Atheists call on believers to work for peace

CALGARY, Alberta - Dec. 30, 2013 - PRLog -- On Christmas, Pope Francis, called on believers of all religions to pray for "a homemade peace" that can spread across the world.  He included non-believers in his invitation saying: "I invite even non-believers to desire peace. (Join us) with your desire, a desire that widens the heart. Let us all unite, either with prayer or with desire, but everyone, for peace."

Even non-believers? What a pompous and pretentious ass. What makes the Pope think atheists don't desire peace? Ooops. Pope and think in the same sentence. What makes the Pope believe atheists don't desire peace?

Unlike believers, atheists don't just sit around and pray for peace. We actually do something. Prayer only lessens the guilt the religious feel at not having done anything useful to make the world a better place. Saying: "I prayed for them!" may do something for the speaker but does nothing for whom the prayers are offered. So allow me to respond with an atheists call for peace.

I call upon everyone, even believers of all religions, to join with atheists in actually doing something to bring about peace. Yes, even the Pope. Stop praying. Give up your faith in god. After 2000 years of doing nothing, he/she/it isn't going to start now. Stop wishing things were better, get off your butts, and join atheists in actually doing something constructive.

This might be easier than the religious think. In many cases, it won't require extra effort. Some ideas:

For the Pope, stop sheltering individuals and information from those investigating the sex abuse scandals in the Americas. I know you formed a commission to look into these scandals. But really, do you, the Pope of all people, need a commission to tell you what the right thing to do is? Take some advice from secular society that appears to have figured out the ethics on this one--turn everything over to prosecutors.

Also stop telling people, especially in Africa, that condoms are worse than dying from AIDS. Millions have died from this and other religious nonsense concerning traditional cures. Do something useful instead. Tell your followers that a god preferring the death of his children to the wearing of a condom really isn't much of a god.

To Muslims I only suggest you tone it down a little. I know Islam isn't a violent religion, but blowing the face off a little girl because she wanted to go to school doesn't really communicate this message. Neither does torturing and publicly executing a boy in front of his mother simply because some believers said he was an atheist. Stop doing things like this and stop protecting those that do. On this latter point, atheism is punishable by death in seven countries (Afghanistan, Iran, Maldives, Mauritania, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia,  Sudan). In all seven, Islam is the state religion. Stop this too.

To all the world's religions . . . could you please just stop killing each other? I mean, I know it's your right and all, to defend your faith, but a lot of my fellow atheists are getting caught in the cross-fire. This is rather unfair as we really don't care what magic man in the sky you believe in. Atheists are perfectly happy to let you believe in whatever you want. Why can't believers show the same respect for each other as we show to you? Perhaps your ethics need be raised to those of atheists. Or maybe not. Anyway, just think about this long enough to take your finger off the trigger. And relax. It's fair to believe the other guy is nuts. You just don't have to punctuate this belief with mass slaughter.

Okay, that's it for now.

To everyone, a  happy and prosperous new year.