Atheism on the Subway

The Subway always gets me thinking.

I got the the platform this morning and realized I was sadly without reading material. Wasted opportunity to get some work done on the train...So when I saw a discarded AM New York on the ground at the 59^th street station while I was waiting for my 4/5 Express downtown to 59^th street, I picked it up. There was an article on Godless New York. An anonymous donor is running a $25,000 ad campaign-posters in the MTA Subway stations which read “1 Million New Yorkers are Good without God. Are You?” Apparently the goal is for atheists in New York to know they are not alone.

And of course, public outrage ensues. The article offers the opinions of many New Yorkers who are righteously indignant at this affront. How can we even suggest that there is no God? They wonder...

On to the train I step...

No, let me rephrase. The morning 4/5 express-ride is an exercise in gymnastics and personal space amongst other things. Those waiting to get on the train cram in. And it is as if the moment we are on the train, we forget the anxiety of being outside the train wondering if we will fit in to the cramped car (and I won't lie, Holocaust cattle cars are often floating in my head...) There are some structural problems with the cars. There are not many polls or things to hold on for those of us under 5'5” unless you are standing immediately next to a door.

This morning, I oozed onto the train with hundreds of fellow New Yorkers. Tens of New Yorkers stood behind me, pressing to also be amongst the chosen few who could cram on in to the train and move ahead on their journey towards work, home or whatever their particular and important destination. Standing at the corner of the entrance was a very large, very short woman. I called in to the train, can everyone in the middle step in so the people outside can get on? One woman, with ample room to move simply looked away. The large, short woman gave me a cold hard, angry stare. I looked at her and said, please?

I am too short to reach anything other than here and I simply cannot move.

Someone taller could have stepped around her and moved in to the train, others could have given her the death stare and socially urged her to step in further. Someone could have said, yeah, please, come on guys, let's make some room...

None of that happened.

And I started wondering, who cares if you, me, anyone believes in God if we are unwilling to risk or bare discomfort for the sake of our fellow man standing before us and asking politely?