http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/12/05/atheists.christmas/index.html
So, somebody stole an Atheists group's sign that had been put up beside a Nativity scene, and tossed the sign in a ditch. People are horrified at the theft, sort of. First, yes, it was wrong for someone to steal the sign. This America people, you can say whatever you like, and no one should stop you from saying it.
There is, however, more going on here than the silly theft of a sign.
Now, lots of fine, fine people are atheists. Some have perfectly good intellectuals issues with the idea of an all knowing, all powerful, all good ultimate being, some just, in their heart of hearts can't find a spark of belief, some just don't know. There is, however, a group of atheists who are just as bad as, and potentially as much trouble as Fundamentalist Evangelicals. These are the Failed Fundamentalist Atheists. FFAs are pretty easy to spot. Between the ages of 14 and 22, many of them were ALL. ABOUT. SOME. J-MAN. They carried their Bibles *everywhere*. They knew they their relationship with God was like totally so much more fulfilling that any thing that they could ever have with another person, that like, like why would you ever even try to except to Share The Good News? They went to church, like, five times times a day. They knew that the Book was a word for word transmission of the Words Of God. They really felt bad for all the other kids their ages who weren't sharing that awesome bro-mance with our Lord and Saviour. They often failed to notice that the "Word of God" mentioned in the New Testament referred to Christ instead of their book. They all the hand motion to "Our God Is An Awesome God". More than anything else though, these kids absolutely knew themselves to be right.
But then, OH NOES, it all fell apart. Some of them even made it through their intellectually bankrupt Bible college before it all when to pot. See, for a great many people, it's impossible to believe all the ridiculousness that fundies hold on to. They make an idol out of the Bible and are always horrified when their idol turns out not to be the Lord. The faith of a lot of fundies is absolutely destroyed when they realize how small and hateful their idea of the Ultimate Reality was. And it's not just the faith in the Bible or God or Jesus that's damaged, but far, far worse, their faith the absolutely correctness of what they themselves think was struck a blow. And how do they respond? They turn into FFAs. The continue to believe that they understand the world absolutely, they just absolutely understand it in the opposite way. Many FFAs assume that all Christians believed the exact same way they did, and can hardy imagine any other way a Christian might believe. They, then, believe that all Christians hate them, and are out to get them. Buddhists, Muslims, and folks of other faiths are little better, but they save a special fear and hatred for the religion they came out of.
Now, let's go back to the matter of the Atheists' sign. It reads: "There are no gods. No devils. No angels. No heaven or hell. There is only the natural world." So far, all fine and good statements of what any Atheist might think. But the sign continues: "Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds." That bit, I believe, is where the issue is.
Now, I hear you out there in Interwebs land, I hear you saying, "But CombatQueer, by announcing the birth of Christ through the nativity scene, are the Christians saying that Atheism is wrong, doing exactly the same thing the Atheists are?"
Well, fine reader(who I hold close to my heart,) there's a difference. The Nativity scene is certainly setting out the Christians beliefs, and by saying there is a Supreme Being, they are de facto saying that Atheists are wrong. What the Nativity scene does not say, though, is "Atheism hardens hearts and enslaves minds." The Nativity scene is a statement of beliefs without an attack on anyone else's ideas or beliefs. The Atheist group who put of the sign, they couldn't imagine being able to state what they thought without also tearing someone else down.
Now, that lack of imagination may be familiar to you. Many Fundamentalist Evangelicals suffer the same inability to understand that a disagreement with a person, group, or religion is not an attack on or from a person, group or religion. To think think that a difference in religion, for instance, automatically implies an attack in one direction or the other, one must assume a whole lot. One must assume that she or he fully understands all the beliefs of each individual member of whichever religion the assumer feels oppressed by, and that every believer who believes X must also believe Y.
Let's see what Freedom From Religion Foundation(the Atheist group that put up the sign) co-founder Dan Baker had to say: "It's not that we are trying to coerce anyone; in a way our sign is a signal of protest," Barker said. "If there can be a Nativity scene saying that we are all going to hell if we don't bow down to Jesus, we should be at the table to share our views."
If I understand Baker's point, he is saying that if people believe it is good to venerate the birth of Jesus they must also believe that "we are all going to hell if we don't bow down to Jesus." Now, that's a pretty arrogant thing to say. I love Jesus, that homeless man from Galilee who got lynched for standing up to the Man. I think it's a fine and good thing, if you want, to venerate his birth. We all need to be reminded to give up our power for the sake of love every once in a while. We all need to be reminded about the least of these. I don't believe, however, that everyone who doesn't "bow down to Jesus" is going to hell. Maybe it's just me, but Jesus seems a lot more subversive than that.
But what I think and believe about Jesus are not as important right here. Baker's understanding that all people who believe in Jesus also believe in the harshest human ideas about sin and eternal punishment, well, it's just not something that stands up to inspection. When ideas like that come from? Well, Baker was an "evangelical preacher." From his bio on the FFRF website, you can see that Baker did whole thing, including going down Mexico way to try to convert Catholics away from the Vatican.
Baker, it seems, has exchanged who form of arrogant know-it-all-ism for another. And that, in the end, is what this post is about. Look folks, if you want to be a Christian, be a good on. If you want to be a Muslim, be a good one. If you want to be a Buddhist, be a good one. And if you want to be an Atheist, for goodness sake, be a good one.
But remember folks, remember, you do not know everything. You don't know everything one way or the other.