A Guest Discusses "Love Sausage" and Similar Atheist Works

[Editor's note: this is a guest article by Steven Satak. Orignally an email, I am posting it in it's entirety with his permission. Thanks, Steve.]

I visited a webcomic site yesterday. One of the links addressed something I had never seen before, never even knew existed. It's a 'superhero' from a series called "The Boys".

http://www.comicvine.com/love-sausage/4005-60457/

I was intrigued with this just enough to follow the rabbit down the hole, to abuse a metaphor. I'd read 'The Authority' by Warren Ellis and was fascinated/repelled by the frequent use of homosexual characters, pedophiles and violence, all calculated to shock and titillate at the same time.

Well, come to find out it was a fellow named Garth Ennis, outdoing Ellis at the same game - shocking and titillating by going further and further afield. Everyone who is not a homosexual appears to be a violent homophobe or a rapist. It's like they distilled the very worst humanity has to offer and then gave them superpowers, and then wrote stories about how one group of twisted, damaged supers kills (in more and more creative ways) the others.

Ellis and Ennis, along with Alan Moore, are referred to 'the trinity'. They are also described as 'brilliant', a descriptive I have come to associate specifically with the meaning "a man or woman whose (tactfully) acknowledged arrogance is not only envied, but held to be excused by their being smarter than the rest of us". That this corruption will eventually neutralize those smarts is not usually mentioned, but shorthand is shorthand and I can read between the writing on the wall.

Right. So I followed the rabbit and found myself neck-deep in obscenity (a word I seldom use). It's like the author is giving the finger to every good thing in existence, but especially the God he claims does not exist. In the artificial comic book worlds these guys make up, God either does not exist or He is an asshole (no reason why He's that way, just the author's say-so).

I immediately formed a supposition - that these three are Atheists. I went and checked, and what do you know? They are, and quite vocal about it. Proud, even (imagine that!). Also noted for specifically portraying Theists (but mostly Christians) as either stupid or easily gulled. And at least Ennis appears to take a positive delight in humiliating characters that are apparently defined by their churchgoing habits. As though that were the only thing about them that mattered. In a sense it is, as the character is Ennis's whipping boy/girl, showing all us normal readers just how fucked up we really are despite all that God talk.

That this might also describe them appears not to be an option. Because they say so, of course, and because they are smarter than we are, what they say automatically trumps what we say to the contrary.

(an aside: apparently Garth Ennis encountered someone on 4Chan who expressed an interest in his daughter. Very unforgiving of the pedo interest, he was. Threats left and right. Apparently, it's fine for the comics he makes, but the least suggestion that he himself be forced to live under the same 'realistic' conditions is apparently out of court. As it should be. But the juxtaposition is funny. In his books, normal humans are there simply to be killed or abused.)

A light went on over my head. They contradict themselves - without God everything is permitted and it shows in their work. But they ignore the contradictions. How can they do that? They accuse theists of stupidity with no basis, yet they follow a mechanistic explanation of the world without explaining the built-in contradiction.

And I realized - they can do it because they SAY they can. But... but this 'because I said so' stuff is supposedly the sort of thing God says (and they reject), so again, how can anyone take what these atheists say seriously?

It's simple. Because they are smarter/richer/more famous than you. Or me. In other words, because they already have more power than we do. Or they make out they do. In our society they have the gun, so to speak, and they don't hesitate to put it to the head of anyone who disagrees with them.

You're stupid, so I'm automatically correct and we do it my way. Otherwise, you prove you don't value intelligence and only crazy people reject intelligence.

You're poor, so I'm automatically correct and we do it my way. If you were right, you'd be as rich as I am and actually have a say in things.

You're a nobody, so I'm automatically correct and we do it my way. If your opinion had any value, people would know about you and follow your every move. You would be a celebrity like me. They don't, so shut up.

This business of 'it is because I say it is' is funny. It's a closed loop of ego. Makes no sense, but as we are all Fallen, a lot of us secretly hope that one day we can have that kind of power - to defy logic itself and make things so just because we said so. So we too ignore the contradictions. After all, if enough of us agree they don't exist, they will go away. Right? If we can stomp down the pesky people who keep bringing them up - kill the messenger - the message will disappear, right? After all, if the message isn't delivered, it might as well not exist to someone whose entire outlook is about denying objective reality.

What a horrible freedom they have, these writers. I wonder if they realize what they look like from the outside? As viewed by normal people?

I already wish I could forget most of the stuff I have seen. It stinks and scalds of hatred and idiotic defiance. God help them all. I'll be honest, you've got more guts than I do. If I had to go to my blog every day and filter through that nasty hate-filled lunacy, I would be sorely tempted to chuck the whole thing.