Anti-atheism

I'm an anti-anti. I'm anti-antianger, anti-antidivorce, anti-antihiphop, anti-antirevolution, anti-antidrugs, anti-antiteenage sex, etc. And I'm also anti-antiatheism.

I'm an agnostic myself. (That's an atheist without the guts.) But I'm particularly annoyed by people who loudly denounce atheists, like that Duck Dynasty guy with his odd fantasies--which tell you far more about him than about atheists-- or Dr. Laura whenever her caller is careless enough to reveal his atheism ("You don't believe in anything!"). Dr. Laura is a malodorous piece of work: she loves to bully people. She especially despises day care and interfaith marriages. She used to oppose legalizing same-sex marriage because it was "against God's law," but I imagine she's been playing that down lately. With friends like her, does God need the Devil?

What it's really about is that many religious people feel insecure in their beliefs and feel they can't co-exist with people who reject their beliefs.  For the sake of argument, assume that God exists. Will He punish people for not believing in him? I can't imagine that--only a petty god would do that. If God exists, not believing in Him should be its own punishment. Unless God exists to serve the people who believe in him, instead of vice versa.

Another thing that bugs me is Americans adding "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance. (The Pledge is lame, but that's another story.) It was added in the age of McCarthyism as a result of a campaign by the sinister conservative Catholic men's group the Knights of Columbus. President Ike made it clear in his signing statement that this amounted to a school prayer, which the Supreme Court would ban less than a decade later. The fundamentalists talk about a child's "right" to pray in school, as if he couldn't do it at home. What it's really about, of course, is that they want to stigmatize any kid who won't conform to their beliefs. It's about power. (Imagine if the Pledge said "One nation under Allah"!)  Too many liberals respond passively, trying to convince themselves that this issue isn't "important" enough to fight over. But fundamentalists can't be appeased: if you go along with them, they take it as confirmation that they're in the right.  I am so lucky to be living in Canada!

Religious people want to believe that atheists are an amoral lot who deny any difference between right and wrong. They just can't believe that someone could have a moral behaviour code that didn't have fear of God at the base. Myself, I'll take someone who says "There's no right or wrong" over someone who says "My group is right, so everything we do is automatically right." Look at those Moslem fundamentalists in Syria. But of course you have the double standard: it's right when we do it, wrong when our enemies do it.

I have a theory that fundamentalists of different religions should be able to get along with each other, because their real quarrels are with different sects within their own religion. (Or sometimes different factions within their own fundamentalism!) They should be able to understand each other because their thinking is so similar. Then again, I figure that similar people make the bitterest enemies.