2.26.2010

Door-to-Door Christians

no soliciting signWhen a Christian shows up at your door, interrupting whatever you were doing to tell you about Jee-zuhs, how do you usually respond? I don't mean how you wish you could respond or what you'd say if you had ample time to think about it. How you actually do respond? Are you extra polite because you don't want to embody the mean atheist stereotype, or do you unload? Perhaps you fall somewhere in between.

Before I had a "no proselytizing" sign on display, my responses tended to be civil but firm and focused on ending the interaction as quickly as possible. I've always viewed proselytizing as an unwelcome invasion of my privacy. Unlike several of my readers who have commented on previous posts on this subject, I do not have any interest in interacting with the sort of Christians who do this a moment longer than necessary. The last thing I want to do is reward their intrusion.

2.23.2010

Imposing Religion on Children is Abusive

Denver Art Museum - Wheel: Overlays
Denver Art Museum - Wheel: Overlays (Photo credit: Brian Papantonio)

I love hearing from my readers, and I feel "blessed" to have the opportunity to correspond with some truly great people through this blog. Every now and then, I hear a tale of such pain and torment that it really affects me. In catching up with some recent email, I just found such a case. I'm keeping the details on this one vague on purpose because I do not yet have permission from the author to share this with you.

Here's the situation: we have a 17 year-old being forced to attend church and told that he belongs to a particular religion by his parents. He's wondering whether this is legal (I suspect that it is) and has raised questions about what any of us can do to prevent other children from having to endure similar experiences in the future.

2.16.2010

Atheists in Business: The Price of Prejudice

Business-center
Business-center (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I received a great question from a reader on the subject of atheists in business and the prejudice they often face. I used to discuss issues related to atheism in the workplace quite often, but it occurs to me that it has been a while since I posted on this important subject. I also imagine that this is something many of you have had more experience with and might like to chime in too.

I'd like to approach this subject from two directions, different but equally interesting. First, there is the scenario where we have a small atheist-owned business and must contend with the owner potentially losing customers when his or her atheism becomes known. And second, there is the case of an atheist being employed in a company where most of the prejudice encountered would be expected to come from co-workers and bosses. I've had more experience with the second situation, so I'll start there.

2.15.2010

Those Prayer Requests on Facebook

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If you are on Facebook, it is a virtual certainty that you have seen prayer requests from countless "friends." Someone is having surgery and they request prayers. Someone else is worried about their child and requests prayers. I never know what to say in those situations, and I'm not alone in this. In fact, Stardust Musings and Thoughts for the Freethinker wrote a great post on this subject.

I understand that faith is very important to many of my religious friends. As annoying as I might find their frequent blathering about prayer, it would not be appropriate to express this sentiment in the midst of their distress (assuming that they are distressed). But like Stardust says, I'm not always sure what to say instead.

2.14.2010

Fundamentalists vs. Liberal Christians

The Atheism Tapescover of the Atheism TapesWhile commenting on a recent post at Proud Atheists, I found myself again reflecting on how I have more respect for fundamentalist Christians than many of the so-called liberal Christians. Of course, I realize that "respect" isn't the best word here because little of what religious fundamentalists believe is worthy of respect. I recognize that the fundamentalist forms of any religion are far more dangerous than the liberal to moderate forms. Still, there is something a bit more admirable about someone who tells us what he or she believes and then acts in accordance with it versus someone who does not.

How can I possibly have more respect for the fundamentalist Christian than the liberal Christian, especially when my worldview is so much more similar to that of the liberal Christian? Like the liberal Christian, I reject a literal reading of Genesis in favor of evolution. Like the liberal Christian, I think that religion is most tolerable when it is directed toward helping others as opposed to converting, enslaving, or destroying them. Like the liberal Christian, I find some of the teachings attributed to Jesus to be morally acceptable and much of the Old Testament to be horrific in its immorality.

2.08.2010

Modeling as a Factor in Anti-Atheist Bigotry

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An atheist is simply someone who does not believe in gods. Why would it be necessary for religious believers to demonize such a person? What would possibly motivate some religious individuals to threaten, intimidate, or even assault someone simply because of his or her lack of religious beliefs? Every one of us comes across people with very different beliefs and values frequently without lashing out at them. What makes atheists so different?

2.05.2010

Are You an Angry Atheist?

anger-management.jpgI am an angry atheist. It makes me angry that millions of Christians despise me solely because I do not share their god belief. It makes me angry that believing something without evidence is considered stupid unless the something involves religion, at which point such belief magically becomes virtuous. Transparent hypocrisy of this sort irritates me.

Bigotry and hatred infuriate me, particularly when religious-motivated bigotry and hatred are routinely excused out of some misguided sense that religious belief must be respected. Beliefs that lead people to treat their neighbors poorly deserve little respect.

It makes me angry to see religious believers standing in the way of human progress by preventing stem cell research, depriving our children of sound science education, basic sex education, access to contraception, and and the like. Placing one's religious beliefs or institutions above basic human welfare enrages me.

It makes me angry to see Christians in the U.S. repeatedly demonize the secular principles on which our country was founded in service to their destructive worldview. This sort of willful distortion of reality makes my blood boil.

2.01.2010

Atheism as Religion

examining religious traditions
Atheism. Whatever the heck it is, I think we can probably agree that it is not a religion. It has no core dogma, no "sacred" texts, no leaders, no rituals, no supernatural entities, requires no faith of any sort, and so on. Quite simply, atheism is in no way a religion.

With that out of the way, it is important to acknowledge that some people would like to redefine atheism as a religion, transform it into something like a religion, or even call it a religion when it is obviously not. In this post, I'd like to address two efforts to redefine (or at least label) atheism as a religion. They come from very different sources, and they have very different motives. I do not agree with either of them, but I will acknowledge that one might at least deserve our attention.