians Attack One Atheist” respectively. There was one more title but it has escaped me at present as I’m not at home and able to pull it up onto my desktop PC for purposes of review. Oddly enough, I posted the video responses and I left them alone. I figured I’d leave it to the posters themselves to take the points into consideration and incorporate them or not. To me, that does not sound like an imposition. In fact, I question the credibility of anyone who screams at me to not impose on them with such a video. In my own opinion, those who would claim that it is an imposition may as well come forth with the “irrefutable evidence” they feel that they have or just spout the phrase “Don’t question me!”

Cutting right to the heart of this thing, I’ve been getting responses to my “How To Convert An Atheist” response even to this day. While some of those responses have been intelligent, one person had actually left four responses laden with nothing but insults as well as an inbox that stated that, and I’ll quote, “If I had to guess, you were in prison with nothing but God to hold onto. Convict.”

That was it. This poster had even left a similar message in my comments. Why did he leave such a comment? I’ll get to that in a minute.

It’s no secret that I know what goes on behind the wire. I’ve seen my share of people on both sides who have a variety of different beliefs. Predominantly, there are hundreds of Christian people there and many, many more who are only playing the part…the HypoChristians. It’s also no secret that a majority of the people I know have done time in one form or another. It’s also no secret that about 99% of those friends of mine did the stretch and hit the gate running like hell. While those facts are not secrets, this is not the source of my “inside” knowledge. What is the source of my “inside” knowledge is the other fact that is no secret…that I actually work in a correctional setting. It’s not that I do it because I enjoy it immensely. It’s a paycheck and little else to me. It’s a job. Rather than join the ranks of the unemployed, knowing that so many generations of my countrymen and illegal immigrants are depending on me to work, I do so.

So how did this one poster arrive at this rather uneducated hypothesis? The way I was dressed in the video. My Free The WM3 t-shirt and bandanna that I’d been wearing were all that this one needed to make his judgment while, in the same breath, claiming that I was imposing on his beliefs when the fact that this was YouTube and you choose what videos you will look at and which ones you will not was clear.

Another poster claimed that they couldn’t befriend a Christian for more than two days because the Christian would always try to convert them. Well, to that I have to say that with so many failed platonic relationships under that one’s belt, however many there may be, based on the statement given and it’s rather venomous nature, I would venture a guess at the scenario that it was the poster who expressed a distaste in the extreme for Christians and when the other party revealed that they were a Christian, this person distanced themselves and created the platonic schism on their own. My basis for this conclusion is the lack of an attempt at actually asking questions and making no attempt at gaining an understanding based on a video that spanned less than ten minutes. It is most likely that the relationship rift is solely based on the most common denominator in the equation…the poster.

One more poster left a series of THREE videos to respond to my one. He has also attempted discrediting me by rudely calling me a coward as I have not allowed the posting of his own video response. I have not allowed the posting of his video response for a few reasons but chiefly among them are the following:

1. “I’m SOOOO Qualified”: This was a direct quote from him. I sat through 30 minutes (give or take) listening to his thinly-veiled ad hominem attack while he never once listed a single qualification
2. He has also gone on further to bait me into posting his thinly-veiled ad hominem attack or suffer the unveiled ad hominem attack. In this, he has assumed that he never has to be wrong.
3. The fact that he has felt compelled to waste much of his own time on three videos while I chose to make my point as clear as possible while being concise has put him into an investment that will not make a favorable return. Not my fault and not my problem. I’d say that lies in his vicinity and finally
4. The fact that I couldn’t get this controversial when I was a Satanist has become very interesting to me.

The fact that one video spanning less than ten minutes has sparked such controversy is telling. It is telling primarily on my lack of judgment of character as I’d falsely generalized a greater majority of atheists to be logical, reasonable and respectful. I must say that, sadly, I have been proven very very wrong in that respect. It is telling that the immaturity displayed is truly the only defense that these people have and that they obviously feel threatened by anyone who may dissent from their own point of view. It is strangely telling that I am secure enough in my own Truth to not have to gather up an entire gang of my friends to force this down their throats until they accept it. This is exactly the very thing that I am currently being accused of doing as these people launch their own Atheist Crusade in their desperate belief that, perhaps, no one will listen to me.

The solid fact remains that, after many months, people still seem to be listening to me, after all. To all my friends who have done time, think I came through it okay or would I end up a recidivist?