debate-points, cultural-identityThere are many atheists but most of the time it’s hard to find them in the middle of the society since to be atheist it’s like being in the side of Devil. Religious people do not understand our (lack of) belief.
How do you turn around the situation? How can you argue with people who are unable to do so, and yet deny everything we say.
Are you in the US? Apologies if you're not, but in case you are:
I am British but have lived in the US for almost 9 years now. I have noticed a startlingly rapid rise of ultra-religious rhetoric in many circles of conversation (particularly any form of politicical discussion) over the last 6-7 years in particular.
The American middle-classes are being whipped into a frienzy by the likes of Fox News who peddle all manner of absolute nonsense, preying on the weaknesses, fears and ignorance of an otherwise pretty accepting and reasonable populus. In American politics, there is practically no politician in office who doesn't now include some praise or request of "God" in practically every speech made - especially televised speeches.
The ultra-religious in America have also done a "great job" (from their own perspective) of demonizing Atheism. Many Americans now believe that Atheists are in some way associated with the occult and/or are not patriots. I've seen protestors state that Atheists should be tried for treason!
They've also done a "great job" in reinforcing their belief in the literal word of the bible. Creationism is perhps the most obvious (and most worrying) campaign which got quite a lot of traction a couple of years back, but is more muted in the media these days.
In Pew Research's 2008 study, 92% of surveyed Americans claim to believe in a "God". Data presented on Wikipedia shows the marked difference between professed religious affiliation in the US with, for example, most of Europe.
This is in quite stark contrast to many other western. In the UK, 2/3 of teenagers recently polled, stated that they had no religious affiliation and now less then 50% of all adults proclaim to be "religious".
Alas, many of the perceptions steered thus far by the fanatically religious will take time to correct. Over time, though, as more people realize that admitting their Atheism won't wreck their career or jeapordize their family's safety or social standing, we'll start to see a decline in some areas. However, with the rise of mega-churches and their highly effective (and well funded) brain-washing, it'll take longer to penetrate some areas of the US.
Because Belief Systems are still largely slanted towards religious groups.
We could turn around the situation by teaching more people how to think logically.
That’s an easy one for the US anyway…because there are still people alive who remember McCarthyism and the Red Scare in the 40s and 50s. These people tune into Fox news in droves and get their greatest fears fed. Then they share all these fears with each other on Sunday, because older folks are more likely to go to church.
Sometimes old ideas only die when the people that have them do.
In addition, atheism is often thought of as coming from the elitist rich people, along with Darwinism and all that other science stuff.
It is not atheism what is frowned upon in society. It is anything but that particular society’s religion what is frowned upon.
In other words, any religious society will frown upon anything but their own religion, including other religions plus atheism. This is because an essential part of most religions (as far as I know) is the claim that they are the only true one, and therefore any others are wrong.
Also, atheism is probably the most different group to any other. What I mean is that, as Rob points out below, other religious groups would often join forces to fight external common enemies if the need arises, and if they feel that they have enough in common with each other. But atheism is “too different” to any other group, and therefore is rarely sympathised with by anybody, except atheists ourselves, of course.
I personally think people want others to believe their religion because deep down they see the cracks in their own logic. If they can persuade a large enough group of people to believe as they do, then obviously the problems they have with their own beliefs must just be wrong thinking (or some non-obvious flaw in their logic). The problem is similar to that posed by the emperors new clothes. If everyone goes along with the idea that the clothes are there, they are all happy to continue in the mass delusion (even though they can’t see the clothes). When one person is willing to call the emperor nude however, all those little niggling doubts come home to spoil the stew.
This to me explains why most “religious” people are so caught up in having to be right and having to be the ONLY right answer vs the atheistic view that can tolerate being wrong (particularly if you have a scientific bent).
I don’t need you to validate my opinion or my belief because I have no gaping holes in my thinking. Where I have logical issues with my thoughts or beliefs, I own up to them and even discuss them with others, preferring to not paper over them with strange dogma or blind faith. My “salvation” is not based upon my beliefs. If I spent all my days worrying about an afterlife, I’d want to make sure I had has many lemmings in my boat as I could get because either
Atheism is frowned upon because it heckles the king for walking down the street naked.
All content is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.