We can all agree to agree that religion has had more than a small effect on society (for better or for worse, most notably, the latter) since its invention several hundred years ago.
So much so in fact that religion was used by authorities to influence the law of the land. And enforcement was brutal. Back in the days of Henry VIII, you would be burnt alive for dissing the Church.
Now of course the only countries that have religious rule are those whose societal and moral standards are well behind the times, and understandably so.
Thank God modern decent civilized society has left religion well and truly behind. Oh yes, there are a few pockets of die-hard Church zealots here and there dotting the landscape but we no longer have Churches influencing laws or societal standards.
Yet we tend to have a few religious “left-overs” still deeply set within the bowels of our modern-day secular society. For example, one would say “Jesus Christ” or “Oh God” as exclamations of surprise. And how about that wonderful drink named after the immaculate birth; “Bloody Mary”.
Those good ole time favourites will probably never go away but we should at least address one anomaly that simply doesn’t make much sense,(not that religion ever made much sense anyway) and that is the use of the words “theist” and “atheist”.
Back in days of yore, the default position was to be “with religion” (theist), and, let’s face it, if you were “without” (atheist) there was a hell of a price to pay.
Nowadays, the tables have changed and we live in a healthy, prosperous, free secular society whereby atheists are the in crowd (with) while theists are the out crowd (without). So, why not change the terminologies to reflect such a societal swing?
For example, being an atheist I’m just a normal guy with no prejudices and certainly no imaginary voices or visions floating around my head,so why not call the default position “normal” (with secularism) and those who belong to the out crowd we would call…oh, err…”abnormal”?
