Last Friday, team Puerto Rico lost to team Mexico in the World Baseball Classic. On Monday, Japan dramatically defeated Mexico in their last at-bat in the bottom of the ninth inning. Japan ultimately won the tournament, its third title in six tournaments, in a thrilling victory over team USA.

Like any good baseball fan, I practiced various rituals to help Puerto Rico defeat Mexico, but their efficacy declined. I tried other rituals to help Mexico keep its margin over Japan to no avail. Here, I want to apologize for my role in those defeats.

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If you’re a fellow atheist, you may think it is silly to apologize for two events I did not influence. You may think that I was performing useless acts of superstition. And, my friend, you would be right. Despite knowing this, I cannot help it. I’m very superstitious when it comes to baseball. My spouse thinks it is funny how I throw my rationality out the window when I watch baseball (at least baseball games where I care about the outcome).

I’m unsure if, after this confession, I have to return my atheist card (I lost it the last time I moved anyway). But I often think about my baseball superstitions when thinking about secular communities.

How often do we make people feel unwelcome in our meetings or events because we spend a significant chunk of time making fun of the religious or any kind of belief? How much “belief” are we willing to tolerate? What is belief anyway?

A few years ago, watching the documentary “Mucho, Mucho Amor” about the late Puerto Rican astrologer Walter Mercado, I went down memory lane. I never missed Walter’s segments in the various shows he would present his weekly or monthly horoscopes. I remember watching it with my grandma. None of us, my born-again Christian grandmother, or I thought that horoscopes were a thing, but Walter was an amazing showman; his thing was the delivery, not the message. I never watched any of his so-called competitors. And, of course, today, I’m a devotee of Check-in Mela, a fellow Puerto Rican following on the steps of Walter and who writes very amusing predictions.

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We get worked up about our “superior brains” and our cult of rationality. And forget that much of life doesn’t make sense or that it is okay to be silly. However, politically, it is one of our major liabilities when we fail to build coalitions with other religious communities because we object to their beliefs. Even worse is when we mock how dumb religious people are, especially those militant fundamentalists. Except those militant types are very good at organizing and running for office.

Many of those militant religious types despise each other. Many evangelicals think Catholics and Mormons are destined for hell (and vice-versa). But they have built these strong alliances to set up a theocracy in the U.S. If they complete their vision, they’ll fight each other. In the meantime, they’re cool oppressing or planning to oppress everyone else.

Most of the nones are not unbelievers like people in atheist communities. But that doesn’t mean they have nothing in common with us; most are functional atheists. Is it that bad if people read horoscopes or practice reiki? Moving on to alliances, is it so bad to work with other religious people who are fighting the same fundamentalists we are?

I want our movement to think deeper about who our allies are and who are members of our community. Moreover, we need to rethink what being an unbeliever means and what types of “belief” we are willing to accept in our midst and ally strategically with. With that said, I wish you mucha paz, pero sobre todo, mucho, mucho amor.

Source: Wikimedia Commons

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