Comment of the Week: Surprising Religious Theists
Tracie comments on a post about the atheist billboard which gets some Christians annoyed and upset:
I love this billboard. It has the element of surprise. The cloudy backdrop sets one up for a religious message, then the bottom segment drops the bomb. But it's very civil and positive, because rather than bash religion, it actually offers hope to dissenfranchised atheists. It's probably one of the best examples of an unoffensive atheist message--just reaching out to other atheists, not 'attacking' Xians.
And criticism of it, therefore shows that those against it will never be OK with ANY atheist message, no matter how much it avoids criticising religion.
[original post]
I suppose some of the more hyper-sensitive Christians would actually be a little annoyed at having their expectations for a religious message be overturned like that. It might be bad enough for an atheist message to appear at all, but an atheist message appearing in the place of an expected religious and spiritual message would, for such a person, surely be worse. Sometimes surprising a theist isn't a positive thing, not that this is a case where atheists have done anything inappropriate. Like Tracie says, such a reaction makes it clear that nothing atheists say or do would be acceptable — and thus that the attacks on atheists as "fundamentalists" and "intolerant" are really just rationalizations, not legitimate complaints.
On the other hand, there is a positive side to expressing a simple message about atheism which is not even an indirect attack on any religious beliefs or any theistic ideas. This will be outside the expectations of more than a few religious theists who see this billboard and perhaps some will reconsider their assumptions, even if others might simply perceive any such billboard as an attack of some sort.
There are certainly other ways in which atheists might violate expectations and surprise religious theists, though, especially when it comes to personal interactions. Have you had experiences with this and, if so, what happened?
Comments
I want to add that I got in touch with PhillyCOR about their billboard. [Thanks, Austin for publicizing these items.] One thing that surprised me was this FOX NEWS clip:
http://tinyurl.com/4dajx6
The music is ominous in some parts, but what suprised me most of all is that a spokesperson for the Family Research Council (visit their site–it’s nothing _but_ promoting legislating Christianity onto the US population) referred to the billboard as a sign (no pun intended) that atheism has become more “aggressive.”
More aggressive?! How many billboards do Christians put up? Is that hyper aggression? What is the FRC if not aggressive? And speaking about aggressively thrusting religion onto secular America, he goes on to call the separation of church and state an “extreme” agenda for force atheism onto the nation.
I have to say again, when I start demanding “one nation without a god” in the Pledge, then you can accuse me of promoting atheism onto the nation in an extreme and unacceptable way. But asking you NOT to push your religion via “our” government–which is NOT a THEOCRATIC government–is not about persecuting you or promoting what I think or believe. My belief is that there is no god–and I’m not asking anyone to add that to anything anywhere that is government sponsored.
The outrageous hypocrisy of this man (Peter Sprig–sp?), is even more beyond belief than his religious ideology (if that’s actually possible).
The video associates atheism with a “secular agenda”, lets FRC’s Sprigg define the latter as the suppression of religion, and implies that atheist Rade agrees.
I have to agree with tracieh here. I work in Providence, the capital of a very liberal state, and the my work commute is dominated by no less than three billboards; each of which state “The family that prays together, stays together.” Not too long ago, they said “Got faith?” (I found it a little humorous that one of them was next to a PSA about having a stroke.)
According to the FRC, all three of these billboards are an “aggressive Christian agenda”.
I’m going to go put on my tinfoil hat.
Very curious. It blows my mind how people like Sprigg think we’re actually as zealous and well-organized like his people. We’re not. Atheism is just the refusal to believe, or the choice to doubt. We don’t go to atheist church, we have no lobby (yet!), and we certainly aren’t as militant as theists. He assumes too much.
Yeah, I’ve surprised theists before. When I was a grad student I tutored this engineer in differential equations for over a year. He was trying to work back into school shape to finish a masters I think, and we would meet on campus of my school to go over his questions at apparently random intervals. We developed a good working relationship. But a couple months before I left the school for a job, we had a conversation about gays. He told me he was Catholic and how it bothered him. Not wanting to admit I was bi in the context of the conversation (as it was really none of his business), I decided instead to talk about how I was an atheist and how atheism was also a sin according to Catholicism, etc. etc. He was shocked. He told me repeatedly that he could not believe I was an atheist because I didn’t act like his expectations of atheists: I seemed like a good person, I worked hard, was patient, etc. And he never came back for another lesson.
Betsy, I suppose the core assumption for theists like your friend is that religion is requisite for morality. Too bad they don’t realize that the human being evolved as a “moral animal” for its own survival and benefit. It is to our advantage to be good to each other, for the benefit of the “clan,” so to speak.
Actually, David, changes in genes aren’t about helping the clan/species/group, but this is mainly a nitpick. Genes are about surviving, and it helps if the person maturation and procreates, which morality most likely helped us accomplish.
Michael, I think we’re on the same page (can’t tell - your message is cut off). Regardless, the point is that many theists don’t understand that A) the human being doesn’t need religion/superstition to act morally, and B) our morality actually comes from something older and deeper than religion/beliefs. Back to the point of the original post, this is very surprising to theists, whether they believe it or not. I know it was surprising to me. And it makes much more sense (IMO).
Wow, Betsy, so your pupil did not want to avail himself of your tutoring services because you were an atheist? Amazing that someone would shortchange oneself for a reason which had absolutely nothing to do with your ability to tutor someone!
No Deegee, it’s not surprising that a theist would act upon ingrained religious bigotry. Religion IS bigotry, so this behaviour is not only normal, but predictable. The degree to which theists are open-minded, or tolerant, or inclusive, is directly proportional to the degree to which they have REJECTED both their religious dogma and its ethics and morality.
A theist has to have very strong social ties with an atheist for the atheism to not impede the relationship even in a minor way. Religious dogma clearly states that obedience and servility are the ultimate virtues, and that positive deeds and positive social interaction are meaningless. This may seem paradoxical given the insistence of theists that all ethics/morality come from their imaginary gods; but it is entirely consistent with the origins of all religions as human-made control mechanisms for the priests and princes over the peasants.
I am quite up-front with my atheism, and I know it causes raised eyebrows from theists. I bluntly refute trite nonsense like “he must be smiling down on them” etc with comments like “I guess if that were true, he would be”. I’ve never heard one yet say that they are surprised someone as humourous and gregarious as me is an atheist. I’m sure they express their sadness about my non-belief in private with their colleagues. I’m sure it colours their views of me permanently, which again brings us back to why more people have to express their atheism, more often, so that such discrimination can be eroded.