As a recent ex-christian (6 months sober), I am still waking up to the utter lunacy of the majority of our population. Even as a True Believer, when I saw things like this I was able to call bullshit. I would get aggravated by believers who seemed to check their brains at the door, and felt like they made the rest of us look bad. I feel like a self-righteous ass to admit that. But if you were to get them to admit it – there are many Christians who feel that way.

Even though I kept more of my common sense intact than many other believers, I was still much more in the dark than I realized. I didn’t recognize the tremendous scope of absolute idiocy that resides in the majority of this country that I love so dearly. Now, don’t get me wrong. I believed in my share of poppycock! I bought into god’s supernatural intervention, I just tried to balance it with some sense of reason…which eventually led to the undoing of my faith.

What is so shocking to me now is the stuff I chose not to pay attention to. I chose to see my brothers and sisters in the faith as people who were good, god-loving and who would eventually “change the world”. Even though many of my fellow Christians may have been of a different religious stripe, I considered that we were all unified because of our belief in Christ. So when believers did bat-shit crazy things, I tried to give them the benefit of the doubt. After all, it was “us” against the world.

Now that I’ve moved over to the “dark side”, I am able to more fully grasp the deficit of critical thinking skills that resides among believers. I must admit that as I sat and read through the comments on the above photo this morning, I was shocked. It’s not that I haven’t seen this sort of ignorance before among Christians. I guess it just sank in to a new level for me. Maybe for the first time I really let myself see these people as completely separate from me. I allowed myself to scorn them and their ignorance. I am just now getting to a point where I truly see this vast chasm between myself and my former Christian family.

I must admit that in a strange way this saddens me a little. I realize that I will never again be a part of that greater family. But that sadness is quickly followed by a sense of relief. I no longer have to check my brain at the door. I no longer have to feel like the odd person in the room and the only one asking questions and thinking rationally about things. And I’ve realized that leaving my faith doesn’t mean I have to be alone. I’ve discovered a whole world full of amazing people…people I never would have considered “friend material” as a Christian. I’m now part of a group of beautiful, loving, accepting heathens!

So, without further ado, here is the epic Facebook thread that pushed me over the edge this morning...

The caption for the photo above was "Click share if you see the angel and Jesus!". It originated from the "I Love Jesus" FB page (which you should never visit unless you want an ulcer!). This photo had over 1700 comments. The majority of them were people who seemed to ACTUALLY believe that someone ACTUALLY caught Jesus and an angel at the scene of this accident. Of course my first thoughts were the logical arguments, such as “If Jesus was there, why were these people in a near-fatal crash?”, and “If Jesus was there why did the EMT’s need to help the victims? Weren’t they instantly healed by Jesus?”

Nope. No one seemed to have the balls to ask those questions (or maybe the page administrator deleted such comments). As I read through them, I was amazed and appalled by the fact that most of the commenters didn’t show compassion for the injured people in the photo. Also, I did not see even ONE comment by someone thanking the EMT’s who were there (in real life!) to rescue the victims. And, surprisingly, most of them didn’t mention the very obvious ass-crack in the photo. No, they were all too busy giving praise to god for…um….letting these poor people get seriously injured or possibly killed?

Here’s a sampling of the comments…

The True Believers^TM:

"aye he goin to heaven now thats cray and scary!!" (WTF?!)

"amazing grace!"

"just what I needed!"

"wow! amazing!"

" One day, we will all have to give an answer to our maker. Amazing picture, thanks for sharing! ” (Sure, why not take this opportunity to proselytize?)

"breathetaking!" (Why can't these people spell?!)

"gave me goosebumps!"

"they are always there when you need them!"

"why can't we just believe" (In response to those calling "photoshop")

"he's always there and loves when you talk to him"

"please send to my phone or fb wall" (Apparently this person does not understand how to share or send a photo. Shocking.)

"Beleving &Haveing faith" (Again with the spelling!)

"an ever present help in danger" (HOW is helping these victims?)

"amen. guess john sullivan does not know jesus" (John Sullivan commented with "nice photoshop", so I guess he deserves to go to hell?)

"padre eterno que tu anjel cuide mis hijos no nos desanpares telo pido con toda la fe dios mio." (No idea what this says, but I'm sure it's really stupid.)

"WOW! MAKES YOU BELIEVE" (No, it makes me ill.)

"De Javu" (Because you were once at the scene of a horrific accident accompanied by Jesus and an angel? Do you even know what déjà vu means? If so, maybe you could learn to spell it.)

As I skimmed through the comments I found a few made by people who may still have their brains intact. Only a small percentage of the 1700 seemed to understand this photo did not actually depict Jesus and an angel. This seriously makes me afraid for this country!

The Brave Naysayers:

"plumber's crack!" (This guy was one of only a few who caught that.)

"you people are retarted" (of course they misspelled retarted!)

"it's photoshop my friends"

"potato!" (LOL!)

"good graphic"

"you people are freaks" (Ahhh so refreshing.)

"amen to shitty photoshop!"

"photoshop and butt crack"

"hail satan" (This made me laugh! It actually got 11 likes!)

"science!" (LOVE this one.)

"So sad... " (This was the ONLY comment I saw where someone seemed to actually understand what was really happening in this photo.)

"awwwwwwwwwwwww im sorry that happed amen" (Well, this guy almost got it.)

And my comment:

“Maybe instead of ignorantly praising god for this photoshopped pic, you guys could ask yourselves why he would allow these poor people to get critically injured? Don’t you think if Jesus and an angel were ACTUALLY there that they would have prevented this horrible accident, or at least instantly healed the victims? How about instead you actually thank the EMT’s for being there to rescue the victims and SAVE THEIR LIVES? The EMT’s are the only people in this photo who should be praised. Use your brains, people!”

(SOMEONE had to be a voice of reason!)

So, there you have it. I feel like I need a shower to wash off the stupid.