Atheists in America are starting to become more assertive in their demands to be treated as fully equal citizens - and they are taking notes from the gay rights movement which has made such great strides in the past three decades. Gay rights activists have been enormously successful, and perhaps that's why religious conservatives aren't happy about atheists' new efforts.

Steve Jordahl comments for Focus on the Family:

Melissa Fryrear of the ex-gay ministry Love Won Out expects that will include atheists to proclaiming their beliefs to be “mainstream.”

“And probably will use language and stories and people with real faces to draw on the emotions of the American public to say, ‘oh, this is just another group of people.’ “

What, so atheists aren’t just another group of people?

Fryrear predicts atheists will repeat their message until the culture is desensitized.

Desensitized to what, the idea that atheists aren’t evil and dangerous? Why is this a bad thing? Or is Fryrear concerned that desensitization to the presence of atheists might lead more people to consider that atheism is a reasonable and justified position?

Focus on the Family Institute professor, Chris Leland, thinks atheists, like homosexuals, may have a distorted view of civil rights. “If we’re violating their rights and their right to choose, then hey, we’ve crossed the line. But for the most part they’re demanding rights of the majority when they’re not.”

Majorities don’t have rights, they have power. The only rights in America are rights which necessarily apply to all citizens, regardless of whether they are part of majority groups or minority groups. In suggesting that majorities have “rights” unavailable to others, Chris Leland is promoting an incorrect and self-serving vision of American politics.

Leland might prefer it if there were special rights reserved solely for Christians like him, but that’s precisely the attitude which atheists are fighting — the attitude that being a religious theist, and especially a Christian, means that one deserves privileges, power, rights, and deference unavailable to anyone else in society.

 

Quick Poll: Do atheists deserve equal social, political, and legal rights?

1. Yes, there's nothing about atheism which should cause atheists to be treated as inferiors.
2. Atheists deserve legal equality, but they don't deserve to be treated as social equals.
3. No, atheists are dangerous.
4. I don't know / I don't care.

Click an option to vote, or View Current Poll Results

 

Understanding Atheism & Atheists:

• Atheism 101
• What is Atheism?
• Defining Atheism
• Is Atheism a Religion?
• Who Are Atheists?
• Why Don't Atheists Believe in God?
• Questions About Atheism
• Atheism Myths
• Polls on Atheism

 

Resources for Atheists:

• Atheist Activism
• Advice for Atheists
• Atheist Blogs & Blogging
• Books on Atheism
• News About Atheism & Atheists
• Rebuttals to Attacks on Atheism