How Dare You Presume I'm Christian?

I have once again been forwarded that email In Defense of Prayer (falsely) attributed to Andy Rooney. Here's the Snopes article:

http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/prayer.asp

Yes, I am an atheist. Not many people know this about me, because I grow weary of their need to proselytize. The word ATHEIST seems to drum up an image of a card-carrying, angry, church-hating harridan. I simply do not believe in the concept of God. I truly do not care who does believe in God. And I will defend to my death anyone's right to believe in God, Buddha, Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, or the Tooth Fairy, as long as that person does not condemn my right to not believe. I believe Christians refer to this as their Golden Rule. Not to mention the law and Constitution are on my side.

If I were a Christian, though, I don't think you'd find me shouting "Merry Christmas" to strangers, simply because I couldn't be certain they were fellow Christians. Yes, in the USA, odds are they're maybe Christian, depending on where you are.

I also don't care if you all want to pray before I eat my meal, or watch a football game, and I'll sit quietly while you do. Are you offended that I'm not praying, too? Your faces tell me YES. (My heart wonders how Christian is THAT?) I am curious though, why y'all need to pray TOGETHER. Are the results numbers-based? The more or louder you pray, the better the chances of being heard? Whatever, doesn't bother me very much.

I do NOT intend to financially support your religious causes, however, and again, the law's on my side. Why do YOU believe that even $1 of my earned income should go to support private religion-based schools? Yes, I do want my grandchildren to hear about all the religions of the world, but it's called History class or Social Studies. Not Religious catechism. I want them to know there are people out there who truly think there's no scientific evidence supporting the theory of evolution. I've even known people who think only black people descended from the apes. Forewarned is forearmed. Tolerance is everything.

But the part of that email that always rankles most is the MAJORITY RULES part. The Majority isn't necessarily right, and is sometimes proven later to be wrong (Slavery and Holocaust come to mind). You want the laws changed to suit your religion, there's a mechanism in place for that. It's called VOTING. I do it a lot, and so far it's working out for me. I even get paid extra if I work on Christmas and Easter. Pretty cool.