Opinion writers infuriate people. It’s an integral part of the job. No matter the subject, we are simply going to offend some readers. And, the two groups most susceptible are blinder-wearing believers and seeing deniers.

 

For BOTH groups, emotional-based preconceived notions are always in the preponderance. Their “strong” opinions forever trump the facts. They’re only interested in the “true” facts, the ones that support their personal, distorted views of reality.

 

I’ve dedicated my web site to such people. I even named it, The True Facts. But, “true” facts are NOT actual facts; they’re more like factoids, which only mimic facts.

 

Factoids are tremendously versatile. They look like facts, certainly sound like facts, and often contain numbers, especially seriously flawed statistics.

 

But their overwhelming appeal to the clueless is the ease with which people can construct factoids that unquestionably “prove” their preconceived notions.

 

And, there are no finer examples of “true” facts trumping actual facts than those demonstrated during discussions involving the topical realms of religion, human sexuality (particularly homosexuality), and politics.

 

Opinion writers delve into these topics at their own peril. No other topic generates more emotion-draped ferocity. Combine them in the same posting and you’ll almost feel the viciousness and unadulterated hatred radiating from the computer monitor.

 

In the summer of 2003, I wrote such a piece. My goal was sincere: to show the often-blatant disparities between actual facts and “true facts” relative to matters religion, sexuality, and politics.

 

I used actual facts to counter “true facts” to support homosexuals’ rights to live their lives, free of harassment and physical intimidation within the same legal framework as their heterosexual counterparts, including the right to marry.

 

I did likewise to explain my positions AGAINST mandatory prayer in public schools and in SUPPORT of the Ninth Circuit Court’s ruling that the words, “under God” in our Pledge of Allegiance, are unconstitutional.

 

WOW! I hit the moral trifecta. Thousands of email responses (over 7,000 within the first three hours of posting) accused me of “hating GOD,” being a “faggot-lover,” and a “sorry sack of shit who likes to piss on the American flag.”

 

Yesterday, SIX years LATER, I received another 867 emails relative to that SAME posting—someone must have found it and circulated it around.

 

Viciousness and pure hatred oozed, ever freely, throughout the bulk of these emails. And worse, most of the emailers claimed allegiance with Christianity.

 

Grammatical illiteracy was painfully evident, not to mention the fact that the tones of sanctimonious condemnation were as far-removed from all that Jesus stood for as anything I’ve ever read.

 

I’m not going to rehash a 6-year-old article. I no longer have a copy of it and I’m not going to pay Blogharbor—my BLOG host—to retrieve a copy from their inactive archives.

 

On the other hand, let me clarify a few things for the 867 mental midgets that conversed on my inbox yesterday.

 

Rant mode ON!

 

Relative to matters religious…

 

Blind believers and seeing deniers reside in the same domain: stupidity. The subject is NOT always religious in nature, but it IS most of the time. And, there is no evil done so eagerly and with such fervent sanctimonious glee as that done in the name of religious zeal.

 

That there may be a God is a possibility that I would NEVER deny. Only fools deny possibilities. But I’d like you to consider a few things that have never made any sense to me.

 

Why would an omniscient, omnipotent, and caring Deity create flawed beings and then hold it against them? Even the way in which “He,” “She,” or “It” constructed us does not seem very omniscient to me.

 

We eat, drink, and breathe through the same device: our mouths. Why such a dangerous design? Since choking is the fourth leading cause of accidental death and drowning is the fifth, it seems a tad careless. We sue people for far less carelessness.

 

Diabetes, high blood pressure, and clogged arteries kill millions every year. And, this is because they’re simply too lazy to prevent it.

 

But millions more, ever vigilant in matters of diet and personal conduct, also die from these things. This does not include those who die each year from myriad forms of cancer and other highly exotic terminal illnesses.

 

And, quite often, the first signs of their presence didn’t show up until an autopsy. Even we dumb-ass humans install automatic danger warning gages when we build stuff.

 

I’d think including a few early warning bio-gages during the design phase of humans would be intuitively obvious for ANY omniscient and omnipotent cosmic architect. A cakewalk, actually!

 

Don’t even get me started on the human reproductive system—sex organs for us sinners. I’m not sure who described it as such, “an entertainment complex built around a sewage system,” but it certainly seems apropos.

 

On matters homosexual…

 

Anyone who actually believes that a kid—any kid, male or female—awakens on puberty morning facing that foreboding decision, should-I-be-gay-or-straight, is most likely intellectually unremarkable (a moron).

 

In spite of the tons of brain grease I’ve devoted to its discovery, I have yet to figure out precisely when I DECIDED to be straight.

 

And, another thing that homophobes EVERYWHERE have to accept is the fact that there isn’t a “cure” for homosexuality any more than there is a “cure” for heterosexuality.

 

“Straights” claiming that, through God’s help, they “used” to be gay is the equivalent of me, a white guy, claiming that I “used” to be black.

 

Heterosexual, homosexual, or asexual (indifference to sex) is part of who we are as humans. Get used to it!

 

On matters praying in public school…

 

Whenever this matter hits the arena of public emotion, most proponents of mandatory prayer mean CHRISTIAN prayer.

 

The Constitution prohibits our central government from establishing an “official” religion. It doesn’t actually mandate a pure separation of church and state. It just prohibits endorsing any particular religion.

 

And, since there are so many of them in this country, it’s a literal guarantee that some group will feel slighted at being overlooked. The solution? NO mandatory prayer in public schools.

 

Besides, praying in public schools has been going on for centuries without so much as a peep from the ACLU. I defy any of you to walk into any public school classroom just before the start of a math test.

 

The volume of praying going on at such times would dwarf the entire volume of prayer going on in ANY 5-churches on ANY given Sunday.

 

Finally, ignorance is nothing more than the state of not knowing something. None of us are immune, least of all ME. But, we have to stop yielding our “unknowingness” to ignorance and calling it God.

 

Rant mode is now off!

 

No disrespect intended, God! But, if you exist, you certainly already know this.

 

Joe Walther is a freelance writer and publisher of The True Facts. You may comment on his column by clicking here.