Scales Fall

In an episode of a nature show I saw a segment about molting walruses. In the summer when they start to lose their outgrown skins they are itchy and irritable. They rub against each other to relieve their discomfort and thus reciprocally exfoliate each other's old hides. But every once in a while a walrus will take it too far and annoy another, and things come to tusk blows.

Humans with all our psychic scales get itchy too. We annoy ourselves with our narrow views that we can't quite shake off. I have to thank the Atheists who took me on for helping me shed some ill-fitting skin, the belief that all Atheists are dogmatic like the ones I've happened to meet in my narrow trails across the world. Not true, is it? Thanks for the widened view. Atheism may be a creed, but that doesn't mean there aren't Atheists who have no interest in proselytizing or ridiculing those they consider deluded for believing in God. There are some with no impulse to indulge in contempt for believers. Some just want the comfort of living their truth without the pressure to change their views, pressures that are ubiquitous in communities heavy in fundamentalism.

I've changed my mind, I'm glad the posters are up, whether or not Atheism is a dogma like all the other creeds. Laugh all you want, but remember, mind changing is a result of actual, real live thinking. The fact that we live in a country or city where Atheists can share their message in a public transport system partially supported by tax dollars is rather a summery thing, something to celebrate. Of course, other religious organizations run ads on the trains too. Sometimes I think it this shouldn't be allowed because of that old separation of church and state thing, but I usually end the ruminations by reembracing the freedoms of the First Amendment. What would be really interesting is to see those ads run in the so called Bible Belt somewhere. That would entail a lot of pretty profound mutual exfoliation, and more than a few raised tusks.

Thanks, Megapixie, for releasing your wonderful walrus image to the Public Domain. If there is an end to their bristley, blubbery awesomeness I can't find it. Do you know they snuff along the sea beds, slurping up clams?