Destroy the Atheist movement!

Read this, which I have edited for the sake of brevity:

http://freethoughtblogs.com/greta/2013/05/08/policing-their-own/

We want religious believers to police their own.

We want religious believers to stop being silent about atrocities committed in the name of religion. …….And when they don’t, we call them hypocrites.

So why is it that when atheists speak out against screwed-up shit that other atheists are doing, it gets called “divisive”?

I have been hearing a lot of calls for unity in the atheist community. I have been hearing a lot of calls for an end to the debates, an end to the infighting. I have been hearing a lot of calls for atheists to stop focusing on our differences, and look at our common ground….But all too often, calling for unity equals silencing dissent. All too often, calling for unity equals a de facto defense of the status quo. All too often, calling for unity equals telling people who are speaking up for themselves to shut up.

I do not want to be in unity with atheists who [speak, write, or behave in misogynous ways]. And I do not want to be in unity with atheists who consistently rationalize this behavior, who trivialize it, who make excuses for it.

And I don’t think I should be expected to. I don’t think anyone in this movement should be asking that of me. I don’t think anyone in this movement should be asking that of anyone.

And when people, however well-meaning, make generic calls for unity — when they tell all of us to stop fighting and just get along — they’re basically telling those of us on the short ends of those sticks to shut up.

Quite simply, we as civilized people cannot unite around atheism. Atheism is merely rejection of theism, and lots of people who rejected theism in the past were part of governments that not only mistreated women, but mass murdered people outright.

So if you wish to profess atheism, go for it. But we cannot define ourselves only as atheists. Doing so is meaningless. The Atheist movement itself is meaningless.

Let us turn to this instead:

http://www.uua.org/beliefs/principles/index.shtml

There are seven principles which Unitarian Universalist congregations affirm and promote:

  • The inherent worth and dignity of every person;
  • Justice, equity and compassion in human relations;
  • Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations;
  • A free and responsible search for truth and meaning;
  • The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large;
  • The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all;
  • Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

What Greta Christina wrote about on her own blog is exactly why I have fought with atheist fanatics and hypocrites on the internet. Being an atheist is not enough, and there is nothing wrong with someone choosing to believe in a god of some kind if he affirms the seven principles stated above.

We do not need atheism, nor do we need religious bigotry. We do need tolerance and a world embracing vision and thus we need firm principles, which we may find among Unitarian Universalists. Let it be so.

https://dalehusband.wordpress.com/2010/08/31/why-more-people-should-join-the-unitarian-universalists/

 

5 thoughts on “Destroy the Atheist movement!

  1. The war on feminists among atheist sexists is heating up. Even at a conference made for secular women, one of the bigots made an @$$ of himself there. Ronald A. Lindsay, president and CEO of the Center for Inquiry, no less.
    http://www.centerforinquiry.net/blogs/entry/my_talk_at_wis2/

    Rebecca Watson answered him here: http://skepchick.org/2013/05/the-silencing-of-men/

    Lindsey then went ape here: http://www.centerforinquiry.net/blogs/entry/watsons_world_and_two_models_of_communication/

    Adam Lee of the blog Daylight Atheism also spoke up: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/daylightatheism/2013/05/speaking-out-against-hate-directed-at-women/

    {{{Women aren’t turning away from religion en masse, and the atheist movement still has a majority of men. And while there are undoubtedly multiple causes for this, over the last few years we’ve seen one very obvious and glaring reason: the sexist hate and harassment that atheist women far too often encounter in our online and real-life communities.

    Most of us became atheists for intellectual reasons, because we find the arguments for theism unconvincing, or for moral reasons, because we find its teachings intolerable. But it seems to me that there’s a small number of men (and a smaller number of women) who are atheists purely because they delight in being offensive, because they believe no one has the right to tell them what to do. They think this community is a place where they can indulge those impulses: where they can be as crass and boorish as they want, where they can leer at or hit on women in any way they want, or cheer on those who do. And too often, we’ve seen that when women object to this treatment, however politely, they become the targets of a campaign of violent threats, abusive hate mail and dehumanizing filth.}}}

    Yep, that is exactly how most religious people still see atheists, as selfish, amoral jerks. We can thank Ayn Rand for that, among others.

  2. Pingback: The Skepchicks vs. the Asses of Evil | Dale Husband's Intellectual Rants

  3. Just curious but what are you feeling about things like Agnosticism and Humanism (both religious and secular version) as well as Ethical Culture Movement, Deism, and Transcendentalism as well as the Spiritual But Not Relgious crowd? A book I read listed these as either Nonreligious or Nonrevealed categories of religious groups.

    • Being an dedicated agnostic and humanist myself, I find Agnosticism and Humanism to be the ideals I think all non-religious people should be. If the thing you care most about is rejecting and denying theism, that is not much to speak of. We need to provide positive reasons for people to support each other, which simple atheism does not do.

      Ethical Culture seems to be a form of Humanism, but I know little of it.

      Deism was popular centuries ago with people who did not believe in the God of the Bible but still thought there was some sort of god in existence. It is one step away from agnosticism and two steps from atheism.

      I know little of Transcendentalism and have no particular interest in it.

      My assumption is that “Spiritual but not religious” = Deism

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