CBS- "If there is a God and he's watching football, there are so many other things he could be doing," Foster said. "There are hungry children and diseases and famine and so much important stuff going on in the world, and he's really blessed your team? It's just weird to me."
Foster's brother Abdul jokes that Arian is "The anti-Tebow," "This is unprecedented," Stiefel told ESPN. "He is the first active professional athlete, let alone star, to ever stand up in support of gaining respect for secular Americans." "You don't want to ruin endorsements," Foster said. "People might say, 'I don't want an atheist representing my team.' " "I'm established in this league, and as I'm digging deeper into myself and my truth, just being me is more important than being sexy to Pepsi or whoever," Foster said. "After awhile, what's an extra dollar compared to the freedom of being you? That's the choice I made." "Everybody always says the same thing: You have to have faith," Foster said. "That's my whole thing: Faith isn't enough for me. For people who are struggling with that, they're nervous about telling their families or afraid of the backlash ... man, don't be afraid to be you. I was, for years." "I get the devil-worship thing a lot. They'll ask me, 'You worship the devil?' " Foster said. " 'No, bro, I don't believe there's a God, why would I believe there's a devil?' There's a lot of ignorance about non-belief. I don't mean a negative connotation of ignorance. I just mean a lack of understanding, a lack of knowledge, lack of exposure to people like me." "I have no ill will toward religion or religious people. I have no quarrels," Foster said. "Believe what you want to believe." So Tim Tebow kneels down and genuinely prays to a higher power and he gets incessantly mocked for it, but Arian Foster says he doesn't believe in God and all the sudden he's a target for criticism?The vibe I'm getting is that it's not okay to be overly religious and it's not okay to be religion less. Basically it's only okay to half heartedly mention a potential God after your accomplishments and ignore him (or her) after your failures. What a world. You can be literally whatever you want to be without criticism, but you can't believe whatever you want to believe without criticism. I actually respect the hell out of Arian Foster. In fact, I think a lot of people in my generation should. I am not even close to being a religious person. I selfishly believe in God strictly because it eases the fear of uncertainty. I don't know if he/she exists. Hell, the concept of a higher being living up in the clouds is absolutely RIDICULOUS. God probably doesn't fucking exist. We are all just too afraid to admit it, because it gives us something to fall back on. God has a plan, right? Hope that makes you sleep better at night. We are talking about a football player here. We actively root for some of the most morally ambiguous people on the planet every Sunday during the fall. Hell, even the guy in the bar that you just gave a high five to when your team scored a touchdown could very well be racist or sexist. Like it or not, in this country, football is separate from real life. It's separate from religion. It's separate from race. It's separate from politics. If Arian Foster wants to believe in nothing than he has the right to do so without facing backlash. This country is filled with people that have varying religious standards, but the people involved in the most popular sport in this country are supposed to follow a uniform set of beliefs? It's not like Foster is denouncing people that do have faith. He's not even saying that he's right. He's just saying that he doesn't have definitive proof that a supreme being exists. In a world so dependent on evidence, Arian Foster is one of the only people basing his opinion on the only facts we have at this point. Listen, I hate Bible thumpers just as much as the next person. However, the teachings of Jesus do say that premarital sex is a sin. They do say that masturbation is a sin. They do say that sexual acts without the intent of conception are a sin. They do say that homosexuality is a sin. Yet, we all just collectively jerked off to a transgender and a Supreme Court decision that allows gays to wed? If God exists he has got to be FUCKING PISSED. Society is openly heading down a path that is venturing further and further from traditional Christian beliefs, yet we have to believe in the presence of the person responsible for those beliefs? Seems a little hypocritical to me. You don't have to listen to God, you just have to believe that he is there. Okay, got it. Looks like we are going to need a bigger confessional booth. Sidenote: I was at a church for a wedding two years ago and the priest said "only 2% of couples that have faith get divorced". It was at that very 'what the fuck are even talking about' moment that I stopped openly identifying with any form of organized religion.
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