Why It Matters.

I’ve stated in this blog that evolution is not a particular problem for religion. Although I think that a careful analysis of how science operates completely falsifies the argument that science cannot comment on the supernatural, religious scientists are certainly capable of practicing their particular disciplines as competently as non-believers.

I am also not bothered by religious people in general, even if I do not accept what they believe, unless their behavior compels them to treat other human beings badly...and the vast majority of them don’t. I am not offended by religious practice and ritual (unless, again, it involves treating people like shit). Far from it. I’ve gone into churches, mosques, and synagogues, and attended Christian and Jewish services and rituals, and thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere and vibe, even if it changed nothing about my thoughts on what is real. Why then do I insist on publicly being a pain in the ass about God and the supernatural? Why can’t I be a nice, quiet atheist who keeps his opinions to himself?

Because I don’t like being lied about. And more importantly, I don’t like it being taken for granted by most of the American public that lying about me is normal.

Conservative politics rely heavily on accusing secularists of “persecuting” them. This is a grotesque misuse of the word. “Persecution” means that you are legally prevented from practicing your religion and/or risking violent reprisals by doing so. Any Jew living in medieval Europe, or Christian living in first century Rome, would laugh uproariously at the notion that secularists and atheists in this country are a practicing a form of “persecution” against religious people.

All religious denominations in this country have the right to practice their religion. The have the right to attend whatever church they choose. They have the right to publicly advertise their religious beliefs (even by coming up to my front door). They even have the right to raise their children in an intellectually stifling atmosphere, if they are so inclined (while they are limited in their abilities to enforce their children’s obedience to their religion with physical violence, psychological abuse is still perfectly legal). They are not being pursued down the street by mobs of atheists with torches and pitchforks, although they may imagine that they are. It is legally prohibited to pay them less, deny them employment, or give them fewer legal freedoms than non-believers.

What then do conservatives actually mean when they talk about “persecution”?

Quite simply, they use the word “persecution” when they are not allowed to force non-believers to pay lip service to their religion. The classic example is gay marriage. Conservatives, who have the legal right to marry consenting adults of the same sex (if they are so inclined), are going out of their way to keep other consenting adults from making the same decision for themselves. What possible excuse could they have? Because it undermines their heterosexual marriage. That’s right. Heterosexual marriages and nuclear families aren’t fucked up because spouses are insensitive, philandering, and/or physically abusive bastards, or insensitive, philandering, and/or emotionally abusive bitches. No, it’s the fault of some gay couple living thousands of miles away. They don’t actually want to get married because they love each other, they are just doing it to fuck up the life of straight people. They are persecuting conservatives by not letting them tell them who they can marry.

To a certain extent, this is also the same impulse behind opposition to teaching evolution in schools. We can’t teach evolution in biology classes just because it is the cornerstone of modern biology, oh no. It isn’t even enough for conservatives to be able to take their kids out of schools that teach real biology and hom skool them. No, they have to fuck up the education of everyone else’s kids by teaching something in biology classrooms which is not actually biology but that they personally wish was biology…and if the courts don’t let them, they are being persecuted.

It gets even more infuriating when conservatives lie directly (or at least, repeat bullshit that they might actually believe) about atheistic secularism and evolution. Nazi Germany was an atheistic and Darwinian regime? Evolution is accepted only by a scientific minority? Atheists have no basis for morality? These statements are not matters of opinion or belief; they are flat out bullshit. Hitler was explicitly anti-Darwin, and Nazi Germany was steeped in Christian propaganda. Evolution is apparently accepted by the overwhelming majority of scientists, and certainly by nearly every biologist and paleontologists I've ever spoken to on the subject. Every atheist I’ve ever discussed morality with most certainly has a clear opinion of what is right and wrong, and why. These are facts, not opinions or beliefs.

Insecurity is the only plausible explanation for this behavior on the part of conservative apologists and politicians. Why else would anyone feel persecuted for simply not being allowed to fuck with someone else’s life? Why would someone feel the need to lie about what other people think and do to justify their own beliefs? Is it simply that their own belief system is so fragile that denying the reality of what other people say and think is the only way to preserve it?

That can't possibly be the reason, of course. I'm just being silly, ha ha!

This attitude, this impulse to stifle facts and opinions and lie about what secular atheists think and do, is not restricted to the far right. Left-leaning apologists and non-believers pull the same shit, accusing Dawkins and Meyers of being as “dogmatic” and “militant” as religious extremists, simply because they won’t say something along the lines of “well, your position is devoid of reason and unsupported by evidence, but still on equal par with what I think.” P.Z. Meyers (one of the most “militant” atheists in America) supports of the right of Muslims to build a community center in downtown Manhattan, something that no extremist Christian would ever do. Richard Dawkins was criticized by a Catholic liberal for claiming that child rape is wrong, and should be punished. Having an opinion based on reason, evidence, and a concern for human welfare, and (horror of horrors) explaining that opinion publicly...this is what even left-leaning apologists and politically sensitive non-believers mean by “militancy.”

Fucking serious?

Philhellenes (who also posted one of the most exceptional defenses of science and atheism I've ever seen) also had an eye-opening post on reactions to an atheist billboard proclaiming: “Don’t believe in God? You aren’t alone.”

The billboard is simply saying that atheists exist. We exist. And people freaked the fuck out.

In that same upload, Philhellenes stated a very clear and reasonable goal of openly advertising and discussing secular atheism. It is not to eradicate religion and turn everyone in the world into an atheist. It is simply to get atheism to the point where people can acknowledge its existence, and where making patronizing and blatantly false statements about atheism and its supposed lack of morals, reason, or intelligence is not taken for granted. That is enough. Why should that be problem for religious apologists?...unless of course, allowing larger numbers of people to hear our views honestly explained would cause them to flock from stifling and close-minded religious denominations in large numbers. And that couldn't possibly happen, ha ha.

If you are an atheist or an agnostic who has any manner of self-respect, please pay attention. The next time you hear someone talking about how atheism and agnosticism is a “religion” or a “belief”, or that atheists simply explaining their opinions publicly is “persecution” or “dogmatism”, please don’t stand there bobbing your head like a fucking retard. If you actually agreed with that, you probably wouldn’t be an atheist or agnostic to begin with.

You are being dissed. You are being misrepresented. You are being lied about. And you are letting them get away with it. Stand up for yourself. Don’t let some insecure douchebag feel comfortable about their position by lying about you, and above all, don’t let them tell you that it is an offense for you to exist.