I read a great article this morning, the main point of which is that, as atheists, many people are offended merely by our existence. In the absence of an ability to combat our facts, we are criticized for being "rude" or "inconsiderate"... but what if we are as considerate as possible? Many of us know all too well that the simple act of declaring yourself as an atheist--nothing more, nothing less--is enough to offend people.
Why is this? Well, I think we all know that it's because "coming out" as an atheist causes insecure religious people to go into a mental frenzy and question their own beliefs, which they of course are not comfortable with. So, in order to avoid actually thinking about the issue, they turn to rampant insulting and try to group atheists with drugs, murder, etc. Whatever they can to convince themselves that all atheists are terrible people. It's the exact same kind of nonsense that allows people to think that every Muslim is a terrorist.
This is one of the fundamental reasons why I personally believe that it is important to declare yourself as an atheist, should you be asked of your beliefs. I'm not saying you should go out of your way to "preach" things, but if someone asks you about your religious beliefs, don't just say "I'm not religious".
Say you are an atheist. Why? Because religious people need to realize that people they know are atheists.
It needs to be on their doorstep. If their friend or relative is an atheist, it becomes much harder for them to ignorantly pretend that all atheists are child-molesting, drug-addicted, murdering, sociopaths.
It brings us one step closer to preventing people from using willing ignorance and sensationalism to combat reality and common sense.
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Anyway,
the article tackles that and has a really interesting example of a recent Christmas parade with an "atheist marching band". The band didn't have any posters or flyers that said "celebrate reason this season", etc. Nothing like that; they were just a normal marching band playing jingle bells, only their name was something like, "the atheist marching band".
Sadly, as expected, it stirred quite a reaction from many people who attended the parade. This is a huge gap that religious people--and more specifically, christians--are responsible for closing. "We strive for acceptance of all of God's people... unless they're atheists... or muslims... or jewish... or... ..." ...you know what? You're all stupid, but I digress.
If you follow the atheism debates in op-ed pieces and whatnot, you'll see that critiques of the so-called New Atheist movement are often aimed at our tone. Among the pundits and opinion-makers, atheist writers and activists are typically called out for being offensive, intolerant, disrespectful, extremist, hostile, confrontational, and just generally asshats. The question of whether atheists are, you know, right, typically gets sidestepped in favor of what is apparently the much more compelling question of whether atheists are jerks. And if these op-ed pieces and whatnot were all you knew about the atheist movement and the critiques of it, you might think that atheists were simply being asked to be reasonable, civil, and polite.
But if you follow atheism in the news, you begin to see a very different story.
You begin to see that atheists are regularly criticized -- vilified, even -- simply for existing.
Or, to be more accurate, for existing in the open. For declining to hide our atheism. For coming out.
Case in point: In Bryan/ College Station, Texas, the Brazos Valley Vuvuzela Atheist Marching Band recently marched in the annual Christmas parade. Now, let's be very clear about this: The 18-person marching band didn't march with signs saying "Fuck Your Religion," or "You Know It's A Myth," or even "There's Probably No God -- Now Stop Worrying and Enjoy Your Life." They wished people a merry Christmas, and a happy Hanukkah, and a merry Kwanzaa. They played "Jingle Bells" on vuvuzelas. And they carried a banner saying they were atheists.
Which was enough, apparently, to send many Christians into fits. The atheist presence in the Christmas parade created a substantial controversy in the area. One resident interviewed by the local news, Tina Corgey, said, "I spent many years teaching my children to love and respect other people and to love the fact that they were children of God and I don't feel that they should be influenced in any other way especially not at a Christmas parade." She added, "If you have younger children they weren't going to understand but I have older children, a teenager, 8-year-old and they were curious and they asked questions and it was hard for them to believe and understand that there are actually people out there that don't believe in God."
And she was hardly alone. Her sentiments were echoed in many comments on the local news story.
Click here to read the rest of the ridiculous comments from "outraged" parade attendees. My personal "favorite":
"If atheist are allowed to march in the parade, then maybe next year we can add some strippers advertising the silk stocking or how about some petafiles advertising their love for the kiddos! Those wouldn't be wrong, since we are wanting to be welcoming of everyone!"
Yeah, atheists are comparable to pedophiles (nice spelling, by the way... moron).
