Article about the treatment of American Atheists
Just a warning. It's 10,000+ Words.
I found it on the Startrek.com Message Boards. Please don't complain about the fomatting. That's the way it was posted.
... from a member of the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers (aka informally as "atheists in foxholes") ...
There is a group of people in the United States that
is so distrusted by the general public that by law in
five states they cannot hold public office, so
dispised that popular songs are made of their horrific
abuses and immorality, and they are the only ones who
protest. A sitting American president has publicly
stated that they aren't even worthy of American
citizenship. When they speak up for their rights, they
are told to shut up and sit down because they brought
it on themselves by making a terrible choice, and
worse, encouraging their children to follow in their
footsteps.
Meanwhile, this group has watched as every other
group once in their position has stepped into
mainstream society, even helped them on their way.
First women, then blacks, now gays and even illegal
immigrants have stepped into the spotlight to demand
the right to be treated just like everyone else. Yet,
the American atheist continues to be discriminated
against and when the atheist complains about abuse or
the loss of civil liberties he or she is told to sit
down and shut up, and the most vocal respondents cheer
for the abusers. Discrimination against atheists is
widespread and pervasive in the American culture and
is rarely even recognized by theists as even being
discrimination.
Unlike many groups where the abusers are easily
identifiable, the heart of discrimination is not
within a group of people who can be singled out. Bias
against atheists is so deep within the very culture
and subconscious of Americans that most don't even
realize what they are doing. Most atheists have many
stories about people, some who are new aquaintences,
others are people whom they have known for some time,
who, apon learning of the person's atheism, exclaim,
?I've never met an atheist before? or ?But you're too
nice to be an atheist? without ever realizing how
hurtful those words are.
The discrimination begins with the very definition of
the word ?atheist.? According to Webster's Dictionary
(1989) an atheist is ?one who denies or disbelieves in
the existence of God...? (p. 93). The definition
begins with the assumption of the existence of a deity
rather than taking a neutral stance. So, what is an
atheist? Ask an atheist and he or she will tell you
that an atheist is a person who lacks a belief in a
higher power. The word ?atheist? itself was coined by
the Greeks, meaning literally ?not a god believer.?
There is not just one kind of atheist, as with any
group atheists have diverse views. Many atheists are
skeptics, people who do not believe in anything that
has even the slightest hint of ?supernatural? about
it, while others have particular bents to their
disbelief, such as Secular Humanists, Objectivists and
Materialists. Some are even members of philosophies
that are grouped as ?religions? such as traditional
Buddhism, a ?religion? that has no godhead, only a
philosophy.
The history of abuse and discrimination against
atheists goes back thousands of years. According to
the Bible ?the fool hath said in his heart, There is
no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable
works, there is none that doeth good.? (Psalm 14:1,
King James Bible) and ?they are all gone aside, they
are all together become filthy: there is none that
doeth good, no, not one? (Psalm 14:3). In ancient
Greek and Roman times admitted atheism was a death
sentence. In more recent times atheists were among
those that were killed in the Nazi death camps before
and during World War II along with Jews, gypsies,
homosexuals, the physically disabled and ?mental
defectives.?
It has been made clear that atheists are not welcome
even in this modern world. During an interview with
President George HW Bush in Chicago, journalist Robert
Sherman asked the president, "Surely you recognize the
equal citizenship and patriotism of Americans who are
atheists?" to which then President Bush replied, "No,
I don't know that atheists should be considered as
citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This
is one nation under God? (Sherman 1989). In 1995
Madalyn Murray O'Hair, founder of American Atheists,
her son and granddaughter were brutally murdered and
buried in barrels under a Texas ranch.
In John Michael Montgomery's 2000 hit country song
?The Little Girl? was based on a popular internet
urban myth. ?The Little Girl? tells the story of a
little girl neglected by her drug-addicted, atheistic
parents who die in a night of domestic violence as the
child hides behind the couch. This song illustrates
and reinforces the image that most Americans have of
the average atheist as an out of control, immoral
person who holds no value for human life. Had this
song instead singled out the parents as being black,
Jewish, gay or lesbian the song would have produced
outraged protests. Instead, the song was adopted into
the political campaigns of both Republican candidate
George W Bush and Democratic candidate Joe Lieberman.
Music isn't the only media that casts atheists as
immoral monsters. How many times on ?Touched By An
Angel? (1994) did the angel Monica take a ?lost
atheist soul? with serious moral failings and ?cure?
the person through conversion?
Three celebrities who have been held up to the
American public as heroes, Lance Armstrong, Pat
Tillman and Christopher Reeve are/were publicly
atheistic (Celebrity Atheist List 2006). When a
public hero has strong religious convictions, the
media often focuses on the faith of the hero.
Conveniently, the atheism of these individuals is
ignored. The adage ?there are no atheists in
foxholes? is often repeated by the media when disaster
strikes. After 9/11 the media said, ?there are no
atheists in fire trucks? and after Hurricane Katrina
?there are no atheists in hurricanes.? Were there
really no atheists among the firefighters who
responded to the World Trade Center? No atheists
walking out of New Orleans? Did they all really
convert when faced with possible death? What if I said
that ?there were no Christians in the Twin Towers,?
intimating that they all lost their faith in their
chosen deity when they weren't miraculously delivered
from harm?
One of the biggest hurdles in equality that atheists
experience is the status of atheism. Is atheism
itself a religion? Many religious groups claim that
atheism is a religion, dependent on the belief that
there is no god. Most atheists reject the inclusion of
atheism within the definition of ?religion? stating
that atheism is the absence of belief. A favorite
saying for atheists is ?if atheism is a religion, then
baldness is a hairstyle.? However, without claiming
status as a religion, atheists risk losing the
?freedom of religion? guaranteed in the First
Amendment. Groups such as the Freedom From Religion
Foundation argue in the courts and in the media that
the freedom of religion also includes the freedom from
religion.
Repeatedly, the courts have ruled that any prayer
offered in a publicly funded setting must be
non-sectarian; that is, it cannot be specifically
identifiable as belonging to one specific religion in
order to protect such religious minorities as Jews,
Muslims, Hindus and others. However such rulings leave
out the fact that there are far more atheists in the
U.S. than all of these religious minorities combined,
and imply that the feelings of these atheists are
worth less than the feelings of those religious
minorities. In the U.S., laws and policies exist that
specifically exclude atheists. In North Carolina,
Tennessee, Mississippi, Texas and Arkansas there are
provisions in the state constitutions specifically
requiring a belief in a higher power to hold office.
While these are clearly unconstitutional in nature,
they are as yet not overturned by the courts or
amended by the state legislatures.
In order to provide support for very small minority
religions such as Wicca, the U.S. military runs a
program to recognize lay ministers, members of
minority religions certified by their belief groups to
lead other members in activities based around their
beliefs. The only official requirement for lay
ministry is recognition of the group they are to
represent. In 2001, members of the Humanist Church of
America and the Church of Freethought, atheist groups
modeled on traditional church structure to provide
social support to other atheists, were denied lay
ministries based on their atheism. In 1999 in Texas
the North Texas Church of Freethought, the
Universalist Church and Buddhist temple were denied
tax exempt status because the Texas state law
requiring acknowledgment of a godhead in order to be
recognized by the state, despite existing federal
recognition of both groups. (Barbee, 2004).
One of the greatest misconceptions that the general
public holds about atheists is the ?atheist agenda?
which supposedly demands the destruction of religion.
While many (but far from all) atheists would love to
see religion disappear, atheists generally hold a
realistic view that religion isn't going to disappear
anytime soon and that religionists have the right to
their religion. However, atheists and the
organizations through which atheists work do have a
far less extreme goal: To end practices by government
and American culture that force atheists to make a
choice between entirely withdrawing from the world and
being subjected to religious practices in public
forums, such as prayers at city councils and school
pledges to a deity that they do not believe in.
Atheists are the first to defend the rights of
theists, as long as those rights do not interfere with
the rights of others.
It is rather telling that atheists use the same term
as gays in regard to their public status. Atheists are
either in the closet or out. Many are unable to tell
their families of their non-belief for fear of
alienation or worse, condesension. To this day, more
than 20 years after I told my grandmother that I am an
atheist, my grandmother is still certain that my
atheism is a ?youthful stage? which I will grow out
of. The social ramifications of leaving the church in
a small town or close-knit neighborhood are so extreme
that many atheists, especially female atheists, often
continue attending church for years after turning to
atheism, for fear of complete social rejection.
The unconscious contempt with which so many Americans
regard atheists goes so deep and is so accepted that
some theists choose to ignore laws that support the
rights of the atheists. Instead of being condemned for
breaking the law they are cheered on by other
theists. Most of those reasonable Americans who do see
such treatment of atheists as wrong tend to fail to
speak up and until they do atheists will still be a
legitimate target.
An American Atheist
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Originally Posted by Eugene Debs
