When Spicy and Vanilla Clash: Finding Common Ground on Uncomfortable Subjects
When I came out as an atheist, I was expecting some blowback. Frankly, I expected to lose a few friends and sadly, some family as well. I had already been an exotic dancer for a decade at that point, so I was at least prepared to defend myself from the stigmas and stereotypes that come with non-belief. Some were terribly silly, like I must worship Satan, hate God, or the silliest of all, eat babies. (With ketchup perhaps, if only because I despise mustard.) And some much more serious – I must not have any morals or ethics, or simply just want to sin. The former is almost too ridiculous to address, but the latter requires communication and understanding. Which is where humanism came to the rescue. Morals and ethics without God sound scary or impossible to those who come from a place where the two are conflated from birth, then reinforced by the idea of an afterlife based on the judgment of an all-knowing deity. While I didn’t grow up to be particularly religious, …
