Logical fallacies, Part One: brought to you by religious fanatics

Those who know me know I am a man of science and rational thought, of free will and free knowledge. Most people don't know that I grew up in a small town in the middle of the woods in Vermont, and unsurprisingly, it is a very religious place. Now, most of the people there are normal folks, who don't try to push their beliefs on others, and that's fine. The thing that gets me is that, with the advent of the internet, these people that I know have vociferously begun to champion the cause of Christian morals for the poor, benighted heathens who apparently don't know "right" from "wrong"; at least, according to a certain book.

Tonight's rant was birthed by a discussion I was having with one of my former high school classmates, wherein he had posted a pretty disgusting picture of an aborted fetus in a hospital kidney dish on facebook, with some ridiculous tagline that read "REPOST AND SHARE IF YOU WANT TO STOP ABORTION. GOD HATES MURDER" etc. etc. Now, ignoring the fact that capslock makes you an instant retard, why anyone would choose to repost this on a public site like this is beyond me. Several points sprung to my mind:

First- This picture is really repulsive, and I really don't want to see shit like this on my newsfeed reposted by 20 different christian crackers.

Second- How reposting such a disgusting thing is supposed to stop abortion, I will never know. Writing your congressman does that.

Third- Your morality does not get to be projected onto anyone else.

The last point is the most important, and something almost every single religious person either forgets or ignores: Morality is completely subjective. Herein lies the logical fallacy that religious folks absolutely hate to hear: You do not have to believe in God to be a moral person. Let me repeat that.

You do not have to believe in God to be a moral person.

Just because my views on morality, being an atheist, do not coincide with your  views on morality being a theist, does not mean my views are any less valid than yours. The big difference here is that I don't actively try to push my beliefs on how people should live their own fucking lives every goddamn day with sick pictures of aborted fetuses.

Another point I brought up was that "right" and "wrong" are value judgements that completely ignore the legal context of a situation. Let me give you an example.

Say I'm walking past a secluded alley, and I see 3 gangstars beating the shit out of another dude with, say, a lead pipe. Now, the question I posited was this: Is it "wrong" for me to not step in and try to stop them? It depends entirely on who you ask, because morality is subjective. Is it wrong for me to not help the dude, possibly getting beaten/killed in the process? Maybe. Am I within my legal rights to just ignore the situation and walk on by? Absolutely. Do I think I'm wrong for not helping the recipient of said beating? Not at all, and here's why: I have ZERO information on why this guy is getting his ass kicked. He may very well deserve it, and who am I to step in and impose my value judgement on the situation?

The same thing applies to this abortion issue. Just because YOU think it's wrong, does not mean you get to harass, disgust, and irritate other people into thinking you're right and they're wrong. If you want to change the law to make it illegal, then WRITE YOUR CONGRESSMAN. Shit, the whole Republican party would jump on the chance to take zillions of religious whackjob letters begging to stop abortions, instead of focusing on real political issues.

When you stamp labels of "good" and "bad" on actions/things and claim that this is the way it is because I say so, or because GOD WILLS IT, then you yourself are doing a "bad" thing: imposing your will on other people, whether they like it or not. Free will is just that, FREE. Not "Free unless you do something I don't like" will. The overwhelming arrogance and self-righteousness of these people are what really disgust and sicken me. To think that what you think is "right", just because an imaginary being you can't prove to exist said so, is the height of arrogance. It must feel good to ride so high up on that horse of yours, knowing that all the unwashed heathens have you to guide them, as they live out their lives just fine without your lunacy. My advice to you is this: go drink a gallon of bleach, so the rest of us can be happy without being judged by self-important assholes.

Death is only the beginning...