Atheists, Agnostics, and Others
The term that best describes me now is "secular humanist."
Charles Schulz, creator of Peanuts[1]
What’s an atheist?
An atheist is someone who doesn’t believe in God.
Okay, there’s a lot more to it than that. For one thing, atheist is a pretty narrow term. It doesn’t include the whole spread of people who don’t worship a god. Agnostics, freethinkers, humanists, rationalists, objectivists -- there are lots of names.
Who’s Who?
Start with the most dangerous name. That name is atheist.
An atheist doesn’t believe that God exists. Thus God didn’t create the universe, write the Bible, impregnate a virgin 2,000 years ago, or care what you did on your date last Saturday night.
Some people who believe in that kind of god can find atheism and atheists a threat. And they threaten right back.
• In a 2007 poll of more than a thousand Americans, more than half of them wouldn’t elect an atheist president even if he were qualified for the job.[2] A 2010 poll added that more than half of all Americans would be uncomfortable with an atheist on the Supreme Court.[3] So if you’re an atheist planning a career in government, don’t expect to hit the top jobs (unless public opinion changes by the time you get your chance.)
• In 2010, Pope Benedict XVI blamed godlessness for the Holocaust. “Britain and her leaders stood against a Nazi tyranny that wished to eradicate God from society,” he announced on a visit to England. “As we reflect on the sobering lessons of the atheist extremism of the twentieth century, let us never forget how the exclusion of God, religion and virtue from public life leads ultimately to a truncated vision of man.”[4]
• The Boy Scouts refuse to let atheists be scouts or, especially, scoutmasters.[5] In a number of Islamic countries, atheists face discrimination up to and including arrest by police.[6] A 2,000-person poll by the University of Minnesota has found atheists to be “America’s most distrusted minority,” less trustworthy than Muslims, immigrants, and gays. “Atheists are also the minority group most Americans are least willing to allow their children to marry.”[7]
So yes, atheism can be dangerous -- to atheists as well as to theists. (Theist, by the way, means believer in God.)
A lot of people find atheism dangerous because of certain myths about atheism. Like these:
Myths About Atheists
Atheists hate God. From the atheist viewpoint, hating God is like hating a figment of the imagination, because atheists don’t believe that God exists. Anyone who hates God is admitting that God does exist, and anyone who admits that God exists isn’t an atheist.
Atheism is a religion. No, atheism is the absence of religion. An atheist is just someone who isn’t a theist. The next chapter of this book will go into this subject in more detail. Atheists hate religion. Some do, some don’t. Atheists who’ve lived under particularly strict religious rules often resent religion, but millions of other atheists take a “live and let live” approach.
Atheists have no moral code. Every atheist develops moral guidelines that tell him what’s right and wrong, just as every religious person does. The difference is that believers trust the teachings of their faith’s holy men and holy books, while an atheist follows rules only if he thinks they’re sensible, rational, and in line with his conscience (or if he’ll get into trouble if he breaks them).
Atheist life is meaningless. Atheists value life as much as believers do. Later chapters of this book go into more detail about the meaning that atheists find in their lives.
Atheists are arrogant and intolerant. Some atheists do feel that everyone should think the way they do. Other atheists are warm, humble, friendly and interested in a variety of viewpoints. Atheists are like anyone else: some are so scummy that you want to wash up after shaking hands with them, but a lot of them are very nice.
There are no atheists in foxholes. In other words, put anyone in enough danger, and he’ll ask God for help. Another version of this myth is: Deep down, no one is really, truly an atheist. But how can anyone know for sure? A person who says that there are no atheists in foxholes is claiming to know the deepest, most private thoughts of billions of people he’s never met. Anyone with that much telepathic power should put on a mask, cape, and colorful tights, and hire himself out as a super-hero.
By the way, there are indeed atheists in foxholes. The Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers, an organization of nonbelievers in uniform, has a membership of about 200 members, including high-ranking officers. At least eight MAAF members have won the Bronze Star medal[8] for “meritorious achievement or service . . . in connection with military operations against an armed enemy.”[9] And the United States Department of Veterans’ Affairs honors deceased military atheists by allowing them or their families to choose a symbol of atheism (a stylized drawing of an atom with the letter “A” at the nucleus) for their headstones in military cemeteries.[10]
[1] David Templeton, “My Lunch with Sparky,” Sonoma County Independent, December 30, 1999-January 5, 2000, http://www.metroactive.com/papers/sonoma/12.30.99/schulz2-9952.html
[2] Susan Page, “2008 Race Has the Face of a Changing America,” USA Today, March 12, 2007, http://www.usatoday.com/cleanprint/?1285562960036; Jeffrey M. Jones, “Some Americans Reluctant to Vote for Morman, 72-Year-Old Presidential Candidates,” Gallup News Service, February 20, 2007, http://www.gallup.com/poll/26611/Some-Americans-Reluctant-Vote-Mormon-72YearOld-Presidential-Candidates.aspx
[3] Uncredited, Fox News/Opinion Dynamics Poll, April 20-21, 2010, http://www.pollingreport.com/court.htm
[4] Pope Benedict XVI, “Pope’s Holyroodhouse Speech Transcript,” September 16, 2010, http://richarddawkins.net/articles/518808-pope-s-holyroodhouse-speech-transcript
[5] Uncredited, “Duty to God,” Boy Scouts of America National Council Legal Issues Website and Blawg, 2006, http://www.bsalegal.org/duty-to-god-cases-224.asp
[6] Uncredited, “Discrimination Against Atheists,” Wikipedia website, September 25, 2010, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discrimination_against_atheists#Islamic_countries; Uncredited, “Laws and Other Rules Against Atheists and Agnostics,” FreeThoughtPedia website, May 25, 2010, http://www.freethoughtpedia.com/wiki/Laws_and_other_rules_against_atheists_and_agnostics
[7] Nina Shepherd, “Atheists Identified as America’s Most Distrusted Minority, According to New U of M Study,” University of Minnesota website, March 28, 2006, http://www1.umn.edu/news/news-releases/2006/UR_RELEASE_MIG_2816.html
[8] Uncredited, “Atheists in Foxholes, in Cockpits, and on Ships,” Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers website, undated, http://www.maaf.info/expaif.html
[9] “Bronze Star Medal,” The Institute of Heraldry, Office of the Administrative Assistant to the Secretary of the Army, undated, http://www.tioh.hqda.pentagon.mil/Awards/bronze_star.aspx
[10] Uncredited, “Available Emblems of Belief for Placement on Government Headstones and Markers,” United States Department of Veterans Affairs website, April 30, 2010, http://www.cem.va.gov/hm/hmemb.asp
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