..and non-believers

President Obama (President Obama!) gave a surprising little shout-out yesterday when he said that we “live in a country of Christians and Muslims…of Jews and Hindus…and of non-believers”. The non-believers hardly ever get acknowledged; I was impressed. Of course, we are a pretty small minority. I heard last fall on NPR that about 15% of Americans describe themselves as “not religious”, so this number is often quoted as the number of atheists. But when you ask the question differently, as: “Do you believe in God?”, the number who say no drops down below 5%. It’s kind of like the difference in the number of folks who will say they are vegetarians (I want to say I have seen numbers as high as 20% in some populations), versus the number who answer “no” when asked if they have eaten any meat within the last week (it cuts the number of vegetarians at least in half).

Last week one of my students was in a serious car crash (the other driver died). This is a lovely young woman, bright and personable, and fun to have around. She has worked on my research projects as an undergraduate and I know her well. Every bone in her face was broken and her heel was crushed; she was flown to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota for the surgery on her face.

Her cousin has been posting updates on her condition on the internet. One posting reminded us that the most important thing is to praise God. Really? The most important thing is to praise God for this? How about the other driver’s family? Should they praise God, too, or not so much? I guess I have higher hopes- aren’t we all supposed to always maintain hope? Well, it’s my hope that my beloved students will not be involved in horrible car crashes. I think a religious person might say that I am angry at God, but I am not; I am not thankful to God, either. I don’t believe in God. I think shit happens, and a fair bit of it is bad. I can imagine how it would be comforting to imagine instead that shit is inflicted on us for reasons we cannot understand. But then again, I have never believed that everything happens for the best.

And I have never understood “believe in me or you will suffer forever with no chance to change your mind” as the basis for a relationship.Where I come from, that kind of thing sounds a lot like extortion.