Atheists come out!
Atheists have been oppressed for century’s, even the US has and had anti-athist laws and even to this day we are attacked and demonized. 53% of Americans say they would not vote for an atheist for public office.
What cane we do about this? Come out! Many atheists live in the closet out of fear of being ostracized. But we will never be excepted as long as so many atheists are in hiding. people must see us, see that we are normal, good and moral people.
Come out, reach out, speak out, keep out stand out
Hi, I’m DoubtingThomas and I’m an Atheist.
Ok, first, Lone Wolf I must apologize. I’ve been neglectful in not visiting and commenting on your site, especially considering how you are a regular, and much appreciated, commentator on mine. My only excuse is that I’ve been a bit overwhelmed by all the comments on my site and didn’t expect to be compelled to respond to so many. But I’m here now and I’m ready to put my two cents in.
For some reason Christians seem to view Atheists as if we were aliens from planet Klaxtor 7. But the truth is we aren’t all that dissimilar. If you ignore our different opinions on religion and god I would wager there are a hundred ways we are similar. I may be an Atheist but that single label certainly doesn’t define me. I am also am a man like any other; I have a job, a home, friends, family, like some TV shows, hate others, LOVED Juno, hated Cloverfield, drink Pepsi not Coke, Rock not Country, PC not Mac, anti-abortion but Pro-Choice, and on and on. We all have more similarities than differences. A Christian and an Atheist are just as likely to be compatible as friends as two Atheists would be. In fact, our opinion on gods and religions are, in reality, almost EXACTLY the same. Christians think all the many thousands of gods and religions mankind has invented and worshiped over countless generations are absolute bunk just like we Atheists do. Christians simply ignore ONE of those thousands of gods while we include that god as well.
Bill Gates, Penn Jillette, Sam Harris, Salman Rushdie, Diane Keaton, Warren Buffett, and Gore Vidal are all self described Atheists. However, none of them have the exact same beliefs about religion, the bible, evolution or the origin of life. Just as an Evangelical Christian, a Jehovah’s Witness, a Mormon, a Presbyterian and the Amish don’t have the exact same belief about Christianity, the bible and the origin of life. All of us are far more complex than any label or combination of labels could ever hope to encapsulate.
When something occupies a neat little category, we are comforted, believing that everything that resides in that category can be defined by it. This is rarely, if ever, the case. We must never forget this. If someone identifies themselves as an Atheist, it may mean that you can rightfully assume that they don’t believe in a god, but it doesn’t mean that you should assume you now know their feelings on religion, yours or anybody else’s. Nor can one assume they know who a person is simply because they call themselves a Christian. If history has taught us anything, it’s that many of those who have referred to themselves as Christians, if judged on actions alone, would not have been labeled as such by anyone else. No single label or collection of labels will ever be able to completely define any one of us. Our complexities are what individualize us. Even two of the most pro-life, vegan, P.E.T.A. supporting, Feminist, Texas native, Republican, Born Again Christians are going to find themselves on opposite sides of an issue at some point. If you were to dismiss someone, or even to accept someone, simply because they share the same label as you, inevitably you would find yourself with a disastrous mismatch.
Someone who seeks answers for the unknown, someone who questions that which cannot be proven, someone who views everything with scrutiny and a skeptical eye, someone who refuses to allow others to shape their opinions for them, someone who demands evidence before believing in a thing, someone who refuses to base their every life decision on the HOPE that a particular concept is true, someone who fights their way through the cloud of childhood religious indoctrination, someone who may be called or call themselves an Atheist, this is not a person who should hang their head and hide in the shadows. We should be proud of our stubborn refusal to blindly follow the herd. We should be proud that when we read a fairy tale we are able to recognize it as such. We should be proud that our moral compass is not effected by an expectation of a special reward in the afterlife but by our simple, natural, instinctive desire to do good. We should be proud. Period.
I am an Atheist. I see no evidence as to the existence of a god nor the need for one to exist. This opinion should not cause one to feel shame or embarrassment. And there is no need to apologize.
Keep up the good work, Lone Wolf!
DoubtingThomas
http://doubtingthomas426.wordpress.com/
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Thanks for your response.
I understand why you haven’t been replying. Life likes to get in the way of things.
Life, can’t live with but can’t live with out it.
The first part of your third paragraph bring up a good point (though not the point of the paragraph), many who go to see a Penn and Teller show do not know that Penn and Teller are atheists, many big Windows fans don’t know bill gate is an atheist. There are many famous people out there that are atheists and most people are not aware that they are atheists.
Arthur C. Clarke, Adam Carolla, Lance Armstrong, Isaac Asimov, David Cross, Kathy Griffin, Julia Sweeney, Derren Brown, Paul Giamatti, Sir Ian McKellen, Ricky Gervais are all atheists. And there are many people who may watch or read something made and like it and not know that he/she was/is an atheist.
I used to be an Athiest but the holidays sucked
I’m an atheist. I’m out. I agree with you 100%!!
Just to play devils advocate though, if it’s OK for an atheist to do so, no one group can claim all of its members are normal, good, and moral. Atheists, as indicated by things like lower violent crime rates in countries with higher percentages of atheists or nontheists, may on average have higher morals. Certainly we do not have any gods telling us to fly planes into buildings, bomb clinics, blow ourselves up, or shoot doctors. But, no group is 100% good. And atheists are no exception.
Of course not every one atheist or not will be moral. There are always bad people out there.
I don’t thank that atheists are more morel than theists I think it has more to do with poverty. Places with grater rates of poverty usually have higher crime and drug use, pore people are more likely to be religious as well as more likely to less educated and the less educated are more likely to be religious.
A pooe person in a pooe area is more likely to get into crime or drugs, more likely to be less educated ans will have more problems (which religious leaders take advantage of to keep people religious and not questioning religion). The key factors here are poverty and a lack of a good education.
Lone Wolf,
Certainly poverty is a stronger correlating factor than religiosity in violent crime. However, if you look at the nations covered in the report in my link, you’ll find that they are the democratic developed nations of the world. All have at least reasonably high standards of living. And, the U.S. may have the highest per capita wealth of the bunch and comes out by far as the nation with both the highest religiosity and the highest violent crime among that subset of nations.
Good point.
Beyond religious violence and bigotry and the idea of people being “forgiven” for there “sins” by simply asking God for forgiveness I don’t see how being religious could make people more likely to be violent but that may just be cause my lack of knowledge.
Lone Wolf,
Actually, the lack of knowledge on your part may just be a lack of knowledge about the crap that actually is in the bible. Even the new testament, which is more peaceful than the old, still has some rather disturbing bits in it. Not only does the fictional character Jesus actually reaffirm the old testament, he even makes some pretty violent comments on his own. The worst of the bunch is probably Luke 19:27:
That’s a
jihadcrusade waiting to happen.If you’re curious enough, which I’m embarrassed to admit I am, to actually read some of the crap in the bible, as well as my opinion of it, check out my old post:
Thou Shalt Kill
My post is full of quotes to actual sections of the bible on religious sites to avoid seeming biased, but then also gives some references to alternate sites like the Skeptics Annotated Bible, Evil Bible, and Bible Atrocities.
Google can make anyone a bible scholar these days, even an antitheist like me.
I am well versed on the violence, insanity and stupidity of the bible which has lead to a grate deal of religious violence.
Oh. You’re right. Many apologies. I must’ve misunderstood your comment about a lack of knowledge.
I’ll be back when looking for more debate fodder from the bible. I may be in need of it right now as a religious fanatic has been posting rather voluminously on my blog of late.
I’m not going to read all of those right now, but probably will get to them over time.
What I meant by “lack of knowledge” is how (not counting religion based violence) being religious would increase the probability of a person being more violent. How could being more religious increase the likely hood of some one killing some one (for non religious reasons), raping, stealing and so on.
Of course religion causes violence, the whole idea that morality comes from God causes violence, it gives people justification for violence and then of course theres holy books.
My name is Chris, and I’m an atheist. I’ve been free of religion for 4498 days (aprox). I run a little blog on the subject, which just recently had its 10,000th hit! Yay!