Atheism The Undiscovered Bias
Posted by Brandon | Filed under Articles
I’m going to show everyone a quote and I want you to guess who said it. Then after, I want you to decide for yourselves how our country thinks of atheists. (And I’m sure every atheist has read this quote; this is for everyone else).
“No, I don’t know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God.”
Any guesses? I’ll let you ponder for a bit.
Well that was our wonderful and intellectual president George Bush Sr during an interview with Robert Sherman, a reporter for the American Atheist news journal.
Now, you can’t compare atheists to other minorities or sexes that get truly discriminated against; homosexuals being a prime example but that’s for another article. But it’s true that atheists are very much looked down upon in this country. That is why when you hear something like “He is a man of faith.” it is said with reverence and approval.
Well I feel for you, brothers of atheism, and I hope that one day we can see an atheist in the highest offices of our government. Every single president thus far has been an older white male of Christian belief. There will very likely be a female or African American president before an atheist.
This all seems sort of funny to me in a way but at the same time I think it’s a shame. Everyday science and reason take another step towards absolute knowledge. Everyday we get closer at solving the riddles of our universe, closing the gap of dogma and superstition. And hopefully, one day, we will finally be able to move forward as a society and put away the ghosts of our primitive pasts and move into an era where reason and fact hold more true than ancient myth.
I have a quote or two for you, and then i’ll fill in who is the originator of the quote:
” Without religion this world would be something not fit to be mentioned in polite company, I mean Hell.”
-John Adams to T. Jefferson, april 19, 1817
“The ecclesiastical establishments of Europe which serve to support tyrannical governments are not the Christian religion but abuses and corruptions of it…Christianity to which the sword and the fagot{ burning stake or hot branding iron} are unknown- general tolerant Christianity is the law of the land!”
-Noah Webster
Looks like Bush Sr. is as ignorant as a few other people I know since he’s using something added to the Pledge of Allegiance under Eisenhower as a justification for unifying Christianity and the United States Government. Adding “under God” in there has hindered us for 50 years, but people cite that wording like it’s been there for ages. People need to be less fickle and gullible – this is just another example of a Bush exploiting that weakness to its fullest.
Well, the main problem I think is that for too long religion has been considered to be the sole source of values and morality. Many who think this way look at atheists as potentially dangerous because they reject what they regard as the only source of ethical guidance. Even the founders who were not particularly religious themselves considered religion necessary for the masses, because that was the only thing that would keep them civilized.
The problem with this country is that when it was founded, a new system of political organization was created based on reason, while the underlying code of morality that guided the society remained predominantly christian and mystical. It was like building a skyscraper on quicksand, and religious dogmatism is now threatening to undermine our political system.
The great failure of the founders was that they never bothered to develop a rational system of ethics that didn’t rely on mysticism. After all, before you can really identify what a good society is, you first have to identify what a good person is.
Personally, I don’t like the idea of identifying myself primarily as an atheist. Atheism is merely an effect, reason is the cause. So I consider myself first as an advocate for reason.
I agree with what Michael had to say and I’m pretty sure we’ve already established that basically every politician, especially the Bush family, are corrupt and moronic.
My personal religious views/beliefs fall under atheist/Buddhist (many sects are atheistic).
The last “real” Christian died on the cross Josh. Most religious individuals i have spoken to or heard now have no idea of the history of their holy book (yes, i have read the Bible and have no clue how anyone could believe a word of it). Or they know but either unwilling or too afraid of their own mortality to acknowledge it. Religion keeps people in check with fear of everlasting pain/suffering/hell.
Most people will do anything if they know they won’t get caught or if they know there will be no consequences (Invisible Man Scenario). Authority figures have used religion very well in this respect. However, most major conflicts in history, from thousands of years ago to present day, are based on religion. The most horrific atrocities this world has ever seen have been done in the name of religion.
I’d rather burn in hell for eternity than spend eternity with a God who allows these things to happen or lets the modern day Christians into “His” Heaven. If truly appreciating this life for all it’s small beauties and caring about humanity and this world is not enough then it’s not somewhere i want to spend eternity. Religion is just another way that bigots segregate the people, same as color or sexual orientation.
And to those who believe this is a “Christian Nation”, this is NOT a Christian nation. It is a nation of many religious viewpoints. Yes, SOME of the Founding Fathers were Christian and yes the country does have laws similar to “Christian” rules. It also has laws similar to many other faiths as well, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism and, yes, Satanism included (before you judge what Satanism is, look up some info on it, it’s not what you’d think). I’m sure you will agree that this doesn’t make it a Muslim nation or a Buddhist nation for you Christians out there, a Satanic nation.
I’d rather have an “out of the closet”, open minded atheist with an unclouded head in office, than any Christian or religious person any day. Religion only restricts people’s minds and blinds people’s judgment. I’d love to see an atheist in office, someone who truly appreciates this world because our time here and our lives are limited and not everlasting.
>> However, most major conflicts in history, from thousands of years ago to present day, are based on religion. The most horrific atrocities this world has ever seen have been done in the name of religion. <<
I would be very careful using that argument, because Christian Apologists like D’Souza can turn it right around and point out the slaughters perpetrated by “atheistic” regimes in recent history, such as the communists. Religion is but one form of irrationality, there are also ideologies that practice atheism that have also led to mass slaughter. The issue is rationality versus irrationality, not atheism versus religion. Though you couldn’t call the Founders atheists, they were far more reasonable than the crusaders that sacked Jerusalem. As a result, the country they founded was far freer than any theocracy of the Medieval period. Unfortunately, history has yet to see a regime run by rational atheists to prove the theists wrong. It doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen in the future though.
An important distinction though is the cause of atrocities. Religion in itself breeds hate and prideful bias against anybody else who does not share the same beliefs. Atheism is simply not aligning yourself with any one of these belief systems. What I mean is that religion can cause people to do bad things but atheism in itself cannot.
Now I’m not saying that atheists are better people or that Christians are worst. When it comes down to it anybody, regardless of religious ideology, can be good or bad people. I’m only saying that having a belief system that separates your group of people from another group of people will cause conflict and not having these segregated beliefs will do very little to your moral ideas.
Another important thing to remember is that religion and morals go hand in hand, at least thats what religious people say or believe. Atheists don’t draw any morals based on simply ‘not believing in god’, it is separate for us and that is the difference.
Thanks for pointing that out Michael, i do agree with you again. I was more referring to events such as the crusades, 9/11, arguably the Iraq War (see some quotes from ol’ GW on that one). And although the communists were “bad” they were nothing compared to the countless other authorities killing in the name of God. And do note that i said “most”, definitely not all. Not all atheists of course are good people. Thanks for pointing that out.
Hopefully an atheist does come into power in the near future. I think it would do the U.S. a lot of good to see what an atheist can do. And that most of us aren’t satanic, devil worshiping creatures. Unfortunately, with the power the evangelicals have over the government/votes i don’t really see this happening anytime soon. But who knows, maybe a candidate will lie about his/her religion (not that they would ever lie about anything) and reveal it later…hmmm that would make for an interesting time. Especially if the presidency was a success. One can only hope.
Ignorance alert: “Every single president thus far has been an older white male of Christian belief”. Man, you need to do some serious reading, you’ve bought into a fundy assertion. Check out the writings of Jefferson, Washington, and Lincoln, just for a start. And these are just the all-stars. Look up what deism is, and then realize that for the founders to say they were atheist would have been severely detrimental, the most they could do is call themselves deists. Considering that moral christians executed people for this attitude for centuries, it was the best they could do at their time. Don’t believe the hype, READ! The church doesn’t kill you for it any more!
You are right and I know what deism is. My main point was that every single president believed in some type of god and that an atheist has never been in office or at least could never be open about it and expect to win.
I just don’t like to see brethren implying that the idiotic claims of our current crop of historic revisionist have any validity whatsoever, like this is a christian nation or that in god we trust belongs on our currency. Keep up the fight, brother, never give an inch.
Thank you, Rob H, for pointing out that various “founding fathers” were not Christians. This is NOT a country founded in the name of any god and hopefully will never become some sort of theocracy. George Bush Sr. again proves himself highly intelligent and ever so eloquent.
As an atheist, I wouldn’t call myself a patriot. I am glad to have been born into a country where luxuries are available to me, but I won’t go out of my way to support a country that treats me as though I’m some sort of satanic maniac.
Your blog is interesting!
Keep up the good work!
First off let me say that i really like your site http://www.whereisyourgod.com a lot
now.. back to the post hehe
I cant say that i agree with what you wrote… care to clear things up for me?
First off let me say that i love your blog http://www.whereisyourgod.com a lot
now.. back to the post haha
I cant say that i agree with what you typed up… care to explain deeper?