Don’t Blame Me (Part 2)

August 29, 2007 By 21 Comments

Last week, someone wrote this letter to a newspaper:

Dear editor, A few days ago I found a kitten on the sidewalk at the end of Cotton Street. It was dehydrated and very weak. It had laid down on the sidewalk to die. It has a 50 percent chance of survival. I am doing everything I can to save it. To the person who committed this horrendous inhumane act, I have a question for you. Are you an atheist?

It was cut off there. I wasn’t sure if the writer was serious or not… The full letter wasn’t available until today.

Conclusion: Bigot.

Here’s that full letter:

Dear editor,

A few days ago I found a kitten on the sidewalk at the end of Cotton Street. It was dehydrated and very weak. It had laid down on the sidewalk to die. It has a 50 percent chance of survival. I am doing everything I can to save it. To the person who committed this horrendous inhumane act, I have a question for you. Are you an atheist? Because people who believe in God do not commit inhumane acts against animals. Instead they show love, compassion and commitment from their hearts toward their pets. You will pay for the evil sins you have committed against this innocent animal. I would give this some serious thought. Judgement day is coming.

Marion English

Wrong about atheists being evil.

Wrong about all believers in God being humane to animals.

Oh. And wrong on the spelling of “judgment.”

A trifecta of ignorance topped with a heap of idiocy.

Siamang suggests a revised letter that would never have run in the paper (or, if it did, it would’ve gotten a bigger reaction):

“To the person who committed this horrendous inhumane act, I have a question for you. Are you a Jew? Because people who believe in Christ do not commit inhumane acts against animals.”

He also includes a well-written letter to Marion English. Here’s a part of it:

I have a question for you, Mr. English: Where did you pick up your attitude toward atheists? Was it your church? Does your church teach you to hate, distrust and impugn the morality of atheists? If not, where did you learn this? Who taught you the lie that only a godless atheist would kill kittens out of spite or a lack of empathy? Is this how you treat people with different beliefs from you? Is this the standard of Christian behavior, to accuse innocents of crimes merely because they have different beliefs? To smear an entire cross-section of the population because of a crime you merely imagine must have been committed by one of our number? Is this showing Compassion to All?

Nicely said.


[tags]atheist, atheism[/tags]

Filed Under: General 21 Comments
  • http://tomesnyder.com Tom E. Snyder

    Since we’re being picky about English’s English:

    “Siamang suggests a revised letter that would never have ran in the paper ….”

    That should be “never have run”. ;-)

  • http://friendlyatheist.com FriendlyAtheist

    *Hemant quickly edits post*

    How dare you correct my incorrect grammar?! That’s my job and mine only! :)

  • http://spaninquis.wordpress.com/ Spanish Inquisitor

    Where did atheists originally get “kitty killer” reputation? I always wondered about that.

  • Pingback: Atheism » Atheism August 29, 2007 9:13 pm

  • Polly

    Because people who believe in God do not commit inhumane acts against animals.

    I suppose all those animal sacrifices in the OT were some kind of benevolent form of euthenasia? Wringing little birdie necks (as prescribed in OT) never seemed very kind to me.

  • Aj

    In times like this, I ask: What would Jesus do? Well, his actions did kill a lot of pigs that one time. Did Jesus believe in God? Well… it couldn’t have been many pigs, this is Jesus, he wouldn’t have killed thousands.

    They’re asking someone they think doesn’t believe in God to consider judgement day. What kind of demented mind thinks like that? There’s obviously a screw loose in there.

  • http://www.blacksunjournal.com BlackSun

    I have only one retort for the kitten-rescuing atheist hater.

  • Tammy

    Okay, “People who believe in God do not commit inhumane acts against animals”? Is that why on page 15 of the current issue of Time magazine, there’s a picture of none other than dog-fight empresario Michael Vick wearing of all things a cross? Funny, most of the atheists I know think crosses are morbid reminders of ancient brutality, and blinged-out ones especially tacky. It doesn’t say when the photo was taken, but it was obviously before he plead guilty to the charges against him(I forgot to mention,he was photographed with a pitbull on a leash).

  • http://www.myspace.com/timandjeffrey Tim D.

    Wow, that article made me so mad, I almost dropped the aborted fetus I was using to club this seal I kidnapped….

  • Jen

    In all fairness, atheists do kill kittens.

    But that’s only because the Christians already killed all the puppies.

  • Richard Wade

    Don’t we have enough work with the puppy kicking and the baby eating and the nun raping and the church burning? Now we have to do the kitty abusing too? Why can’t the Zoroastrians do it? Here, Snookums…

  • http://badidea.wordpress.com/ Bad

    The Jews substitution is a pretty good point, but it would probably be lost on this particular person… “but, but, Jews aren’t souless people with no morals like atheists are!”

  • Maria

    I have only one retort for the kitten-rescuing atheist hater.

    LOL! That was hilarious! I liked Siamang’s reply letter. It was very well written. You should send it in, even though I doubt English would read it and even if he did, I doubt it would do much good……..is English a mind reader, that he automatically knows the beliefs (or lack thereof) of whomever abandonded the kitten (if someone actually did?) Seeing as how the newspaper is in Georgia-the odds are whoever left the kitten was a probably a xtian!!!!!!!!

  • http://skeptigator.com Skeptigator

    I don’t want to be the one to bring up statistics but with something like 89% of America possessing a belief in God and only a small fraction actually declared atheists. It is almost certain that the person who did this to this kitten (assuming it was intentional) is a professed believer and that believer is more likely than not to be a professed Christian.

    It would actually be a statistical improbability if it was an atheist.
    I’m just sayin’

  • http://www.secularplanet.org Secular Planet

    C’mon, Hemant. There was so much in that letter to discuss without resorting to comments about her spelling. Judgement is an alternative spelling, not an error. Look it up. And it certainly looks better than what looks likes “jud-GUH-ment.”

  • stogoe

    ‘Judgement’ as an alternate spelling is simply the result of people finally starting to abandon the arbitrary and contradictory rules of the Christian ReligionEnglish grammar that were picked up through its centuries-long history of conquest and subjugation.

    In other words, it’s Teh EBIL!

  • http://www.farmsanctuary.com Wasyl

    As an atheist who is also a vegetarian and a strong supporter of animal rights, I don’t think anyone, Christian or otherwise, can claim to show compassion toward animals yet still eat factory-farmed meat.

  • PrimateIR

    Nice rejoinder Siamang.

  • http://off-the-map.org/atheist/ Siamang

    Thanks, folks.

  • Loren Petrich

    This makes me think: what would that letter-writer say to someone who said:

    That’s an animal, and animals don’t have souls, so why cry over it? God created the animals for our use, meaning that we have a right to do whatever we want with them.

    Bertrand Russell in his essay Outline of Intellectual Rubbish reported that when an animal-welfare society appealed to the Pope for support, the Pope responded that we owe no duty to the animals, because animals have no souls.

  • JoshH

    Where did atheists originally get “kitty killer” reputation? I always wondered about that.

    Exactly. I for one enjoy puppy blood much more. I mean, kitten is so disgusting after only like two of ‘em.