God is my Security Blanket

I have a 2 year old son, and he has a special blanket that he sleeps with. Whenever he is in his bed, the first thing he does is reach for his blanket.

We tried getting him a blanket that was almost the same as a backup, but he can tell the difference and will only sleep with the original, no matter how dirty or puked on the blanket is.

He has a heart felt belief that he needs this blanket to sleep, and the evidence is on his side. He does not sleep without it, he simply cries.

So what is it about this blanket that makes it so special? Is the blanket soaked in a chemical that triggers him to sleep? Does the blanket emit sleep-educing radiation?

I have a feeling I could run any number of test on this blanket and prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the blanket does not cause my son to sleep, yet he won't sleep without it.

Then it dawned on me, my son has a "belief" that this blanket lets him sleep. Perhaps he feels the blanket offers security, or perhaps just comfort. In either case, it is his belief that allows him to sleep and the blanket is just the object of his beliefs in the real world.

My son has put his beliefs into this blanket in the same was a religious person puts their beliefs in god.

That daily prayer, that fish bumper sticker, that bible, it is all a security blanket to a religious person.

It is your belief in god that gives god power over your life, not the other way around.

Just like how my son believes his blanket is special, a religious believer thinks their faith in god is special.

The analogy doesn't end there either. I could rip that blanket away from my son and try to explain to him how he doesn't really need the blanket, the power to sleep was always inside him, but he would cry and not understand and want his blanket back so desperately.

I now feel the same way about a religious person's beliefs. I could rip that bible from there hand and explain to them how it's just a book of stories and all the power you feel coming from god is and always was inside you all along and you don't need god for it, but I think from past experience we would all see how that would end up.

You can's just rip the security blanket away from someone and have them take it well. They need to realize themselves that the blanket is no longer needed.

I am sure that as my son gets older, he will turn to his blanket less and less until one day he forgets about it in a closet and it will sit there for weeks or even months unnoticed.

It's not so easy for a religious person. They are reminded nearly daily to never abandon their security blanket without something horrible happening.

Imagine how my son would grow up if I shared his belief in his blanket. If every time he forgot it I scared him with stories of doom and gloom, if he always saw me with my blanket every night, if he saw me fight tooth and nail against anyone who ever said "it's just a blanket"

I guess the moral of the story is don't be so quick to snatch someone else's security blanket away from them for there own good, just live your life blanket-free and be an example that living without that blanket isn't so bad after all.

Privilege, from my perspective

I like to follow the goings on of the atheist movement and, with the addition of atheism+,  some new terms began to pop up in blog posts and YouTube videos

 

One term I have heard used over and over is privilege.

 

It seems that most people who find themselves in the minority will complain about the privilege of the majority. Women complain of the glass ceiling, blacks complain about police harassment, homosexuals complain about being denied marriage rights, poor people complain about being marginalized by rich people, the list goes on and on.

 

However, privilege does have another side.  Ask any first born child how it feels when baby number 2 comes home, and you can see how privilege cuts back.

 

Privilege is being an only child and not having to worry about sharing the spoils. To be privileged is to be free to use your resources to the fullest extent you wish without regards to anyone else

 

I feel privileged to have a high functioning mind, to have the ability to contemplate everything from the vastness of the universe down to the subatomic. I use my mental resources to the fullest extent I can and I avoid dumbing myself down for the sake of others. So anyone who automatically says all privilege is bad must also live below the poverty line and use only single syllable words or they would be using their privilege of financial resources and intelligence (something not everyone has), unless they have no problem with being a hypocrite

 

However, I can understand privilege from the other side as well.

 

When a Christian gets angry with me with not keeping “the Christ in Christmas”, that is an example of Christian privilege. Christianity had the majority in North America for so long, that the Christian way and the American way have almost combined.

 

The Christian’s of North America were an only child for decades, but now with the rise of atheism,  They suddenly need to learn to share and play nice where they never had to before.

 

So now I find myself in conflict. On one hand, I agree that it is good for my country and humanity as a whole for religious privilege to be reduced, especially where religion and government are tightly linked. However, I’m not so convinced that forcing all the rich people in the world to give away money until we are all equal is a good idea. It seems like every time that has been tried in the past, it never ends well.

 

So how do we square this circle? Perhaps not all privilege is created equal, but who has the right to decide?

 

Does the privileged class get to declare their privilege good and proper, or should the majority always bend to the will of the minority?

 

Perhaps someday I will have the answer, but not today.