Not long after I first joined facebook, I added a little app called Knighthood. Knighthood is a game, one that I never really learn how to play, but I did figure out how to give my knightly order it's own motto. By now, I've forgotten what the Latin was (yes, I figured it out in Latin), but it meant, "Always The Sword Of Reason."
When I look back on my life, I realize that a lot of it has been spent dealing with irrational people. That's not a religious slight from an atheist, at least not exclusively. People have many many reasons and justifications for being irrational. This is so very true for so many people that being rational tends to be viewed as deviant. Being simultaneously rational and honest is a near perfect formula for a lifetime of being disliked and in unpleasant confrontations with the people around you. Most people won't even understand the nature of the conflict. They'll think that you're just a jerk who says things to get a reaction out of people. Only a brave few will ever understand you and you may take those who do as a consolation, while, at the same time, failing to forget that they are the exception that proves the rule.
My natural inclination has always been to call things as I see them, without fear, peer pressure, wishful thinking, or anything else interfering. That record isn't perfect, as is the case with anyone you could name, but part of the reason for that is that I have not always been conscious of the true nature of the conflict. Mine has been a life spent trying to counter the isolation that circumstances I have not always understood fully fostered. Now things are different though. In every sense that can be named I have been getting stronger. Funny thing about getting stronger. You're less afraid, more sure of who you are, less vulnerable to manipulation, and less willing to put up with one more moment of your life being stolen by irrational nonsense. The uncompromising atheism that many of you have seen from me in notes and elsewhere is but the tip of the iceberg. So many things in human life are irrational and for these things I no longer have any patience, mercy, use, or time. For those who would impede their own lives with nonsense I have no quarrel, but to those who wish for their nonsense to rule my life or for me to acknowledge the sense of their nonsense, I shall not show the slightest pity or mercy. Life is too short to be cowed, silent, or patient in the face of reckless nonsense from anyone, in any context, at any place, at any time.
When I look back on my life, I realize that a lot of it has been spent dealing with irrational people. That's not a religious slight from an atheist, at least not exclusively. People have many many reasons and justifications for being irrational. This is so very true for so many people that being rational tends to be viewed as deviant. Being simultaneously rational and honest is a near perfect formula for a lifetime of being disliked and in unpleasant confrontations with the people around you. Most people won't even understand the nature of the conflict. They'll think that you're just a jerk who says things to get a reaction out of people. Only a brave few will ever understand you and you may take those who do as a consolation, while, at the same time, failing to forget that they are the exception that proves the rule.
My natural inclination has always been to call things as I see them, without fear, peer pressure, wishful thinking, or anything else interfering. That record isn't perfect, as is the case with anyone you could name, but part of the reason for that is that I have not always been conscious of the true nature of the conflict. Mine has been a life spent trying to counter the isolation that circumstances I have not always understood fully fostered. Now things are different though. In every sense that can be named I have been getting stronger. Funny thing about getting stronger. You're less afraid, more sure of who you are, less vulnerable to manipulation, and less willing to put up with one more moment of your life being stolen by irrational nonsense. The uncompromising atheism that many of you have seen from me in notes and elsewhere is but the tip of the iceberg. So many things in human life are irrational and for these things I no longer have any patience, mercy, use, or time. For those who would impede their own lives with nonsense I have no quarrel, but to those who wish for their nonsense to rule my life or for me to acknowledge the sense of their nonsense, I shall not show the slightest pity or mercy. Life is too short to be cowed, silent, or patient in the face of reckless nonsense from anyone, in any context, at any place, at any time.
-Frank
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