To tell you the truth, it’s getting harder to deal with the horrible things said about us, though.  This is especially true as the attacks against us have been growing steadily in the past few years.  It’s frankly infuriating, but I will do my best to continue to monitor religious bigotry, especially against the nonreligious, and present it to you.  There is a bright side: the bigots are more vocal against us because we are being more vocal.  That is bound to happen.  Many nonreligious are no longer scared to speak out, nor are we scared to simply acknowledge that we exist.  In that sense, we are continuing to gain ground.

To those of you who have written to me during this absence, I have not ignored you.  Expect responses soon.

Now on to the promised links:

Christian Bus Ads Fire Back (KCCI.com)

Christian ministry “Covenant of Love” is has their own pro-Christian ads on buses on Des Moines Area Regional Transit Authority buses this month.  It is reportedly in response to the recent atheist ads that have been on buses throughout the country.  From what I have seen, the article title seems misleading.  The ads don’t appear confrontational in any way; I would hardly say that they “fire back.”  They simply express their own positive view of Christianity, and that’s a great thing.  This is what we need, dialogue, which we have been essentially excluded from for too long.  We get our say and the religious get theirs.  Religious ads have existed since long before the atheist ads, though.  One could argue the religious already more than had their chance, and in fact dominated the discussion.  This is more confirmation that we are making headway.  We are a threat.  Despite the long history of unopposed religiosity, they feel that they need to respond to us.

Atheist group takes message to Lakeland via billboard (Tampa Bay Online – TBO.com)

Talking about ads, another atheist group has put up a billboard, this time by the Atheists of Florida.  As with the rest, there is nothing offensive unless one chooses to be offended.  It’s a message to other like-minded people that they are not alone, just as with other billboards that have gone up: “Don’t Believe in God?  You are not alone.”

Of course, the website’s comments display the same bigotry and irrational thought we have come to expect from bigots whenever atheists dare even display that we exist.  For example:

Posted by ( zgolf1 ) on 11/02/2009 at 01:53 pm.

I think that the people behind this billboard should stand on a street corner in Polk county and spread their word directly to the people. I am fairly certain that before the day was out that their beliefs would change once that were loaded onto bayflight.

Threatening members of the Atheists of Florida with physical violence because they state that atheists exist?  That’s not very Christian.

As for the actual content, the article is based around the same basic tired old attack bigots always levy against the nonreligious: there is no other basis for morality than religious belief, and therefore those without religion are immoral, being able to do whatever they like without any conscience.  That’s news to me and the many others like me who have no religious faith, yet have quite a strong sense of right and wrong.

From the article:

If you only go around once, then the main thing is to have fun. If you start by admitting that from cradle to tomb it isn’t that long of a stay, then life is a cabaret, old chum, and so, by the way, is Wall Street. There is a bumper sticker favored by some of the recently rich that proclaims “he who dies with the most toys wins.” This is indeed the moral philosophy of those who believe that death is the final closing bell. Materialism, hedonism and Stairmasters are what people do until the clock stops ticking.

I’m not going to go through a whole debunking of this claim.  The entire history of the fields of ethical studies, philosophy, and reality show this claim to be untrue on its face – morality is not the exclusive domain of religion by any means.  To then take this argument and use it to claim we are therefore responsible for the economic collapse – without one shred of evidence to show that a large percentage of those in economic fields who are responsible are actually atheist – is ignorant, hateful, ridiculous, but also quite sad.

It’s sad that Mr. Lebedoff is so desperate to find a scapegoat for our situation that he attacks an easy target – a minority already vilified throughout history by the religious majority.  Every time I reread his column I can’t make myself angry, only slightly amused at how ridiculous his claims are yet sadder about the hate he has for an entire group of people that have never done anything to him, no matter how much he would like to believe we have.

This is not to say that atheists shouldn’t get angry when they are attacked like this.  To an extent anger is healthy; it pushes atheists to fight against such bigotry and demand the same respect as anyone else, religious or not.  I will end with a great reader comment on the article, from someone (peterbb59) who did get angry, and articulated it very well.  It was originally one long paragraph, so I split it up for legibility.  It can be read in its original form at the article linked above.

Mr Lebedoff, In this article you have done nothing but engaged in a mischievous orgy of ignorant, self-indulgent bigotry. You clearly know nothing whatever, and probably care even less, about the realities of the lives of most atheists. You have attributed without reference, the worlds economic problems squarely on the shoulders of atheists in exactly the same fashion NAZI Germany blamed the Jews. You might remember the outcome of that folly. Where is your evidence for this assertion Mr Lebedoff?

In my OPINION, the global financial crisis is more likely to be caused by greedy conservatives of deeply fundamentalist religious conviction than by atheists, but unlike you I don’t have the resources to prove it. With the resources at your disposal, and given your mandate to deliver news and opinion based on truth, you should be able to back your claim with some researched facts, so where are they?

Let me now tell you briefly about my mother. She will be eighty in two months, yet she still has the energy to spend most of her time doing voluntary community service. A self funded retiree, she uses her own car to deliver “Meals on Wheels” to the elderly and infirm who are unable to prepare food for themselves. She is a committee member of the local historical society, and performs “museum duty” twice a week. Formerly an English and History teacher of the highest regard, she adjudicates student debates at least twice a month, and uses her own car for travel to nearby towns for this purpose. Being highly literate and intelligent, she proof-reads journal submissions and book manuscripts by all manner of scholarly folk who seek out her help in this regard. She attends the local Uniting Church so parents and friends have access to her for advice with their childrens’ education. Caring deeply about humanity and the environment equally, she donates whatever she can afford to worthy causes.

Ever since I can remember, my mother has always lived a frugal life on principle, and advocates others also do so. Now Mr Lebedoff, I want you to know that my mother is among those whom you accuse in your ignorant tirade against your imagined evils of atheism. She also happens to be very much representative of many other atheists I know personally. By attacking atheists out of such gross ignorance Mr Lebedoff, you directly insult a great many good people like my mother, and you ought to be ashamed of yourself for committing such a disgracefully immoral act.

For instance:

If a man wants to make a women his b****, so be it? So what if you don’t like it, what if I do?

If I want to do something, and my conscience is cool with it, then I can do it. If it’s feed a homeless person, so be it. If it’s kill my neighbor, so be it. I am not bound to any morals.

The preceding comment is so transparently written by someone trying to make atheists look bad I actually laughed a little when I first read it. Pastor Fox only hurt his cause.  Contrary to his original purpose, he proved the point that the stereotypical claims anti-atheist bigots make about the general character of atheists is a lie perpetuated only by the religious that see us as a threat.  If we really thought this way he wouldn’t have to lie and post such comments, would he?  He could just point to one of us.  He couldn’t, because he presumably knows that the truth is that we are no less moral than anyone else, religious or not.

Pastor Fox seems to have forgotten the ninth commandment,  “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” (Exodus 20.13)¹?  He also has certainly not read Proverbs recently:

Six things the lord hates;
Seven are an abomination to Him:
A haughty bearing,
A lying tongue
Hands that shed innocent blood,
A mind that hatches evil plots,
Feet quick to run to evil,
A false witness testifying lies,
And one who incites brother to quarrel. (6.16-20)

I think claiming to be someone you’re not certainly falls into the category of hatching evil plots.  This is one of those times it certainly helps me as an activist for atheist rights to be a scholar of religion.  What is better when attacked by religious bigots than to throw their own scripture in their faces after they are exposed as the hypocrites they are.  And people questioned the usefulness of my degree!

Feel free to read it if you’re a masochist, but it’s just the standard tripe: atheists are “smug fuck[s],” “childish,” and he even threw in a claim that we “casually drop [our] beliefs in the middle of a conversation to look cool.”  That’s a new one; I wasn’t aware being atheist was cool now.  All the apparent bigotry against us sure fooled me!  I guess we should just shut up like good little heathens.  Only the religious have the right to have opinions.

My Response

I figure the comment I left him would be useful here.  It covers many important points as to atheists demanding our place is the marketplace of ideas, and tears down his dubious “scientific” (and I use that term loosely) logic.  But more to the point of this blog, as he unsuccessful tries to claim atheists are intolerant, it points out his own bigotry.  I show that he, while criticizing atheists, is the one using ad hominem attacks – attacking the people instead of the ideas.  It’s not surprising though, when he has nothing of substance to say.

I don’t expect my comment to have any effect, he’ll just ignore it as bigots do no matter how valid the points made are, or he’ll use it as an excuse to bash me, a “smug fuck” atheist.  It was just somewhere to write it before I brought it here, and sort of a – since he likes profanity – fuck you, being an atheist expressing my views which he despises oh so much.  My comment from his blog follows (edited a bit for SDR):

It takes quite a twisted version of logic to see the universe having been created as “obvious.” Either that or it takes a complete lack of understanding of how evidence works. Nothing is obvious; the burden of proof is on the one making the claim. You made a claim, that there is a creator, therefore if you expect others to accept it you must back it up with evidence. As it is a scientific claim, you have the obligation to present this great new evidence you have that the entire scientific community, including religious scientists, have missed! You don’t. Since you have no evidentiary or even plausible mechanistic possibility to back it up, you default to “it’s obvious.” That’s simply not evidence. It’s as meaningless as saying something is “common sense.”

And your claim that atheists (that’s lowercase because it’s not a proper noun, it’s a state of being, by etymology “without religion/god belief”) “casually drop their beliefs in the middle of a conversation to look cool” is a red herring at best, and at worst says a lot about your bias. I suggest that I am around a lot more atheists on a regular basis than most people, and I can’t say I often hear atheists randomly bringing up the fact that there is no god in the middle of unrelated conversations. If the conversation is relating to religion or a god, why is an atheist not allowed to express his view? I doubt you would say a Christian talking about his/her religion would be doing it to “sound cool.”

Religious people discussing their views are fine, but an atheist should just keep quiet, I guess. The religious are allowed to discuss religion and it’s normal, but when an atheist does it he’s just trying to sound cool, as if atheism is really accepted in America and it makes us “cool.” Your attempt to dismiss the atheist voice is transparent. My degree and research is in the field of religious studies, and I’m an atheist. With all my training I guess I have nothing to say. I’m just trying to sound cool.

You clearly show that you are not anti-atheism, which would be fine. There is nothing wrong with having opinions counter to those of atheists, just as there is nothing wrong with being anti-religion, having opinions that disavow religion. That isn’t bigotry, both are valid views. Your writing suggests, though, that it is not atheism that bothers you so much, but the fact that atheists exist and dare to express their views. How dare we! You are not anti-atheism, you are anti-atheist, and that is bigotry.

I suspect that you would surely be one of those who claim that “atheists are intolerant and bigoted against the religious.” I can say, as both a measure of an expert in religion and an atheist myself, that you would be wrong. The majority of outspoken atheists are anti-religion, not anti-religious people. We, as a group, as victims of bigotry tend not to lean toward being bigots. An atheist couldn’t make it very far being anti-theist, considering most of the world is religious. If we hate religious people so much how would we be able to live in America?

You, like, many religious bigots seem not to make the distinction when it comes to atheists. We criticize religious bigots, not all religious. You criticize all atheists. And how easy it is, isn’t it, to express your prejudice in this country. I wonder if you would have such gravitas to express your beliefs in a country so repressive to people who share them if the circumstances were reversed, and we were the majority.

I ask you, would these sorts of statements, lies, and mean-spirited generalizations be acceptable if they were levied against any religious or minority group other than atheists? Of course not. Yet we, who lack belief in a supernatural deity, are protected by our very first constitutional amendment, just as the religious are. Where is the outrage by those of all faiths and philosophical viewpoints?

I feel the need to say one more important thing before I show some recent examples.  I am bringing this to light simply because everyone should know what kind of bigotry is pervasive in culture, specifically American.  Despite the disgust I feel towards these statements, everyone has the right to freedom of speech and should be able to say whatever they want without censorship.  This doesn’t mean, though, that our culture as a whole should tolerate it, but that we should speak up against these people and fight for our place in the marketplace of ideas.

[My comments are bracketed, in italics, and colored red, like so.]

From an email to biologist P.Z. Myers from creationist Debra Rufini, posted on his science blog “Pharyngula:”

I do find it interesting that almost all athiests tend to have this angry & patronising streak in them. If only you would find the love of Christ, and it would all be gone. [Here we have a generalized bashing of atheists in a discussion on a subject that is scientific, evolution - a subject of which the vast majority of scientists who are theists like Ms. Rufini agree is a fact.  She seems to miss that.  The bigot still can't help but use it as an excuse to get in a dig.  Then a claim that mean-spiritedness would disappear if we "find the love of Christ," a claim her own bigotry doesn't support. To quote Professor Myers: "I am not surprised that atheists in the vicinity of Debra Rufini seem angry and patronizing. They're probably also annoyed and exasperated."]

[...]

Jesus called us to love those who persecute us, so that’s exactly what [... (continuing in another email)] I was just saying that as Jesus taught us to love those who persecute us, I shall do the same. I pray for you, just as he did for those who crucified him. [Now we see a new common issue that Christian atheophobes (for lack of a better term) consistently use: although atheists are in the minority, we somehow are persecuting Christians.  It appears that to Ms. Rufini persecution is simply having beliefs or ideas different from hers.  She doesn't have anything of substance to use to criticize atheists, so she must resort to lying. I know many Christians who wouldn't find that very Christian of her.] Kind regards, Debra. [Where is this supposed kindness?]

[I also must point out that Professor Myers doesn't criticize Ms. Rufini for her religion per se, but for her willful ignorance of the scientific issues that she attempts to argue.  If this ignorance is due to her religious beliefs, which they clearly are, then those beliefs become fair game.  That's her problem, not Professor Myer's.]

I was going to include more examples of bigotry from around the web, but I have already written more than I expected to on these short passages from that letter.  Never fear, I will be back soon with more examples.  Until then, keep up the good fight.  Never give up.  Don’t allow the bigotry that is already so pervasive to infect more minds, especially those of the young and impressionable.