Greta Christina: Why I'm Drawing [a stick figure of] Mohammad

Greta Christina: Why I'm Drawing Mohammad: "

This is my drawing of Mohammad [...]

[M "Moe" G: leaving the drawing out, not important for my point below]

 I wish I were a better artist, and could draw something other than a stick figure. But I actually kind of like its purity. If a simple, entirely undistinguished, smiling stick figure with the word 'Mohammad' above it can be so offensive as to earn me a possible death sentence... that makes the whole silly idea seem even sillier. And I like the fact that it's a photo of my hand actually making the drawing. Gives it a certain punch, I think.

Today is Everybody Draw Mohammad Day: an event in which people around the world... well, draw Mohammad. We're deliberately violating the Muslim law against creating images of the prophet Mohammad -- a law that some radical Muslim extremists are attempting to enforce with violence and death threats. On everyone. Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

[...]

But if we don't draw Mohammad, the terrorists win.

"

Atheist writer Greta Christina says "[...I]f we don't draw Mohammad, the terrorists win."

But, technically, it is actually "If we don't draw Mohammad's face on a dog's body, the terrorists win."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lars_Vilks_Muhammad_drawings_controversy

Greta Christina is still tacitly adhering to the double-standard that there is one limit for sacrilege of Muslim figures, and another limit for Christian figures.  The difference being that no Christian groups called for the death of the artist who created "Piss Christ". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piss_Christ

Greta's stick figure Mohammad is too cute by half, if the point is to call attention to Muslim death threats to cartoonists.

I am an atheist, but I also was born into an Evangelical Lutheran faith.  I am an atheist, but I still acknowledges the need in the majority of humans for personal and collective transcendental experiences - experiences of a humbling sort - and I feel deeply that this part of the human condition can, should, be called beautiful.

I am an atheist, but I am also a coward.

The main thing that prevents me taking a noteworthy public stand to represent the prophet Mohammad's face on a dog's body is my fear of how my life would be complicated and inconvenienced, if not actually how my life would be jeopardized.

Also, beyond my cowardice, I would feel terrible if an earnest Muslim, just trying to live their life with peace and meaning, told me that my actions deeply personally hurt them.

But my tenderness does not overshadow my cowardice.  Being honest with myself and giving a true evaluation of my mettle.

So I don't know how to put my feelings into a socially acceptable neat description (socially acceptable to the group I most identify with: the Atheists).  All I can do is be honest.

(I am not trying to score "points" against Greta Christina, a writer I read regularly and admire.  But I feel obliged to state the complications that argue against a pat, cute endorsement of calling a stick figure a brave political stand.  The artists who are currently suffering under the real threat of violence are so because their cartoons had more provocative meaning, undeniably.)

Once, in college, I injected caffeine directly into my eyeball...

A Plinky prompt: "Go ahead, get a secret off your chest."

Image by churl via Flickr

1) I am telling people that I am drinking less coffee, but really I discovered an evil way to "brew" iced coffee with mega-doses of caffeine. http://www.wikihow.com/Use-a-French-Press-or-Cafetiere From the "wikihow" article "If you prefer iced coffee, use cold water and let the French Press stand overnight in the refrigerator. The coffee comes out very sweet and clean-tasting because there is no heat to harm the essential oils." What they don't say in the article is that if you use a super-abundance of ground coffee scoops in your refrigerated French Press, you will get a coffee so thick it is practically gelatinized. And evil. And hyper-caffeinated. And evil. It is the equivalent of cutting off your eyelids with a razor blade, and cauterizing (no messy blood running into your eyes and obscuring your vision). Why I have to keep it secret-ey on the down low: coffee makes me more unbalanced than I already am. Unbalanced me == shouting at clouds while bringing in the newspaper from the drive-way. And other forms of shouting and near fisticuffs and malodorous behavior.

Image by -bartimaeus- via Flickr

2) I enjoy smelling inside dog's ears. Musky. 3) I took Lithium for a few years, in a very large dose. Not so much a indication of the magnitude of my mental illness - my body seemed to break it down immediately. I was taking a huge dose, but my blood tests showed only slightly above a trace amount of lithium in my bloodstream. But, any way you measure it, I was a walking time-bomb. Removing an un-medicated version of me from the planet, and replacing it with a medicated version of me, was a gift from my psychiatrist to all of mankind.

Image via Wikipedia

4) I am no longer an Atheist. Closer to the truth is that I am a Deist. I am a little embarrassed because being Deist is so wishy-washy. Ask Churchy-Folk, and they will claim everyone who isn't Stalin or Hitler to be a Deist, even people like Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine and Albert Einstein, who went pretty far out of their way to renounce all forms of supernatural or superstitious thinking. But, after a committed bout of Atheism, I have to admit I am a Deist. It better predicts what I would do in a stressful situation, and how I express my human compassion. It comes back to being raised as an Evangelical Lutheran, and considering Jesus as a "Super Hero" when I was a kid. But I still don't recommend Religious people having a conversation about religion with me - I have read enough atheist tracks to still be a serious religious wet blanket. 5) I am a man of few secrets. I used to be so concerned about what other people thought of me, I was tormented practically every waking hour. So much so, I must have "burned-out" that portion of my brain that worries about what other people think about me. That part of my brain "broke", and now I really cannot bring myself to care what other people think. My wife is not pleased with this.