The Dragon's Eye View: Just Not Letting This One Go

[athelind]

A comment over at toob's journal prompted me to finally put down in words something that I've mulled over for a very long time.

Over the decades, I've seen a great deal of evidence to support the hypothesis that, no matter what faith they might nominally adhere to, Fundamentalists of any creed have more in common with each other than they do with more moderate adherents of their own creed.

From my observations, the common keystone in the Fundamentalist worldview is this:

We and we alone know the One True and Proper Path, and those who disagree with us are not merely in error, they are evil, they are our enemies, and any abuse we can deliver unto them is not only justified, but for their own good.

All too often, this becomes the Fundamentalist's primary tenet -- the specific details of his or her faith all become a distant second to the pure, blind assertion that I am right and you are not.

This is their true religion.

Proportionally, I've seen just as many Fundamentalists who think they're Atheists as I have Fundamentalists who think they're Anything Else, and their reaction to Thoughtcrime is just as zealous.

Did that last sentence piss you off?

Might want to run some diagnostics.

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Comments

[cpxbrex.livejournal.com]

Well, Athelind is an America, as am I, so maybe if you're not an American atheist you have no comprehension of our experiences and should not unfairly generalize your experiences to, say, my experiences.

And atheists are a prosecuted minority in the US, just like, say, Muslims are.

Let me give some MORE examples.

How many atheists Senators have there been? None, or at least none openly.

Presidents? None.

Congresspersons? One.

Governors? None.

Supreme Court justices? None.

It is true that atheists have a big bastion of defense - the sciences - but the fact is that atheists are hated and people are open about that hatred, at least here in the United States.

And it's frankly offensive that you should even HINT that atheists shouldn't be frank about their faith - that we should somehow HIDE it so we're not harassed even more preposterously openly. And an acknowledgement of the discrimination.

Yes, atheists can "pass". But it's sick that you should suggest we ought to cravenly hide our lack of faith so we don't rock the boat.

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

I'm willing to concede part of this point. Atheists should be able to be open about their faith if they wish to be, though I don't believe they should feel the need to be or that hiding it is automatically out of fear; I talk about this change in faith only in certain situations and with certain people for a variety of reasons, and fear is not one of them.

On the other hand, I'm not an evangelical anything anymore than I'm a fundamentalist anything, unless it's an evangelical constructivist teacher. I actively dislike and distrust efforts to convert people. Which is why it seems to me that even if you're not actively hiding your atheism (as I don't) if you only bring it up when others ask, most people around you are never going to know.

The first and most important tenet of my new creed is that everyone has the right to a free and responsible search for truth and meaning. I would submit that evangelism and fundamentalism both contravene that tenet - whatever flavour they come in.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Self-identified atheists make up 0.4% of the world's population, sez Wiki. That number varies a lot from country to country, and is often lower in the First World, it seems. (Editing as I read more!)

I believe there are more Buddhists in America than Atheists. I'm not sure of that, because of census reports seem to lump Deism and Agnosticism in with Atheism, which seems silly. In Canada, 4.9 million people identify as "Non-religious", but on further breakdown it turns out that only 18,000 of them identify as Atheist, or 0.05% of the population, which is a bit surprising! Given Canadians tend to be culturally liberal and better educated than Americans, one might assume the percentage to be even lower in the US.

In any case, there are a significant number of Buddhists in the US, yet how many Buddhist senators and supreme court justices have their been?

Heck, how many WOMEN have there been, as compared to the percentage of women in the population?

A lot of the founding fathers of your country were one step removed from atheism, though that gets ignored a lot these days...

Also - The person you are writing to is an atheist. :D

I agree that polls in the US indicate that Atheists are viewed very negatively.

[(Anonymous)]

It used to be said that president Andrew Jackson was an atheist, but maybe historians have changed their view.