Am I?

This blog seems to have attracted a new commenter who goes by the name of "The Logical Truth" who has repeatedly accused me of prejudice against Christianity.

Now, I'm used to this kind of accusation. I've even, in the past, referred to it as "the martyr complex", where anyone who disagrees with something a Christian says - however mildly - is painted as hating Christianity. So I was tempted to blow it off as just another nutbar surfing the web and being obnoxious.

But, then, I paused. Am I? And what if I am?

To a certain extent the accusation has some basis in truth. If you check back through my posts there does seem to be a certain justification. Notice that whenever I've mentioned the excesses of religion it's been - with only one exception that I can remember off of the top of my head for Islam and a few for Scientology - about Christians.

But does this indicate an irrational prejudice?

I live in - and am from - a country dominated by Christians. My daily life is surrounded by them. You can count the number of Muslims I meet every day on the fingers of one head. Not only that but in both the country I live in and the country I am from, it's Christians who run the show. There are no Buddhist national holidays. Hindus have never knocked on my door to proselytise to me. I've never had a Wiccan be nasty to me because I'm an atheist. My tax contributions don't support Shintoist projects. I've never had to listen to some politician's plan to allow Zoroastrian teachings into a science class. No Sikh has ever informed me that they will pray that I see the truth of their faith. So, if my target always seems to be Christianity, it's because Christianity is the religion that targets me.

Between the two countries there is a population of 350-odd million people, most of which claim some form of Christianity (42 million people in the UK and 159 million in the US is 201 million Christians), and, like any human demographic, these 201 million people run the gamut from the reasonable to the extremist, from the nice to the nasty, from the sane to the insane. Even if only the most whacked out one half of one percent of those people espouse views that agree with - for example - former (then future) US President George H.W. Bush's comments about how atheists should neither be considered US citizens nor patriots, or pretty much anything Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell or Fred Phelps might say, we're still dealing with over a million nutbars.

Consider, also, that quite a lot of those who tend even towards the reasonable end of the spectrum look to those people, and their ilk, for guidance and enlightenment, and there's a shit load of Christians out there that believe I worship the devil and/or eat babies.

Am I defensive? You bet. Sometime a little too defensive? I'll admit to that. Prejudiced? I try not to be, but I am human, after all. Irrational? Try walking a mile in my shoes.