Cheap shots used against atheists
The very strange way, and perhaps unique in the Western world, that religion is intermingled into American politics allows atheists to be slammed in various ways. These ways are completely ridiculous, but nevertheless, they work for that crowed of Nationalistic goobars that we have on the Right. No, I'm not saying all Conservatives fit that bill, but we can all admit that such people exist...
Take associating atheism with communism for example. When the USSR was the big, bad, enemy, we as Americans needed, rather, some of our leaders felt that we needed, a way to distinguish us from our enemies. That's when [simply-put] Ike decided to add "Under God" in the pledge. Yup, in the history of our nation, that phrase was added rather recently. You'd think that the further you went back to the beginning of America, the more religion you'd see in government, right? In many crucial ways, this isn't the case at all.
Anyway, via. some sort of bizarre guilt by association perhaps, atheists are still associated with communists in America by some. Of the current atheists that I speak with on a regular basis, I am likely the most left-leaning economically, or at least tied for that spot. Some are free-market radicals, others are every possible tick in between.
Left-leaning on my part doesn't mean I want pure socialism, I just think that certain socialist policies in our mixed economy are very good things, and that we should have a few more. There is lots of room on the left - we could go as far as Sweden, for example, and not approach loons like Chavez.
The problem atheists have is that many answers and responses to such absurd insinuations from the Right require some explaining. And, we know what happens then, don't we?
It's like debunking an evolution myth - if it takes more than two sentences of background material, the listener rolls his eyes and blocks you out. Complexity, it seems, is often associated with invalidity.
Anyway, here is an article I wrote recently that also touches on this:
http://www.useless-knowledge.com/1234/05dec/article025.html
Take associating atheism with communism for example. When the USSR was the big, bad, enemy, we as Americans needed, rather, some of our leaders felt that we needed, a way to distinguish us from our enemies. That's when [simply-put] Ike decided to add "Under God" in the pledge. Yup, in the history of our nation, that phrase was added rather recently. You'd think that the further you went back to the beginning of America, the more religion you'd see in government, right? In many crucial ways, this isn't the case at all.
Anyway, via. some sort of bizarre guilt by association perhaps, atheists are still associated with communists in America by some. Of the current atheists that I speak with on a regular basis, I am likely the most left-leaning economically, or at least tied for that spot. Some are free-market radicals, others are every possible tick in between.
Left-leaning on my part doesn't mean I want pure socialism, I just think that certain socialist policies in our mixed economy are very good things, and that we should have a few more. There is lots of room on the left - we could go as far as Sweden, for example, and not approach loons like Chavez.
The problem atheists have is that many answers and responses to such absurd insinuations from the Right require some explaining. And, we know what happens then, don't we?
It's like debunking an evolution myth - if it takes more than two sentences of background material, the listener rolls his eyes and blocks you out. Complexity, it seems, is often associated with invalidity.
Anyway, here is an article I wrote recently that also touches on this:
http://www.useless-knowledge.com/1234/05dec/article025.html
posted by Frederick Smith @ 11:28 AM
1 Comments:
At 10:04 PM,
Anonymous said…
Hey Fred, its Bill from UK. I saw your BIO from the last article and thought I would check out your blog. Your off to a good start. I see in the first posting that your comments have already been spammed, I suppose thats a milestone.
I also saw your link to quackerism, and I thought I should warn you that you are not a follow of the one true faith. You must profess beliefe in the true creator, the flying spaghetti monster, or I shall be forced to torture you with burning hot marinara sauce until you submit (http://www.venganza.org/).
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