Frivology

Apparently, it’s easier than I thought to be a militant atheist.  Apparently, all you have to do is buy a t-shirt!

Check out how militant the new atheists are by logging on to the website of one of the movement’s patriarchs, Brit Richard Dawkins. There you can buy aT-shirt with a quotation from Dawkins’ best-seller, “The God Delusion.”The quotation spares no punches for those of us who believe in God and the Bible: “The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all of fiction; jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty, ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist…”

Well there you are! I cut short the intolerant diatribe, but don’t be surprised if you’re walking through the mall some day and you run smack into it - as I say, atheism is out of the closet, preaching their gospel with a fierce pitbull militancy we’ve never before seen here in the Western world.

via Atheists preach with evangelical fervour - The Daily Observer - Ontario, CA .

Well, crap… if a t-shirt makes you a militant, there’s an awful lot more militant Christians out there than there are militant atheists.

For the record, I’m on the fence as to whether or not Atheists should be loud-mouths.  I can both see the benefits of being rather vocally out in the public sector and the drawbacks.  I literally sway back and forth.  I tend to, personally, sway more toward the being loud part, no matter what the message is – but that’s because I don’t believe that the religious should have a monopoly on free speech.

No matter what, though, I have a real problem with people who describe themselves as religious essentially telling Atheists to STFU.  Mark Fefer of Seattle Weekly has done just that.  I actually caught up with him on his follow-up, but I think his first article is worth quoting.

I happen to be a religious person myself. But to have any reverend stand before the country and start directly addressing— on our behalf—a kindergarten version of God (old male, up there, controlling everything) as our government leaders bow their heads just seems wrong on its face. We all elected this president, and it’s not a religious office.

The trouble is that the only people speaking up loudly for separation of church and state are people who hate the church part.

via: Not Praying Along With Obama

Kind of a harsh introduction to what he thinks about atheists, don’t you think?  I certainly do. 

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My my, that Atheist bus campaign sure is stirring up quite a bit of conversation off in the land of the UK.  I only wish it was happening here, too.  Unfortunately, the former Archbishio of Canterbury has it somewhat wrong: 

“I have no doubt that one can trace a direct link from 9/11 to the aggressive and strident tones of such writers as Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, and others. The result is a widening gap between religion and science; an unwillingness to engage, concluding in a dialogue of the deaf.”

via Former Archbishop of Canterbury says atheists use 9/11 as an excuse to attack all religions - Telegraph.

I’d say this statement is at least partially accurate.  At least for us in the US (where the attack actually happened), it was as it someone took a baseball bat to a hornet’s nest that had been slowly building for a few decades.  After 9/11, the fundamentalists couldn’t be shut up and any chance at us all living together and peacefully minding each other’s religions went out the window.

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