What Atheists and Agnostics Don't Understand

I was struck by a thought this evening, as I listened to my children say Grace over dinner. Religion is very much like softball (or any other sport, really, but I'm a softball coach): you can read the books, watch the films, listen to the "experts", observe other people doing it, and endure all of the armchair Popes in the world...but unless you practice, you'll never be any good, or really understand how it works or what it's all about.

I've noticed that with almost perfect precision, the people who wail the loudest against religion don't practice one of their own to anything even resembling a meaningful extent, if they practice one at all. They like to say things like they're Buddhists or Wiccans, as if this somehow absolves them of their ignorance. Most of them are just spouting liberal tag-lines so they can sound hip, which they didn't. They sounded about as cool as hip-replacement surgery.

An anecdote: I was in a coffee shop of an afternoon, one that I patronized with fair regularity until I found out that the majority share-holder of the parent company was a muslim-owned interest (which is why I no longer eat Krispy Kreme donuts). It was filled with an ever-changing mob of liberal types, but they had really good coffee, so I would just grab my plain, double-shot espresso and sit quietly in a corner and listen. Soon enough a pack of 20-something knuckleheads sat close by, and a few began berating the Catholic Church for being outdated, evil, corrupt, etc. I was in an antagonistic mood, I guess, so I listened for a while then interrupted.

"Excuse me," I said, "but as a Catholic I have to take issue with some of your comments." This elicited an expected response: they went stone quiet and the loudest of them began to twitch. I'm not sure why. I doubt it could have been embarrassment; it might have been that I outweighed any three of them and was likely stronger than all of them together, and have once or twice in the past used my size to my advantage. But I sat still, and expressed my rebuttal to their opinions. Silence followed, then I asked the twitchy one what religion he practiced. I got no answer from him, but they rail-thin waif next to him answered "I'm a Wiccan. I worship Mother Earth."

"Ah," I said. It being late October at the time, I said, "What are your plans for Samhein?", giving the word its proper SOWan pronunciation.

The waif answered, "Plans for what?"

Gotta practice what you preach, people...and if you don't practice, don't preach. You can't tell someone how to hit a change-up if you can't hit one yourself.