Atheist Revolution: Time For Some Atheist Pride

Friday, May 01, 2009

Time For Some Atheist Pride

Black Sun Journal has a great post integrating some of the recent high profile reporting on the atheist movement. His conclusion is that the very same tactics for which atheists are frequently criticized appear to be working. One of the lessons I take from this post is that it is important for us to pause periodically and take stock of what we have been able to accomplish so far. In addition to realizing how far we still have to go on the road to atheist equality, it is important for us to take some pride in the progress we have made.

BlackSun uses recent coverage of the atheist movement from the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and other sources to demonstrate that the commonly heard criticism about in-your-face tactics is misplaced.

These are objections the entire movement has been dealing with ad nauseam. And they’re clearly bunk. This bellyaching has always demonstrated to me more than anything else where a person’s true sympathies lie–with the believers. It’s also self-refuting.

The critics who claim that we are too harsh, need to be nicer, would "catch more flies with honey," and the like are missing the signs of progress. Of course, this is by no means a call for complacency. We acknowledge that our work is far from finished. Rather, it is a reminder to give credit where credit is due.

Fund raising for secular political action is entering the same orders of magnitude as the top religious lobbying groups. The scare tactics and attempts at intimidation by accommodationists have not only failed, but failed spectacularly.

To all who have been working tirelessly to promote atheism and call out bigotry, keep doing what you are doing. It is working, and we are all in your debt. And a big thanks to BlackSun for reminding us to take pride in our accomplishments.