Atheists And Anger

[Brother Jeff]

<h3 class="entry-header">Atheists and Anger</h3> I want to talk about atheists and anger.

 

This has been a hard piece to write, and it may be a hard one to read. I'm not going to be as polite and good-tempered as I usually am in this blog; this piece is about anger, and for once I'm going to fucking well let myself be angry.

 

But I think it's important. One of the most common criticisms lobbed at the newly-vocal atheist community is, "Why do you have to be so angry?" So I want to talk about:

 

1. Why atheists are angry;

 

2. Why our anger is valid, valuable, and necessary;

 

And 3. Why it's completely fucked-up to try to take our anger away from us.

 

So let's start with why we're angry. Or rather -- because this is my blog and I don't presume to speak for all atheists -- why I'm angry.

 

*****

 

 

I'm angry that according to a recent Gallup poll, only 45 percent of Americans would vote for an atheist for President.

 

I'm angry that atheist conventions have to have extra security, including hand-held metal detectors and bag searches, because of fatwas and death threats.

 

I'm angry that atheist soldiers -- in the U.S. armed forces -- have had prayer ceremonies pressured on them and atheist meetings broken up by Christian superior officers, in direct violation of the First Amendment. I'm angry that evangelical Christian groups are being given exclusive access to proselytize on military bases -- again in the U.S. armed forces, again in direct violation of the First Amendment. I'm angry that atheist soldiers who are complaining about this are being harassed and are even getting death threats from Christian soldiers and superior officers -- yet again, in the U.S. armed forces. And I'm angry that Christians still say smug, sanctimonious things like, "there are no atheists in foxholes." You know why you're not seeing atheists in foxholes? Because believers are threatening to shoot them if they come out.

 

I'm angry that the 41st President of the United States, George Herbert Walker Bush, said of atheists, in my lifetime, "No, I don't know that atheists should be regarded as citizens, nor should they be regarded as patriotic. This is one nation under God." My President. No, I didn't vote for him, but he was still my President, and he still said that my lack of religious belief meant that I shouldn't be regarded as a citizen.

 

I'm angry that it took until 1961 for atheists to be guaranteed the right to serve on juries, testify in court, or hold public office in every state in the country.

 

I'm angry that almost half of Americans believe in creationism. And not a broad, "God had a hand in evolution" creationism, but a strict, young-earth, "God created man pretty much in his present form at one time within the last 10,000 years" creationism.

 

And on that topic: I'm angry that school boards all across this country are still -- 82 years after the Scopes trial -- having to spend time and money and resources on the fight to have evolution taught in the schools. School boards are not exactly loaded with time and money and resources, and any of the time/ money/ resources that they're spending fighting this stupid fight is time/ money/ resources that they're not spending, you know, teaching.

 

I'm angry that women are dying of AIDS in Africa and South America because the Catholic Church has convinced them that using condoms makes baby Jesus cry.

 

I'm angry that women are having septic abortions -- or are being forced to have unwanted children who they resent and mistreat -- because religious organizations have gotten laws passed making abortion illegal or inaccessible.

 

I'm angry about what happened to Galileo. Still. And I'm angry that it took the Catholic Church until 1992 to apologize for it.

 

I get angry when advice columnists tell their troubled letter-writers to talk to their priest or minister or rabbi... when there is absolutely no legal requirement that a religious leader have any sort of training in counseling or therapy.

 

And I get angry when religious leaders offer counseling and advice to troubled people -- sex advice, relationship advice, advice on depression and stress, etc. -- not based on any evidence about what actually does and does not work in people's brains and lives, but on the basis of what their religious doctrine tells them God wants for us.

 

I'm angry at preachers who tell women in their flock to submit to their husbands because it's the will of God, even when their husbands are beating them within an inch of their lives.

 

I'm angry that so many believers treat prayer as a sort of cosmic shopping list for God. I'm angry that believers pray to win sporting events, poker hands, beauty pageants, and more. As if they were the center of the universe, as if God gives a shit about who wins the NCAA Final Four -- and as if the other teams/ players/ contestants weren't praying just as hard.

 

I'm especially angry that so many believers treat prayer as a cosmic shopping list when it comes to health and illness. I'm angry that this belief leads to the revolting conclusion that God deliberately makes people sick so they’ll pray to him to get better. And I'm angry that they foist this belief on sick and dying children -- in essence teaching them that, if they don't get better, it's their fault. That they didn't pray hard enough, or they didn't pray right, or God just doesn't love them enough.

 

And I get angry when other believers insist that the cosmic shopping list isn't what religion and prayer are really about; that their own sophisticated theology is the true understanding of God. I get angry when believers insist that the shopping list is a straw man, an outmoded form of religion and prayer that nobody takes seriously, and it's absurd for atheists to criticize it.

 

I get angry when believers use terrible, grief-soaked tragedies as either opportunities to toot their own horns and talk about how wonderful their God and their religion are... or as opportunities to attack and demonize atheists and secularism.

 

I'm angry at the Sunday school teacher who told comic artist Craig Thompson that he couldn't draw in heaven. And I'm angry that she said it with the complete conviction of authority... when in fact she had no basis whatsoever for that assertion. How the hell did she know what Heaven was like? How could she possibly know that you could sing in heaven but not draw? And why the hell would you say something that squelching and dismissive to a talented child?

 

I'm angry that Mother Teresa took her personal suffering and despair at her lost faith in God, and turned it into an obsession that led her to treat suffering as a beautiful gift from Christ to humanity, a beautiful offering from humanity to God, and a necessary part of spiritual salvation. And I'm angry that this obsession apparently led her to offer grotesquely inadequate medical care and pain relief at her hospitals and hospices, in essence taking her personal crisis of faith out on millions of desperately poor and helpless people.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The rest of this long but glorious article is available here:

 

 

http://gretachristina.typepad.com/greta_ch...ts-and-an.html#

[SWIM]

Great post!

 

Well done!

 

Should be a *must* read for all the xtians on this board.

[Everglaze]

The great quality of the post is no surprise coming from Brother...ahem, Kryasst the Lard!

 

I agree with all points.

[Kelli]

I'm angry that according to a recent Gallup poll, only 45 percent of Americans would vote for an atheist for President.

 

I'm angry that almost half of Americans believe in creationism. And not a broad, "God had a hand in evolution" creationism, but a strict, young-earth, "God created man pretty much in his present form at one time within the last 10,000 years" creationism.

 

I wholeheartedly agree with most of this post with the exception of the above two excerpts. So 45% of Americans wouldn't vote for an atheist... So what? 45% of Americans probably wouldn't cast their vote over a number of different issues. If they vote that way because of their belief, that's their right, just like it's your right not to vote for a fundy. To be angry about this is silly, IMO. Now if you said that there was a law passed that no atheist could hold public office, that's different.

 

Same thing for nearly half believing in creationism. Again, it's their right in this supposedly free country to believe what they will. Now, creationists trying to push teaching creation exclusively in public schools, I can understand being angry with that.

[Jun]

GLORY!

[Brother Jeff]

The great quality of the post is no surprise coming from Brother...ahem, Kryasst the Lard!

 

I agree with all points.

Thanks. It is a great post. Wish I could take credit for it, but someone named Greta Christina actually wrote it. Here's the link to her blog:

 

http://gretachristina.typepad.com/greta_christinas_weblog/

 

I guess I should have made it clearer that I was posting someone else's work.

 

I bless the Flat Earth Me in the Name of the Sky Me! Glory!

[RedPillAddict]

Beautiful.

[R. S. Martin]

The great quality of the post is no surprise coming from Brother...ahem, Kryasst the Lard!

 

I agree with all points.

Thanks. It is a great post. Wish I could take credit for it, but someone named Greta Christina actually wrote it. Here's the link to her blog:

 

http://gretachristina.typepad.com/greta_christinas_weblog/

 

I guess I should have made it clearer that I was posting someone else's work.

 

I bless the Flat Earth Me in the Name of the Sky Me! Glory!

 

I'm happy to see the Lard's honest, to say the least. I was asking myself, "Now does this sound at all like Kryasst the Lard's or Brother Jeff's writing?" It just didn't.

[chaddjohnson]

Link to a discussion on the Military forums here.

 

From the forum:

 

The free exercise of religion must include the free exercise of no religion as well, or the first amendment has no meaning.

Freedom of Religion, not freedom from it.

 

That pisses me off to absolutely no end. So I according to that guy, I am legally not allowed to *not* practice a religion, ergo I *must* practice one? Hell no; I don't think so.

 

The incident occurred at Camp Speicher in Iraq, and happened after the Spec was asked to find another table from his buddies when he declined to fold his hands and bow his head during Thanksgiving dinner.

 

They had zero right to make him leave the table. I'm sure he would have just sat there quietly and respectfully had they have let him (at least I would have). The #1 thing that makes me angry is people playing political games to force *their* beliefs on others. This is totally *not* right.

 

I don't know whether he left the table or not, but I am willing to bet that had he done so in order to make a point, he would not have won in court.

[Dave]

Nice post. Now.... how do we channel that anger into something positive?

[RedPillAddict]

Nice post. Now.... how do we channel that anger into something positive?

 

I was wondering the same thing. This blog can give just about any Atheist the drive needed to start standing up for our rights.

[Grandpa Harley]

From bitter personal experience, using anger for a protracted time with kill you... or at least burn you badly...

 

I was just reminiscing to mCat and Poetic Licence of the results of my running on anger.

 

In the place I was getting treated, my high spot was warm cherry scones made as 'occupational therapy' by some of the girls from self mutilation...

 

When that is as good as your week gets, I think one has hit the Long Dark Night of the Soul in most people's definitions...

[sojourner]

This thread was kind of shocking to me. Until recently Ive not known any athiests personally and I know this will sound selfish but Id never thought of things like this nor was I aware of them.

 

Now that I know you all and have grown to understand you some, I will notice these things much more and pay much closer attention.

 

 

 

sojourner

[Jun]

I do not feel anger nor hatred, but when I see the cultural destruction that has occured in other lands by Christians and their self-righteous doctrine of hatred I wish there were some way to make them accountable for the damage they have caused in the name of their "God."

[Dave]

Nice post. Now.... how do we channel that anger into something positive?

 

I was wondering the same thing. This blog can give just about any Atheist the drive needed to start standing up for our rights.

 

Part of the problem is that we have to stand together. Atheists, and other non believers, just aren't joiners. The common cliche is that gettng Atheists together is like herding cats. We don't want to be herded.

 

We have to over come that.

[R. S. Martin]

Talk about cats. I grew up on the farm where there were a dozen or more barn cats. No need to "herd" them. All we had to do to get them to assemble in one spot at the same time was serve warm milk when milking the cows. They would hear us setting up for milking and they would assemble and start mewowing for their meal. When one of us got up from a cow with a bucket of milk they would crowd to the dish. No herding needed.

 

I think the same will work for atheists. Provide a purpose all of them feel needs doing and they will show up and arrange themselves to accomplish it.

 

Idealistic? Of course it is! We need an ideal.

[Dhampir]

I was actually thinking the exact same thing, Ruby.

[RedPillAddict]

So...why don't we be the ones to start something?

Seriously. I am willing to devote a great deal of time to this.

How do we start a 'movement'?

It may sound cheesy, but as they say, "it starts with one". We have a few more than one here to start something big.

I think it's time Atheists start standing up for their rights, not just opposing the ones pressed on them.

I also think it's time to start encouraging people to use common sense and reason, and to stop repeating history over and over again.

[Dhampir]

I think that active committees need to be set up to focus aggressively on individual causes, and not just atheist rights causes, but things that actively oppose the negative effects of religious influence.

[Grandpa Harley]

So...why don't we be the ones to start something?

Seriously. I am willing to devote a great deal of time to this.

How do we start a 'movement'?

It may sound cheesy, but as they say, "it starts with one". We have a few more than one here to start something big.

I think it's time Atheists start standing up for their rights, not just opposing the ones pressed on them.

I also think it's time to start encouraging people to use common sense and reason, and to stop repeating history over and over again.

 

Aunt Ruby has started something....

[RedPillAddict]

Aunt Ruby has started something....

 

What do you mean?

 

this?

I think the same will work for atheists. Provide a purpose all of them feel needs doing and they will show up and arrange themselves to accomplish it.

 

Idealistic? Of course it is! We need an ideal.

[Grandpa Harley]

The Link in her sig, dear heart... Ruby's brainchild...

[R. S. Martin]

Thanks Gramps. This way I didn't have to say it.

[R. S. Martin]

Here's where the discussion happened out of which it grew. There's quite a bit of history on that thread but I think it makes sense. I'm thinking it might help people here understand the vision.

[Grandpa Harley]

Thanks Gramps. This way I didn't have to say it.

 

Well, I am blowing my own small trumpet, since I have made a contribution to the reference section...