Atheism in the USA

[Clodfobble]

Here's the other thing: militant atheists are at least as annoying as militant evangelicals, usually moreso because they're angry about it. So even if someone doesn't believe, they usually don't want to be associated with those assholes on the internet.

I once accidentally made a coworker think I was a devout Christian, because he was ranting about something to do with religion and I was just nodding my head and trying to change the subject. He thought I was uncomfortable because my beliefs were being challenged; the truth was I was just uncomfortable because he was being an asshole. The rule is, you don't talk about politics or religion in polite company--and anyone who breaks that rule risks being ostracized as socially inept, even if everyone in the room agrees with him. Atheists are more likely to break that rule, is all.

[henry quirk]

My atheism rarely comes up in conversation, but when it does I usually get shit thrown my way.

I never try to defend myself (got no reason to) but I always end up distancing myself from folks like Dawkins who I think is "militant" (as described by Clodfobble).

I say, 'I'm indifferent to your *[fill in the blank]...I got no call to insult your religion but I also got no reason to adhere to it...you go be the best [fill in the blank] you can be and leave me alone to not be [fill in the blank]'.

Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn't.

When it doesn't, all a sane body can do is walk away.









*christianity, judaism, islam, wicca, agnosticism, "militant' atheism, democratism, republicanism, and on and on and on...

[DanaC]

Originally Posted by henry quirk

I say, 'I'm indifferent to your *[fill in the blank]...I got no call to insult your religion but I also got no reason to adhere to it...you go be the best [fill in the blank] you can be and leave me alone to not be [fill in the blank]'.
.

If it was just a matter of personal belief I'd agree with that. But it isn't. Christianity (in my country and yours) is a very powerful lobby. In the US you have a theoretical separation of church and state - yet a large amount of policy and law gets made on the basis of religious lobbying.

In Britain we have no theoretical separation of church and state. Our upper house (the House of Lords) is made up of the Lords Temporal and the Lords Spiritual. Christian leaders (bishops and archbishops) get seats in our legislature. They are a powerful voice. State funded schools in Britain must, by law, be run according to a 'broadly Christian ethos' and schools are supposed, again by law, to have a daily act of worship (though this has been interpreted in looser and looser ways to basically mean an 'assembly' for many schools). Terrestrial broadcasting licences carry with them an obligation to include a minimum quota of religious programming. And we still have anti-blasphemy laws.

As in the US, the main lobby for changes to abortion laws to make them much stricter, and the main lobby against changes in law to allow assisted suicide for the terminally ill come from religious groups - primarily Christian.

On an individual level each person's faith is their own. But as long as they get to shape the world I live in, and have a constitutional power beyond anything I have in my lack of faith - then the 'live and let live' ethos has already been fundamentally compromised.

[henry quirk]

"the 'live and let live' ethos has already been fundamentally compromised"

Oh, I agree.

And when Joe or Joanne refuses to let me be (by way of waving a pamphlet in my face, or blocking my exit, or legislating against me) I do what any self-respecting anarchistic sociopath does: I break the law.

If I can't walk away, I'll make it so you'll want to let me walk away.

And -- no -- I won't do it through organized efforts within the system...that's the chump's way.

Wave that pamphlet in my face and I may make you eat it.

Block my exit and I may hit you in the head.

Legislate against me and *I will certainly break those laws.









*speaking of: how’s the ACA goin’ for you folks?