OK, but do we deserve to be hated?

[Sarah Trachtenberg]

From Not My God


Off-topic: why do we often say, “That’s for history to decide”? Why is the opinion/assessment of people in the future more important than ours? Are they better than us? Don’t let future history boss you around!

OK, enough stand-up.

Not My God functions as an illustration of how atheists are hated in the United States. Depending on where you are in the rest of the world, being an atheist can be no big deal or will get you executed, but here in the States many people find atheism distasteful. To call someone an atheist is, or at least was, almost on par with calling someone “pedophile.” Now that I think about it, at least pedophiles can repent and go to heaven in the eyes of Christians, so atheists must be even worse.

I found this column from the University of Oklahoma, Ant-Atheist Prejudice Widespread in America.

I couldn’t help but smirk when the author said that atheists “are more disliked than any other major religious group, with the exception of Scientologists.”

The author, who is an atheist, discusses whether atheists are negative people, whether they hate religion, if they worship Dawkins and other stereotypes. After debunking these (and I’m not sure I agree with him about the hating religion part, nor does he apparently, since he says he dislikes religion), he goes on to say,

“However, it does bother me when unwarranted stereotyping is used as a justification for intolerance toward atheists.

“It bothers me that coming out as an atheist would be suicide for politicians in most parts of the country.

“It bothers me that my sister was mocked and harassed in high school for her own lack of belief.

“It bothers me that, throughout America, people are being intimidated into silence about the very simple and unthreatening fact that they don’t believe in a god.”

I didn’t read all the comments to the article, as there were many, but one struck me. It was addressed to the author:

“Zac,

Throughout your article you make your views on religion very clear. You actually state that you view religion with “disgust” and “irritation”. Wow, those are some strong words for someone complaining about how badly they are treated by people of faith. You say that people of faith are delusional. You sugar-coat this by graciously indicating that while you are disgusted and irritated by the delusions of the faithful, you actually don’t want to do them any harm. Wow, you’re a swell guy!

“You then sit back and whine about how bad atheists have it.

“Let me get this straight, you call the beliefs of other people disgusting, irritating delusions, and yet you are so traumatized that people of religious faith have a similar feeling toward you? Talk about a double-standard.

“Zac, not only are you a hypocrite and a whiner, you are just as much an intolerant, narrow-minded bigot as the most vociferous, creationist bible-thumper in small town Oklahoma.

“By the way, beliefs sometimes have costs. Personally, I couldn’t care less if you have no god, or if you worship Zeus. However, in case your mom didn’t tell you when she was getting you ready on your first day of kindergarten, not all the kids are going to like you. I know you find this difficult, because you very clearly adore yourself. However, there are people in life who are going to be mean to you. Get over it.”

Both authors bring up very good points and it’s hard to reconcile this. Obviously, I am on the side of the author of the article and not the poster who was putting down atheism, but I admit it’s hard to argue. I will say, though, that disliking (or at least being suspicious of) religion is one thing: hating religious people is another, and I don’t hate religious people. Only the annoying ones.

There are people who, for no good reason, hate atheists, and in a sense, we’re hating them back. Obviously, none of this provides evidence for the existence of god either way, but in terms of a “culture war,” what are we looking at here? If I admit that religion can, and does, irritate, disgust, and anger me, depending on what it’s doing, does that make me a bigot? If I make fun of religion, like in my Christian Kitcsh contest, is that hate speech? Further, are atheists ergo deserving of contempt and persecution, in the sense that theists think we’re all a bunch of intolerant blowhards?

Incidentally, yes, I am intolerant: I’m intolerant of impeding science, of imposing “intelligent design” in our schools, of throwing away the future of the planet since the apocalypse is coming soon anyway, of harassing people and telling them they are going to hell for all eternity if they don’t worship your faith, of letting criminals off the hook because they do worship your faith, of censorship, of abstinence-only sex education that makes kids get pregnant and get STDs, of killing abortion providers… and this is all just the stuff Christians do! (Just to make this clear: I don’t mean every Christian.)

So, yes, I’m intolerant. In this particular case, proud of it.

[Jennifer Paviglianiti]

It's odd--I dislike religionists for bigotry, but find I second-guess myself for being a bigot if I have a problem with religion--that problem being its bigotry. For myself, I rarely run into a problem where my atheism is an issue--my family is largely agnostic, my spouse is also an atheist, and my friends and acquaintances for the most part don't discuss religion with me. I once remarked at my workplace that right after my divorce, I could have easily considered being a nun if there were atheist nuns, and even co-workers I knew to be church-going and devout didn't have an issue with my admission that I don't have a faith. Personally, my atheism isn't an obstacle for me, but I find I militate against it being an obstacle for anyone else, and I despise the hypocracy that exists where people of faith can admit to homophobia, or mysogyny, or any other form of ignorance about other people, yet say--"This is because of my faith," while denying me the reality of what I decry by reason of my eschewing faith for actually seeing things as they are.

I recognize that while I like people and generally want them to follow the beat of their own drum, I am genuinely tired and disgusted when they all seem to follow someone or something else instead of seeing things for themselves. Even if they explain to me themselves why they follow someone else's tune in respect to creed. I try to remind people that "The unexamined faith isn't worth having," and probably always will see people who embrace religion as people who have dropped out and actually quit looking for answers.

Of course, we shouldn't be hated for atheism. And I think there needs to be a limit for how apologetic we feel about our criticisms of religion. We criticize religion like we do because of how very little it is like we would do, and because we want other people to maybe wake up, and see there's a better way, a less arbitrary, less dogmatic, more logical way. Tearing down the idea of God doesn't tear apart morality, it just allows for a more rational idea of morality to emerge, one that makes sense and that people can really use.

We atheists have the better part of the argument--god may not be real, but we can logically point to how actions have consequences, and how people can freely choose good over bad choices even without God or Hell.

I think we do alright.

[Greywolf]

Change "Jesus-lovers" to "God-believers".

Oh, wait. Jesus is a God whose part of a trio of Gods who are one God without a "Mother God". So make that a quartet of Gods minus one God that make One True God.

Hope that cleared things up.

Oh wait, did I mention Grandma and Grandpa God? . . .

[Greywolf]

We're supposed to learn from the good and bad lessons of history. A lot of people thought slavery was "okay" back in the day. Now we recognize just how heinous it is and learned some pretty painful lessons for not seeing slavery for what it truly is. (I would add that the bible does nothing much in the way of condemning it.)

Funny thing about those pedophiles: Like you point out, they can be forgiven and given the ability to go to make-believe Heaven. Not so the unbeliever. No forgiveness for the unbeliever. Hitler, yes; the unbeliever, no. (Imagine where "Doubting Thomas" would have ended up if he continued to disbelieve Jesus arose from the dead. Lucky Jesus granted him the privilige of appearing to him in person so as to convince Thomas Jesus had not only arisen from the dead (Hmmm. Didn't Thomas witness Lazarus and the son of the Widow of Nain do the same thing?), but that he was "God" all of a sudden. Lucky for Thomas, indeed, eh? Otherwise he'd be joining other nonbelievers in Hell for all of eternity. No forgiveness for the unbeliever, you know. That's just too heinous a spiritual "crime" for an infinitely loving, merciful, compasssionate, just and forgiving God to forgive, you know.

"Zac" and others neglect to remember that Christian theists are supposed to be above being bigoted and hateful. The hypocrites. What happened to the "Golden Rule"? The "love thine enemies", the "love thy neigbor as thyself" attitude that Christians are supposed to exemplify? What's the point if you can claim to be "Christian" and treat non-believers like so much human garbage? What about all those noble sounding directives the Jesus of the gospels espoused? Just window-dressing concealing your everyday religiously intolerant bigot?

Excluded here, of course, are Christians who do their best to abide by the best of what the Christian faith has to offer.

All this is a long-winded way of saying that society has been brainwashed into believing Christians are morally superior to the atheists when there isn't really anything in the way of proof to substantiate this at all. After all, who is filling our jails and prisons to the point of over-flow? The God-believing Christians or the Non-Believing, supposedly inherently immoral and unethical atheists. Why there should be ten or twenty of us in prison for every one Christian one would think. But look how many Jesus-lovers are loving Jesus behind bars!