I thought long and hard about what I would write as my first blog entry from The Atheist Perspective. There are so many topics to choose from.
For instance, I could write about the recent fiasco with the Jacksonville City Council and its attempt to fill a position on the Jacksonville Human Rights Commission. The illegalities and religious abuses of power leave room for so much to discuss, and I have pulled a muscle trying to avoid that as my first entry.
I could write about the recent ruling by a judge in England
Instead, to start this off I decided to address some common misconceptions about atheist. There are many, and some rather horrible and disgusting ones to choose from. These of course flow directly from the religious crowd, who generally feel threatened by atheists and our irritating insistence upon facts.
Atheism vs. theism is a debate we can have rationally, without slander. Facts are facts, and opinion is opinion, and objective humans can sort that out. But there in lies the rub, we need objective and rational human beings to accomplish this, and humans frequently fail at this. It’s that lack of objectivity that prevents us from working out details, and it is also the source of some rather nasty accusations against atheist.
Now, I am not saying that all atheist are wonderful people, no more than I would say that all religious people are saints. But by and large, and studies have born this out, atheist are the most reviled group on the planet for no discernable reason, and I would love to change that. So let’s address three of the biggies shall we?
(1) Atheist DO NOT eat babies. Yes, I know. It’s hard to believe, but we don’t. This accusation was recently published in a small religious paper and was passed around liberally on various web sites and on Face Book. The reasoning goes; atheist reject god, therefore atheist have no morals, therefore atheist could eat your baby. Hey, I know this is stupid, that’s why I am bringing it up! Baby killer actually gets used way too often. The article did not indicate which type of sauce we used.
(2) Atheist have no morals, therefore we are involved in every manner of evil behavior from drug abuse, to wild orgies, to the sacrifice of kittens. Really? Kittens? Again, (need I say this?) this is not true. Atheists are just as moral, and as good a citizen as the next person. Only our morals come not from a fear of “god” and what might happen if we screw up, but rather out of a recognition that good behavior, love and compassion, are all attributes that benefit society at large and the over all happiness of humanity. Things work better when we all work together, so yes we are “good without god”. As a recently published paper disclosed, apes and other animals can exhibit basic attributes of compassion, sorrow, and the understanding of right and wrong behavior. Humans, with our expanded abilities to conceptualize and expand upon those basics, have shown ourselves time and again to be compassionate and ethical, without the fear of “god” hanging over our shoulder. That’s not to say we don’t enjoy a party just like you. But Kittens? Really?
(3) Atheist are responsible for every war and act of slaughter on the planet. This is a biggie, and oh boy is this wrong on so many levels. This slander of atheist is reputedly portrayed in the acts of Hitler and every communist dictator to date as atheists. Aside form the fact this is just silly, let’s look at some facts. Hitler considered himself to be a Christian who was “doing gods work”. People will argue this all day because no one wants to be linked to Hitler; but in his book Mein Kampf and in many of his public speeches, its pretty clear where he was coming from. As for the communist, yes they are atheist according to their manifesto, and yes these dictators have killed countless millions. But what is over looked is that communist kill because of a political agenda, not because they are atheist. One could argue that they only killed because they lacked any morals as atheist (sound familiar?), but to date, no credible proof of that reasoning has been provided. Saying that communist killed because they were atheist, is like saying Hitler killed millions because he was a Christian, there is just no credible association. Hitler killed because he was crazy, and communist kill because they are crazy, its just that simple.
Well, I could go on and on, because the silliness is endless. But I hope you get the point that Atheists are people just like you, but who do not share your fascination for “god”. We put our pants on (yes we wear pants) one leg at a time, we take our kids to school, we go to the beach, and we work right beside you every day. We have no belief structure, no secret hand shake – repeat, we have NO SECRET HAND SHAKE – and your kittens and babies are safe.
It would certainly go well with the world if we could all stop with the ridiculous accusations, the stereotypes, and the unfortunate human need to shove our opinion down every one else’s throat. The world is in fact, in a perilous place right now for many reasons, and it will take every single one of us pulling together in the same direction, to get out of this mess.
Now, I must go mow my lawn just like my religious neighbors next door.
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