Better than a Muslim

So, as you all are probably aware, Texas high school football is huge. Perhaps larger than huge (cyclopean?). My daughter's football stadium would be the envy of many small colleges. At Homecoming, the fathers were asked to dance with their daughters on the dance team, on the field. Just before the performance, the team formed a circle to pray. My daughter whispered, "Daddy, don't say anything". She knew I would not, though, no matter how tempted. As we joined hands, I looked around. About only half of the sixty fathers had their eyes closed and heads bowed. The gentleman next to me did not. As we broke, he and I stepped off to one side, where he stated that he was an Atheist. I thought it curious that he would "come out" among this clearly non-secular crowd. I whispered, "Me too". He looked at me incredulously and stated, "I was just kidding. I guess its better than being a Muslim." Ah, yes, Texas. I'm not certain what his motivation was for the original comment, unless he heard my daughter's admonishment or noticed my discomfort, which was not palpable. He succeeded in getting my confession, however. He approached me later and stated that he did not believe me. I tried to smooth it over by laughing and saying something to the effect of only believing half of what you see and nothing that you hear. He laughed back, not realizing that my retort was really a thinly disguised shot at his "faith". I did tell him that I thought prayer really had no place in schools, as there may be non-Christians of many stripes on the team who fear reprisal for not acquiescing and that prayer should be a private matter, as stated in The Bible. I felt rather weak that I was unable to resolutely stand up for my convictions of reality, but as it was a function for my daughter, I felt it best not to cast her as the pariah daughter of an infidel heathen who is only slightly better than a Muslim.



I will be providing further examples of insecure theists in Texas, especially in the school system, catapulting the propaganda of their beliefs in secular settings in front of captive audiences. To me, it is further proof that without constant reinforcement, they know that their outlandish flights of fantasy can not withstand scrutiny.

Tags: Atheism, Freethought, Christianity, Muslim, infidel, Texas, Turbo Tagger