Mini Rant: First World Problem

I hate when people complain that my complaints about religion (or anything else) is a “first world problem.” Do you know why? Because I fucking live in the first world! When I move to the fucking third world and make a similar complaint, then by all means, feel free to complain about my complaint being a “first world problem.” Until then, shut the fuck up and stop complaining about my complaining. That’s a first world fucking complaint anyway.

Now I know you are just trying to be funny, but you come off as some kind of pretentious assclown. Yes, I am aware that I was born with the privilege of living in a pretty wealthy part of the world and I could very well have been born in some shithole with a ton of Christian missionaries using food, clothing, and basic medicine to bribe me into religious belief. So yes, fortune has favored me and you because our basic needs have been met and we are sitting at a computer with the internet. As a result, we have the time, tools, and education to research the ridiculous claims of religion and that means that we can easily do a quick Google search and discover that those claims are slightly more hollow then some of the tummies of children living in third world nations.

This doesn’t mean that religion is a first world problem. In fact, it is even more of a problem in the third world because those people are more vulnerable and have less time, tools, and education to refute the ridiculous claims of religion. They also need the food, clothing, and medicine so some of them might just suck it up and take what they need even if it means publicly worshipping some imaginary deity that if did exist, has apparently left them to starve in the third world.

I get it; all of our problems are first world problems. That’s because we live in the first world. Oh you have cancer? Boohoo; that’s a first world problem too. In the third world, you don’t usually live long enough to get cancer and when you do, the doctors just do a rain dance or some other form of tribal magic for you and leave you to die.

But here in the first world we not only have first world problems, but we also have first world solutions. We have medical scientists working to treat and prevent cancer. Cancer isn’t a death sentence for everyone necessarily. With more time, money, resources, and education, we might actually find a cure for cancer at some point soon but until then, we at least have medical procedures that will help to treat cancer patients and increase the quality of their lives even if slightly.

Just imagine what we could accomplish if we didn’t have religion holding us back from first world solutions with their bronze-aged beliefs. We would have a greater ability to solve first world problems and third world problems with first world solution. So yeah, I’m a little pissed off when I hear about some teacher in Kansas talking smack about evolution and promoting creationism in science classes and I get all uppity when some textbook company in Texas tries to slant history in a more Christian favorable way. But that is because these “first world problems” get in the way of actually solving third world problems.