Monday, November 8, 2010

God is not your co-pilot

As an atheist, I have a really big problem with religious groups who have the opinion that their chosen deity will protect them no matter what. Worse, they believe that when it's "their time", then that's just the way it is. This is especially true when driving, and living in Utah as I do right now - it's a really big problem. Actually, it's compounded by the criminally easy driving test, but the local religion here I'm sure has a lot to do with the appalling standard of driving. People drive around in a daze, believing with all their being that their God will protect them from harm. "God Is My Co-Pilot" is a bumper sticker you see a lot around here and I don't think they're joking. That is what makes them a danger to every other road user, because in a car it translates to "I can drive however I like and it doesn't matter". Drifting through red lights whilst texting. Stopping at green lights. Turning left from the right turn lane. They do this under some misplaced sense of self security and if they die as a result of their criminally lax driving, they just assume it was their destiny. The rest of us? We don't count - even as an atheist, if I die because some Mor(m)on sideswipes me in a truck whilst he's texting, in his opinion, his God determined it was my time to tie.
Blindly following these sorts of lifestyles puts everyone else in danger and there's no way to redress the balance.
So if you see a religious bumper sticker, steer well clear of the vehicle because their chosen deity might have decided your time is up.

6 comments:

Ars.Gladius said...

I always thought something was fishy with those.

We have that up here in Canada as well, though most definitely not at the level of saturation that you see in Utah.

We also have the cars that are covered in god stickers to the point that they can't see out the windows. Best to be ahead of those ones.

Anonymous said...

Are you from England or something? I've never seen someone use the word "whilst" so much.

HelenM said...

My brother is a catholic. He's had his car blessed, and he carries a phial of holy water "whilst" driving. He drives like a maniac...
PS Anonymous. You've never been abroad have you?

Toby Tobkin said...

Try to drive routes with the largest concentration of Darwin fish emblems to maximize your safety.

Keith said...

did you consult crash statistics before you posted this article? or is this article created simply out of hate because your an atheist? it ain't the ones with the stickers that you need to look out for. they're what? 1% of the total driving population. yeh some people are simply idiots but the way i see it, majority of these so called morons that have stickers are safer drivers. those stickers are there to remind them to take care when driving and not to kill themselves because someone will catch them.. geez mate! if you really that paranoid there's a lot more driver types out there that warrants more concern.

Chris said...

The crash statistics speak for themselves around here. The local religious group wear very recognisable undergarments that are easy to pick out through everyday clothes. Whenever I see a wreck around here, the people standing out scratching their heads are showing the obvious signs of the garments.
A full 50% of them don't wear seatbelts either. For the same reasons I proposed in the blog post? You only need a pair of eyes to see that.

And I didn't say I hated anyone :-D