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The War on Atheism |
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While atheism has been under attack throughout the course of modern history, it seems as if specific attacks are on the rise. What’s worse, they seem to still have acceptance from large portions of American society. Below are four examples of such attacks, coming from various sources.
Starbucks is getting complaints for trying to promote dialogue:
An Ohio woman is steaming after reading an anti-God message published on the side of a Starbucks coffee cup.The message that got Michelle Incanno’s blood boiling reads:
“Why in moments of crisis do we ask God for strength and help? As cognitive beings, why would we ask something that may well be a figment of our imaginations for guidance? Why not search inside ourselves for the power to overcome? After all, we are strong enough to cause most of the catastrophes we need to endure.”
PBS is taking some heat over a three part history of atheism:
Conservative Christians are criticizing a plan by Public Broadcasting Service stations to begin showing later this week a three-part television documentary series on atheism, calling it “demagogic and propagandistic.”
Janice Crouse, director of the Beverly LaHaye Institute for the conservative group Concerned Women for America, told Cybercast News Service that “airing the program gives credibility and cohesiveness to individuals who seek to undermine the beliefs and values on which democracy and the American dream are founded.”
This Youtube video, which has been viewed over 400,000 times in the past month, demonstrates the pressure families can place on individuals to conform to Christianity.
Attacks are even coming from professed atheists such as Ezra Klein, who recently called his own atheism into question by writing:
I deeply envy individuals of faith, and would happily bargain away whatever satisfaction I supposedly derive from my bold freethinking for a sense of serenity, a perceived connection to a more permanent and grounding plane, and a steadying faith in the continuation of my consciousness.
What people seem to be forgetting here, Ezra excluded, is that the main teachings of Christ involved acceptance, open-mindedness and love. A person’s metaphysical beliefs are of little consequence; what matters is the life they live, and ultimately, the way they treat other people. Personally, I’d rather be an atheist who treated everyone with respect and dignity than a theist who is quick to judge someone based on their beliefs.
What do you think?
It’s the point at which private and public faith cross that causes most of our problems it seems. If faith were something for a private individual to take comfort in then none of this would be controversial. I personally don’t have any problem with religion per se, but with the evangelizing that goes on.
Also check this one out: http://www.boston.com/news/local/maine/articles/2007/05/04/investigato r_finds_reasonable_grounds_for_claim_of_atheism_firing/
Granted, things worked out in the end, but how did this happened in the first place?
“A person’s metaphysical beliefs are of little consequence; what matters is the life they live, and ultimately, the way they treat other people.”
Maybe, but the latter can be strongly effected by the former - even to make other factors negligible.
Actions are done predominantly because certain beliefs are held as opposed to others. Thus beliefs are important exactly because our choices and actions are important.
That is true but seems like a moot point.
If an Atheist and a Christian both treat people the same way it makes no difference what beliefs motivated them to do so.
I guess a better way to say it is this: Actions are often based on values, which can be informed by metaphysical beliefs. A belief in a higher power is in no way a prerequisite for a highly moral and strict code of values.
Speaking as a more-or-less atheist, I think it’s important that atheists not fall prey to the persecution complex that affects so many far-right Christians in this country (”A sales clerk just told me ‘Happy Holidays!’ They won’t let us put the Ten Commandments in courthouses! It’s a pogrom, I tell you!”). Yes, being an atheist means dealing with a lot of very narrow-minded dismissal or even outright rage from religious fundamentalists, but I’ve never been barred outright from believing what I believe or from speaking about it, and that’s not something to take for granted. The huffing and puffing from Beverly LaHaye and company may not seem like it, but it’s part of a broader dialogue on religion in America; it’s the senseless, yelling part of that dialogue, but it’s still important. As long as they don’t try to enact any First Amendment-violating legislation, I’m just going to do my best to ignore those clowns and advance a more thoughtful approach to the discussion.
I agree with Josh. No belief in a higher power does not mean weak morals, just as there are plenty of god-fearing people out there with terribly loose morals. If you take belief in God to equal some kind of moral structure I think you are being very naive, to say the least.
Well sure, it could certainly be a lot worse. I think that by remaining aware of the obstacles that are out there we reduce the chances of things getting completely out of hand.
Nice article, you should check out this letter to the editor I found as well: Atheists should be stomped out of America.
It says a lot about the intellectual level of the discourse in the debate when someone thinks that democracy owes, in any way, it’s existence to supernaturalist belief systems. Democracy has been created in defiance of, and in the face of resistance from, theocracy and religion. Anyone who can’t look around the world and see this is delusional. Oh right, we’re talking about people who believe in a sky-god.