I’m currently working at a client that is owned and operated by a fundamentalist Christian. There’s God propaganda all over the place, nothing but Christian music on the office sound system, and the guy can’t go two sentences without mentioning Jesus. Since this is quickly driving me insane, I’m going to devote two entries to God and Christianity and whatnot.

I’m an apatheist. I don’t believe in God, but I don’t really think about religion at all. The appeal of religion completely escapes me, since I’m one of those sorta-existentialist types who actually finds some comfort in the fact that nothing really matters and life is finite and inconsequential and we’re all just dust in the wind, man, that’s all we are. Generally, though, I don’t really care about someone’s religion one way or the other, as long as they’re not trying to destroy the church/state barrier. But when I have to hear about it again and again, it makes me want to carve a pentagram in my forehead and vomit pig’s blood from my mouth just to persuade the religionist to write me off as a lost cause and leave me alone. Same thing with politics (the more exposure to right wingery I get, the more left wing my opinions become) and telemarketing (I once spent three weeks living in a shotgun shack just to spite someone who called to try to get me to switch to MCI). I'm not averse to changing my mind (but not about religion, or long distance phone service), but you have to give me space and make me believe, right or wrong, that I'm the one who's making the final decision.

So, to sum up: God - indifferent. Arguing - bad. Unwavering focus on one topic - bad. Respecting my right to not be annoyed - good. Dan Quayle - still gaining acceptance. Coming up in part two of God Week - a look into the soft, seamy underbelly of Christian contemporary music.