Talking About Baseball

If you're openly atheist, sooner or later you'll come across someone who takes your mere existence as a personal affront. For a while I was surprised by this reaction. After all, why should what I believe or not believe matter to someone else? But the more I thought about it, the more it makes sense.

Imagine a group of Red Sox fans are discussing baseball and they ask you "what's your team?" Whether you answer the Red Sox, Brewers, or Yankees will greatly affect the following conversation, but there will still be a conversation. If you say "I don't really follow baseball," they'll probably just continue talking amongst themselves.

Now imagine how things would go if you announced "baseball is a load of crap." That's basically what many religious people hear when you tell them you're an atheist. They have invested a significant part of their personal identity in a particular religion and you're not just saying you prefer another team. You're saying the whole game is bullshit to the core. There are times when you shouldn't say things like that.

Then again, there are times when you should.

Because its true.