Myth:
If you are public and unapologetic about being an atheist in American society, you must really be anti-theistic and militantly opposed to religion, religious beliefs, and theism.
Response:
If it weren't bad enough that atheists exist, some atheists actually dare to admit to being atheists in public. Many atheists seem to remain cowed and afraid enough to keep their atheism quiet, but growing numbers are unapologetic about not believing in any gods and will actually say so to others. This appears to bother some religious theists — even to the point where they will accuse atheists of actually being anti-theists simply for their openness and honesty about disbelief in gods.
One of the most blatant examples of this phenomenon that I've seen occurred in reaction to something written on this site. My "Atheist New Year Resolutions" article is a description of things atheists can do in their lives in order to possibly improve themselves, improve their communities, and improve the situation for atheists in America.
I recommend that atheists commit themselves to consistent skepticism, to be more self-reflective about their own beliefs, to read and study more, to be open and honest about their atheism, to be willing to engage religious believers in discussions but adopt an explicitly godless perspective, to be politically active without hiding their atheism, to promote the separation of church & state, to promote civil rights, and more. There's nothing here that's really about opposition to either theism or religion, but it is about how godlessness should not be something that atheists hide or apologize for.
Not everyone reads the piece in the same way, though. A link to the article was posted on Metafilter and some of the comments indicate that people saw unapologetic and open atheism as no different from anti-theism.
For example, Edeteker writes:
I prefer to keep "god" out of my godlessness. That article sounds more like antitheism than atheism. Real atheists don't even think about "god" when they're out there atheizing.
How is it that "real" atheists shouldn't think about god? Perhaps that would be the case if most people were atheists and theists rarely if ever promoted their beliefs — after all, it's not like nonbelievers in elves go around thinking or talking about elves, right? That's not the situation we have in America, though. Few people are atheists while theists spend a great deal of time not only promoting their particular version of theism, but also making it quite clear that they consider atheists to be inferior.
Even if there were something about atheism which should cause "real" atheists not to think about gods, it's tough to see how they would actually accomplish this in the real world. It's not at all clear, though, that this is something that should be expected from atheists. An atheist is simply someone who lacks belief in gods — that's all, nothing more and nothing less. Some atheists will be interested in debating theism or religion for various reasons (personal, political, philosophical) and others won't. The latter aren't any more "real" atheists than the former.
Gurple gets it right:
Why does that article sound antitheist to some people? If the article encourages atheists to do anything, it's to identify as an atheist while they go about their regular business. What's antitheist about that? I like hearing about self-described atheists who do cool things. It makes me feel like society is beginning to allow atheism.
For people who are insecure about their religion, religious beliefs, and theism, the existence of people who are open about not accepting or needing those beliefs must seem like such a terrible affront. Unapologetic atheists deny that there is anything necessary or very valuable about religion or gods. The existence of unapologetic theists is accepted, though — no one tells them that they are being dogmatic, intolerant, rude, disrespectful, or fundamentalist simply because they are honest and open about who they are.
For these people, simply being open about what one believes isn't the problem; the real problem is with atheists who are open about what they think. Such a double-standard doesn't seem very likely to occur outside the context of anti-atheist bigotry. Unless a person has especially negative assumptions about and attitudes towards atheists, it's unlikely that they would single out atheists with special and stricter standards that aren't expected from theists.
