Watch Out for those Terrible Atheists

[webmdave]

by Lee Salisbury

 

A recent study conducted by the University of Minnesota shows that atheists are more distrusted and despised than any other minority and that an atheist is the last person for whom Americans would vote in a presidential election. “Muslims, recent immigrants, gays and lesbians” all ranked higher than atheists in public acceptability. Furthermore, Americans are “least willing to allow their children to marry” atheists.

 

State laws instill and perpetuate this attitude. Article IX, Sec. 2, of the Tennessee constitution states: “No person who denies the being of God, or a future state of rewards and punishments shall hold any office in the civil department of this state.” Arkansas, Maryland, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Texas have similar laws.

 

George H. W. Bush while campaigning for President in 1987 exhibited this same attitude, “I don’t know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God.”

 

Apparently all theists good and all atheists bad. If this is the case, atheist and agnostic businesspersons like Microsoft’s Bill Gates, investment guru Warren Buffet, Apple’s Steve Jobs and CNN founder Ted Turner should all be exiled for their unbelief. Don’t forget to include the 93% of National Academy of Science members who lack belief in a personal deity. What about atheist Pat Tillman, Arizona Cardinal football star, who left a $3,600,000 salary to enlist in the U.S. Army and subsequently got killed in Afghanistan? The oft-repeated theist claim, “there are no atheists in foxholes” insults a true American hero.

 

Is there a rationale for this prejudice against atheists or is this just plain theist bigotry? Why are atheists more “despised and distrusted” than any other minority? Why do theists promote this malicious slander? Has it ever occurred to theists to judge themselves by the same standards they judge others? Didn’t Jesus say something about taking the log out of your own eye before you take the splinter out of another’s eye?

 

How about the theist record? Theist Roman emperor Constantine had 3,000 Christians plus a wife and son murdered. Roman Catholic theists instigated the murderous Crusades and the Inquisitions. Theist Charlemagne had 4,500 Saxons beheaded all in one morning. Protestant theists arbitrarily tortured and burned at the stake tens of thousands of women because of the Bible’s admonition against witches. Luther, Calvin and Zwingli advocated death for heretics. Christian theists have persecuted Jews for the past eighteen centuries–most notably by the Roman Catholic theist Adolph Hitler who murdered 6,000,000 Jews.

 

Naively, many Americans assume theists never act immorally nor lie for fear of their God’s anger. Yet a recent study by The Center for Public Integrity finds that President George Bush and his top administration officials (all theists) issued 935 false statements about the national security threat from Iraq in the two years following the 2001 terrorist attack. The study concludes these false statements “were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses.” That’s 935 good reasons to question god-fearing theist morality.

 

The January/February 2008 Psychology Today magazine contains an article, “An Atheist in the Pulpit, what happens when religious leaders lose their faith.” The author interviewed Lutheran, Pentecostal, Catholic and Episcopalian clergymen and recorded theism’s cognitive dissonance in their own words. “We tend to ignore how much cognitive effort is required to maintain extreme religious beliefs, which have no supporting evidence whatsoever.” “The disjunction between what clergymen say publicly and what they believe privately is so common that serious cognitive dissonance comes with the territory.” “We spend our lives impersonating who we think others want us to be and end up living as impostors. So when someone comes to me and tells me they are losing their faith, I congratulate them. You’re starting to embrace your own thinking self – the essential, immutable, immortal self – as opposed to the accidental criminal you have been made to think you are.” Integrity and cognitive health are theism’s real sacrifice.

 

So why this centuries-old acrimony against atheists? Granted some atheists have committed atrocities too. Communists Joseph Stalin and Mao Tse-tung are two heinous examples. Does such justify the entirely one-sided bigotry and prejudice commonly accepted among Americans? America, the land of intellectual freedom, has granted hard-core theists free reign to preach their bigotry against Jews, Blacks, women and homosexuals. However, the deep-seated prejudice against atheists merits special attention because atheism challenges theism’s very existence.

 

A question seldom asked is what does the prejudice against atheists tell us about those who hold that prejudice? Are theists fearful that their god may not really be omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent? Does the cognitive dissonance experienced when trying to explain their god’s indifference to events like 9/11, Katrina, and the 2004 Christmas Tsunami trouble their psyche? Maybe their religious fire insurance has been shaken. When theists must struggle with the ineptitude of their god, who better to lash out at than atheists?

 

Has religious tolerance for prejudice and bigotry toward atheists so intimidated Americans that they do not even recognize it? Evidently yes, especially when one might be branded one of those terrible atheists. Nevertheless, an intellectually free America, as intended by our founders, remerges as more and more atheist/agnostic freethinkers come out of the closet and stand against theism’s last bigoted prejudicial stronghold of intolerance. As one astute college student said to me, “a man without religion is like a fish without a bicycle”— who needs it?

 

 

Lee Salisbury is a former evangelical preacher, founder of the Critical Thinking Club of Minnesota, and writes for Axis of Logic and Dissident Voice. Read other articles by Lee.

 

http://exchristian.net/exchristian/2008/02...e-atheists.html

[R. S. Martin]

by Lee Salisbury

 

A recent study conducted by the University of Minnesota shows that atheists are more distrusted and despised

 

<snip>

 

Apparently all theists good and all atheists bad.

 

Given the biblical bias against atheists this is not surprising. I looked up a few of the more blatant references from KJV for another forum and will post them here; I put their implications in parentheses:

The fool hath said in his heart there is no God. (Atheist is stupid.)

 

 

Rom. 1:28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their

knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things

which are not convenient. (Because they don't want to think about God,

God messes with their minds and makes them stupid so they don't know

right from wrong anymore.)

 

 

1 Cor. 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the

Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know

them, because they are spiritually discerned. (Because the atheist

does not accept the things of God, the atheist cannot know the most

important stuff to be known and is therefore stupid.)

 

Note how in each of these verses the biblical authors put words/thoughts in the atheist's mouth? This is mind-reading big time! No human can know what I "say in my heart," or what I "like to retain in knowledge" or whether I "receive/accept" this or that.

 

Since the believe that God wrote the Bible and that God knows everything, obviously all they have to do to also know everything about us is read what God tells them about us in the Bible. Understandably, it's not very complimentary. What guy running for office of god would be complimentary of people dismissing his very existence?

 

Those verses are but the tip of the iceberg.

[Grandpa Harley]

Isint it true that Atheists bring down property values, block sewers, litter the streets, and steal children?

[hereticzero]

Isint it true that Atheists bring down property values, block sewers, litter the streets, and steal children?

Yes, and curdle fresh milk too. That is why Pennsylvania Dutch have hex symbols on their barns.

[R. S. Martin]

Yes, and curdle fresh milk too. That is why Pennsylvania Dutch have hex symbols on their barns.

 

But when the Pennsylvania Dutch turn atheist the hex signs come down and the milk stays fresh forever.

 

OOPS! Did I say that? Well, I am Pennsylvania Dutch and I don't think God exists (which would make me some kind of atheist) and I have no hex signs and my milk never curdles (I drink it up too fast I guess).

 

I don't have a barn either. Not anymore. But I used to have one when I was a Christian. It had no hex sign on it.

 

In fact, I've seen hundreds and hundreds of Pennsylvania Dutch barns not a single one of which had hex signs on it. The owners of those barns were Christians.

 

I'm not sure where those crazy ideas about hex signs and PA Dutch folk come from. Maybe the Mennonites in Ontario are more advanced than the PA Dutch folk in some other parts of the continent.

 

Or maybe it's just rumors outsiders like to talk about. Kinda like the rumors about atheists eating babies and crucifying cats.

[hereticzero]

When I lived in the Pottstown, PA, years ago in the Schulykill River area, there were many old barns the folks had painted with hex signs of one type or another.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hex_sign

 

We're talking children of the corn ... or sleepy hallow

[Ouroboros]

Isint it true that Atheists bring down property values, block sewers, litter the streets, and steal children?

Very true. The also cause blindness and people start marrying dogs and donkeys. And of course they also cause hurricanes and tsunamis.

[zefferus]

Isint it true that Atheists bring down property values, block sewers, litter the streets, and steal children?

Very true. The also cause blindness and people start marrying dogs and donkeys. And of course they also cause hurricanes and tsunamis.

 

But if the donkey was a christian would he say his brayers?

[Grandpa Harley]

And of course they also cause hurricanes and tsunamis.

 

I thought that was just Ellen DeGeneres...

[SWIM]

“there are no atheists in foxholes”

 

This is one of my pet peeves sayings. I actually think the REVERSE is more accurate. You don't see xtians running across the battlefield, arms flailing around, all grinning, shouting "My faith is my shield!". No, they are just as, if not more frightened. Hey you, trembling in the foxhole, where's your "faith" now?

[hereticzero]

Isint it true that Atheists bring down property values, block sewers, litter the streets, and steal children?

Very true. The also cause blindness and people start marrying dogs and donkeys. And of course they also cause hurricanes and tsunamis.

 

But if the donkey was a christian would he say his brayers?

[Knitterman]

Note how in each of these verses the biblical authors put words/thoughts in the atheist's mouth? This is mind-reading big time! No human can know what I "say in my heart," or what I "like to retain in knowledge" or whether I "receive/accept" this or that.

 

This continues to be common practice among funda-gelicals. "You must be angry at God or you wouldn't deny him." "Atheists reject god because they want to live in sin." and all sorts of similar projections.

[R. S. Martin]

When I lived in the Pottstown, PA, years ago in the Schulykill River area, there were many old barns the folks had painted with hex signs of one type or another.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hex_sign

 

We're talking children of the corn ... or sleepy hallow

 

So that's a hex sign? I see a quilt pattern when I look at that picture. I've pieced quilts with patterns similar to that picture--my brain automatically went into quilt-pattern designing mode when I saw the pic. Never knew I was making hex signs.

 

The word "hex" is part of our language as in "What 'va-hexed' you?" I think the English equivilent would be "What got into you?" Both cases refer to a "demon" getting into a person, though nobody these days actually believes in demons getting into people. At least, I never got the sense that anybody I encounted in my life, whether PA German speaking or English speaking, believes in demons getting into a person and directly speaking and acting through them.

 

I always get the impression that the individual is believed to have a will capable of choosing whether or not to allow either God or Satan to use them. That changes the status of the individual from puppet to person with free will responsible for own actions.

 

Now if a preacher brings a message the people don't like to hear, he is liable to take refuge behind the "skirts of god," so to speak and claim that, "It's not me speaking. When the Spirit is on me like that I can't help what I say. I have to speak until I get release. That's just the way it is."

 

I think it is important to note that Old Order Mennonite preachers do not have a choice as to whether or not they are ordained. They are ordained from the laity by nomination and lot. The only "choice" a person has is when going through the baptism process as a young adult in his late teens. There is an Article of Faith that lays out the church's beliefs on this and asks if, when called, people are willing to accept the call to the ministry. The chance of the call to the ministry goes along with church membership.

 

Not accepting church membership is sure to alienate your family and friends. The chances of being called to the ministry are about one percent. You've been taught since infancy that God provides what is needed to those who trust him. You're going to take that risk even if you're introverted and shy and unable to speak in public.

 

That being the case, I think there can be a lot of complicated psychological processes going on in a man's mind when he is "siezed by the Spirit" in his sermon. If he is by nature a consciention, but shy person incapable of speaking publicly, yet has been forced into the position by the religion, he may be literally helpless in what he says in the early part of his career.

 

I think such a person may be liable to turn into an abusive person as he gets used to the extreme discomfort of his position. That's just a guess on my part but they say most abusers have first been abused. And a system that abuses a person like that probably makes abusers.

[R. S. Martin]

Note how in each of these verses the biblical authors put words/thoughts in the atheist's mouth? This is mind-reading big time! No human can know what I "say in my heart," or what I "like to retain in knowledge" or whether I "receive/accept" this or that.

 

This continues to be common practice among funda-gelicals. "You must be angry at God or you wouldn't deny him." "Atheists reject god because they want to live in sin." and all sorts of similar projections.

 

That's what I say further down in the post.

[R. S. Martin]

Even though Christians bitch and moan that other religions are worshipping fake gods, meaning nothing, in their minds. They would rather people have a god delusion so they can convince them to their god delusion and argue about which god delusion is correct. Same with other religions. As long as everyone has some kind delusion then they can all continue to pat themselves on the back that there really is a god because xx% of the population believes in the supernatural. If say, christians believe that only their interpretation of god is correct, then what difference does it make if someone is of a different religion or no religion? But they will quicker side with someone they believe is in a false religion worshipping nothing than they will a level headed and intelligent atheist. It's just Santa for adults, and you know how pissed off people get if you tell their children there is no santa.

 

You've got a point! Thanks, Madame. I never thought of it that way but it sure makes sense as to why the first question as "I used to be christian," is "Do you have another religion now?" At least that way I would acknowledge some supernatural power. That would allow for their god to be the REAL god. But if I dare be confident and happy with NO BELIEF in a supernatural whatsoever--why that puts the whole god-belief thing into question.

 

I think that should be perfectly fine. They always brag about how solidly truth can stand on its own. Where is their faith when they really need it???

[MathGeek]

by Lee Salisbury

 

*snip*

 

So why this centuries-old acrimony against atheists? Granted some atheists have committed atrocities too. Communists Joseph Stalin and Mao Tse-tung are two heinous examples. Does such justify the entirely one-sided bigotry and prejudice commonly accepted among Americans? America, the land of intellectual freedom, has granted hard-core theists free reign to preach their bigotry against Jews, Blacks, women and homosexuals. However, the deep-seated prejudice against atheists merits special attention because atheism challenges theism’s very existence.

 

*snip*

 

A couple of points to attach to the bolded statement...

 

Those atrocities happened overseas in countries that were in deep, purging flux faraway from American soil. Those countries were communist in their government despite the evidence that the Young Communists pushed atheism as the preferred belief system for their members. The only way a country like the USA could accept a leader that purports any sort of sadistic, fascistic ideology is if this country winds up with a total breakdown in government and service infrastructure. There is more justifiable fear for having a Muslim in office currently instead of an atheist. As for the communist bloc, only one nation ever came out as atheist, which was Albania back until 1985 and then religion was reinstituted by the state back in the late 1990's. The problem with this argument overall is that it is a throwback to the 1980's anti-communism with the slogans like "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down that wall!" Atheism is still a stigmatized system of belief, but not as much as it used to be.

[Amethyst]

I remember seeing this in the paper a while back. I was not very surprised. People will often hide prejudices for ethnic background, gender, homosexuality, and religious beliefs due to the required political correctness of the workplace, but they will be openly prejudiced against those who are not religious because it is one of the last few acceptable societal prejudices remaining. We need to work as a society to make prejudice unacceptable behavior.