Jesus H Tap-Dancing Christ What Is Wrong With People?

This has been circulating on the interwebs today and previously. I fully thought it was a joke until I visited the objectiveministries.org website.

Be warned: this is going to be a rant. Feel free to skip down to the next outrageously bigoted image.

< rant >
Yes, that's right, children: stay away from the nasty, dangerous atheists, because they might try to convince you that your woman-hating backward-thinking sky-god isn't real, and that the world is older than 6000 years (which we all know is blasphemy). Why is it that people are so insecure about differing viewpoints from their own? Especially around children? Oh That's Right: because without indoctrination and claustration, people might actually have the ability to think for themselves and not follow nutjobs like these guys around like sheep!
< /rant >

Breathe, Vellum, Breathe...

Ranting aside, the reasons this upsets me so much are legion:

First, ANY view that is so fragile as to necessitate hiding children from non-believers is obviously flawed. Take this from someone who studies the devil -- Christianity's fears of the convincing powers of non-believers are overrated. Just look at the still burgeoning numbers of lunatic-fringe right-wing cult-like Christian sects. If people will believe that, they'll believe anything.

Second, the trope of the grumpy atheist is so incredibly offensive I don't even know where to begin (and before you start pointing to me as an example, I'm not an atheist -- I'm just incensed by stupidity).  I have a number of friends who don't believe in any kind of god, paternalistic sky-god or otherwise, and you know what? They're awfully pleasant folks. They love, laugh, and tend to be less judgemental of others than most lunatic-fringe Christians I've met. In fact, I'd go out on a limb and say most of the atheists I know are better Christians than most Christians. How do you like them apples?

Disclaimer: I know plenty of non-lunatic-fringe-Christians, too, and they're also awfully nice folks. It's the ones who think an all-loving omnipotent being is going to torture you for eternity after your death (yes, that's right, all loving) because he's also a jealous and vengeful god and you didn't follow him correctly, it's those ones who give everyone else a bad name. The problem is, they're the ones who shout the loudest, so you can hardly think over the calls of "God Hates Fags" when you walk down the street. (That was hyperbole, but you get my reference).

I think I've digressed into ranting again. *sigh*

You know the thing is, maybe all the atheists they know are grumpy because people like these make them so. Nothing ruins my day like people telling me that the way I live my life is inherently wrong and that I need to be more judgemental of others to appease a curiously silent god. I'm willing to bet that if they opened their minds to -- what's that? not possible you say? well I'll keep trying.

You never know, maybe they're not so --

Jesus H. Tap-Dancing Christ what is wrong with these people? What incredibly bigoted, uneducated people. How can they justify this insulting caricature of Hinduism? Oh, that's right.

*sigh*

Nevermind.

< /rant > Again.

Is anybody reading good enough with image editing software (and possessed of enough free time) to make some clever pro-tolerance versions of these for me to post up? I'd be much obliged.

Oh, and those images are copyrighted to "OBJECTIVE: Ministries" and are being used here under the Fair Use doctrine as an Editorial.

I'm off to drink less coffee now. :)