A Public Display Of Anger - Humanist Bashing

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A Public Display Of Anger - Humanist Bashing

By Frederick Smith
June 22, 2005

Michael John McCrae is upset (or, amused?) that the American Atheists would fear the Christian encroachment of Government.

I don't belong to that organization, but as an atheist living in America, I am worried, and I pity those that aren't, even and especially, members of other religions, even other Christian sects.

First, let me address this:


Here are some sobering statistics: [children from
fatherless homes are way up on many bad statistics,
suicide, jail, etc.] In fact, children born to unwed
mothers are ten times more likely to live in poverty
as children with fathers in the home.” FROM:
“Fatherless in America” by Mark Alexander,
Townhall.com. 



It seems if we could just get these irresponsible men
to own up to the families they create we might be able
to curb some of this immorality and civil strife. Yes,
yes, I know. Many of these children probably come
from so-called “Christian” homes. And don’t even try
to tell me that none of these children are a result of
humanism’s brand of “just do it”
philosophy.

Note the bold-faced section; most Americans are Christian, and church-going Christians are more likely to get divorced. “Just do it” isn't a virtue I'm familiar with in regards to humanism. Further, I doubt we have enough data to get any meaningful statistics for the 'other' side; last I checked, about 10% of Americans were in the free-thinker group, including agnostics, atheists, etc. Secular humanists adhere to a certain philosophy. Many more folks think secularism is the way to go, but aren't humanists. Many smart Christians are secularists, and to complicate matters more, not all atheists are humanists, and not all humanists are atheists.

This rather weak bait and switch – attempting to link morality with Christianity and immorality with atheism, is a sham, folks. Most Americans are, and have always been, Christian. Western Europe is also predominantly Christian, but much more secular. It also has less church-going Christians. Western Europe has better social indicators than we do (lower crime rates, lower teen pregnancy rates, etc.). It would seem that the data might show that which is the opposite of Mac's implication.

Now, on to fear! History teaches much, but we can gleam a few basic lessons – a few mistakes that mankind repeats over and over again. First, of course, never ever give absolute power to a single person or a select few. Dictatorships and one party systems are all very bad ideas. History is full of these negative examples, from all philosophies, secular, religious, semi-religious, etc. Concentrations of power without balance are bad, even if the dictator is “righteous”, in other words.

Second, never ever mix religion and government! Iran and many of the countries which we despise in this age are “evil” because of this mix. A religious state is antithetical to freedom, be it the free market or any kind of civil liberties. Only when religion is kept out of direct power can we have freedoms. With few exceptions, the nature of every religion is to glorify just that particular faith; others must be “made” to see the light; any government beholden to any particular faith is by definition non-free. This is already evident with the attack on science in public schools, discrimination based on sexual habits, early attempts to censor even pay-channels on cable TV, disastrous Bible-based environmental policy, death-causing right-wing abortion funding policy, stagnation of research, frightening attempts to control the media and silence the opposition under the guise of “patriotism” [look up media consolidation, the Sinclair company, the attack on PBS and NPR, etc. - articles from me forthcoming]; examples abound, but each is worth its own article.

Each of the above would evaporate as political issues if not for the religious element; often not just any religion, but those very same minority Right-wing sects which support conservative politics are responsible, and always under the guise of “family values” or other similar propaganda nonsense – more on that at the end of this piece.

Arrogant atheists such as myself want to let everyone believe what they will, provided none of us step on each other's toes. I no more want my atheist children to be exposed to Christian prayer in public school, then Christian parents want their kids exposed to Wiccan ritual in public school. But benevolent Christians on the political religious right equate equality with discrimination. Perhaps atheists or humanists or religious secular folks in the Democratic party are benevolent, and conservative Christian sects are arrogant? I rather think this is the case. We saw clear recent evidence with the Shaivo case of the, “we know better than you do what's better for you” attitude of these guys. The philosophical difference was not the alarming part – the alarming part was faith versus very clear science, and faith-based politics coercing involvement from the highest reaches of government. This, folks, is a red flag if ever there was one.

In Michaels own words, we know that we cannot equate morality with Christianity, rather, we cannot necessarily equate morality with American Christians. Lets keep the pluralistic and reason-based nation the Founding Fathers had in mind. Why must I keep reminding Right-wingers that religion isn't the bad guy as far as the left is concerned when the debate is political – religion in government is the bad guy.

Finally, in the spirit of Republicans, Conservatives, Right-wing Christians, Ann Coulter Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly and in some small way, Dick Durbin, let me make the obligatory Nazi comparison: Pre-WW2, the American Nazi party also used “family values” to attract followers; look it up, it's scary.

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About the author Frederick Smith: I enjoy writing about the positive virtues of humanism - humanists are the good guys.

Email: dahlek65@yahoo.com

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