Atheist Questions

no-god.jpg

I belong to a little atheist Meetup group, and we got an email from a lady in the South not long back, asking for … well, moral support, mostly. Most recently,  she asked us some philosophical questions related to our personal experience of atheism. Here are my answers.

Would you say that you were an ideal model for society? 

Atheism an ideal model for a society? Absolutely. With this one caveat: We have to tear morality and compassion out of the clutches of the godders, and come to recognize that these things are innate HUMAN attributes, so that everybody can feel good about being good, without feeling like they’re being devout. I haven’t said that very well, but I think the current mainstream belief that goodness is strictly a religious thing handicaps our entire society. For instance, school teachers stay away from instructing kids in a moral code because to do so would open them to charges of teaching religion in a public school. Every school lesson has to be morally neutral, and this is not always best, in my opinion. (And if I said this out in public, even fellow atheists would assume I’d “gone over” and was gettin’ all Jesus-y.)

But teaching people reason and science, wow, you can’t go wrong with that.

Me personally an ideal model for society? Hard to say. I don’t think I’d put myself up as a great role model, simply because I’m aware of all my flaws. On the other hand, if someone was looking for a role model, I’d much rather they find a nice intelligent atheist than someone like, oh, Pat Robertson. I have to say that as far as the number of people killed, wounded and homeless on my watch, I personally would compare very well against the current crop of Christians in the White House.

Do you feel comfortable being an Atheist (or Agnostic or Humanist) and having religion and religious people around you?

Comfortable with being an atheist: Oh, yeah. Becoming an atheist was the single most magnificent act of independence in my young life, and perfecting it over the years has been a wonderful ongoing journey of emancipation and understanding.

Comfortable having religious people around me? No, not really. I consider religion the greatest tragedy ever to befall humanity, and this planet, and it disturbs me that it still grips so many of my fellow humans. Talking to a religious person, I can actually SEE the places where their minds stop working, and it’s sad, scary, disheartening, and annoying.

I know most people can’t help it. But they’re still adults, most of them, and they vote, and speak in public, and serve as government advisers, and all manner of things that affect MY life, and the lives of countless other hapless victims, so there’s a limit to how broadminded I feel I can be. And the occasional human rat you meet (apologies to the noble tribe of rats) who uses religion to hurt or profit from people and KNOWS it, well, they’re just sheer scum.

I guess I mean the question in the sense of everybody doing their own thing without being hostile.

It’s a noble sentiment, but I’m not sure being quiet and mousy has ever really gotten freethought anywhere. I think this is the moment in history for atheism to be combative … but in a WISE way, a goal-directed way. To be diplomatic when necessary, but to not give an inch at any time on humanitarian principals and equal rights. To raise our voices when it’s warranted, and to keep on doing that until the Christian majority recognizes their own errors in dealing with us.

Is there anything you would change in your society in respect to being an Atheist/Agnostic/Humanist?

Boatloads. Almost all of it on their side. I want equal rights, equal representation in government and the media, and when the frequent idiot pops off with stupid statements that atheists are evil or indecent, I want there to be a howl of protest from all sides.

I want government money to stop being given to churches. I want churches to be both taxed and audited. I want televangelists to be subject to the same rules as non-profit organizations, and to be required to bare their finances.

Every time a panel of experts on ethics or morality gathers to offer advice to the public or some political organization, I want there to be at least one atheist on that panel. In fact, I want the people gathering that panel to think AUTOMATICALLY that an atheist will be a necessary part of it.

And every time a plane crashes or a building burns, and scores or hundreds of people die but one person is saved, the instant someone refers to the survivor with the phrase “It’s a miracle!” I want an actual government official to show up and hit the person who said it in the head with a shovel. On live TV.

Finally, I want atheists and agnostics and humanists to stop being so timid and self-effacing. I want them to get out there and demand equality. I want people to recognize that you can be good without gods, and that human reason and compassion trump empty piety in every case.

In the end, I want to live in a world where we don’t have to be afraid anymore to be ourselves. And when we and they recognize the good we can ALL do with our minds and our human abilities.

And oh, yeah, I want an end to two stupid, destructive religious ideas:

One, that Man was given the earth to rule over and subdue, and that humans and animals are separate orders of creation, meaning we can treat them and their habitat like dirt, at will.

Two, that limiting human reproduction, on our 6-billion-plus-human planet, is some sort of sin, instead of a great and necessary goodness.

And after all that, I want a pony. With spots.