Atheists: open your mouth and we hate you.

March 30, 2012 By 21 Comments

Christina here…

I’ve noticed since the Reason Rally, certain attitudes about atheists are cropping up in news media outlets and blogs.

Not that I’m surprised. It will be a cold day in a nonexistent hell when atheists hold a rally or event and get only positive reactions in the USA.

Now, a lot of news media reported positively on the event – I am sure some other blogger out there has a nice list going – if not, maybe I’ll consider making one.

Here, I found some links for you.

The message: if we meet in groups in public, if we talk about reason, rationality, and occasionally someone urges us to mock that which is worth mocking, we are unreasonable and need to shut our mouths. If we test a communion wafer before and after said wafer is consecrated and find identical chemical content, we’re the crazy ones for not thinking the wafer is now the literal body of Christ. We’re persecuting people if we mock such an unsubstantiated claim. Our passion comes not out of an honest desire for truth, but because secretly we really believe in mythology.

In other words: shut up, atheists.

Also, as JT pointed out to me this morning: “If we all agree, we’re a hive mind.  If we disagree with each other, it’s a sign atheism is crumbling.”

p.s. Got any links like this that I don’t have? Post in the comments and I will update this post.

Update: I approve of the Cuttlefish take on the speakers:

Learn more about Christina and follow her @ziztur.

 

 

Filed Under: Christina says... 21 Comments
  • Ganner

    Nothing but, as Great Christina calls it, “Shut up, that’s why” arguments.

  • Cuttlefish
  • http://www.pyrron.com Kashaar

    Those are all classic attempts at discoursive dominance. My coping strategy: laugh, ignore and proceed :)

    • http://andythenerd.tumblr.com The Nerd

      Yes, definite attempts by an aggressor to continue to justify to themselves the marginalization of a minority group. Woohoo, silencing tactics!

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

    And don’t forget: We also use the word “fuck”.

  • Jay

    To be fair, it appears that all or most of your links go to partisan groups with stated goals and religions, or to opinion columns which are by definition opinionated. It’s a given they’d be automatically hostile to a gathering of people they don’t like. It’s like saying, “Oh, here’s a list of Decepticons writing about how terrible the Autobots are.” Of course they’re going to say that, we all knew they would, by definition they’re going to hate on us.

    Is there a list of coverage by non-partisan news outlets that doesn’t include opinion columns?

    • amyc

      I get what you’re saying, but the problem is that there really wasn’t much coverage by major news organization. I’ve yet to find any news station that had live coverage of the rally. The closest I’ve seen was Beck and O’Reilly sent people to do interviews, but the interviews aired later and they didn’t show any footage of the speakers. I would say this is a case of the media ignoring the rally, which is in and of itself a form of discrimination.

  • quawonk

    >>>> “If we all agree, we’re a hive mind. If we disagree with each other, it’s a sign atheism is crumbling.”

    I guess religion must also be crumbling since they haven’t been able to agree on anything for thousands of years.

  • baal

    NPR’s religion reporter and MEW from Salon both commented on the Rally. They essentially took umbrage that good Xtians are lumped in with those fake nasty right wing Xtians. They also thought that Dawkins is counter productive and wanted atheists to know that Xtians don’t like him.

  • cag

    All this talk about transubstantiation (well, one mention) reminds me that today’s cracker is tomorrow’s movement shit.

  • John Horstman

    Huh, I wonder why they care. We’re all going to burn in hell anyway, while they’re going to enjoy heaven for eternity, and life is just a blink of an eye compared to all that, so I’m at a loss to explain why they should care in the slightest how poorly they imagine we treat them here on Earth. Unless, you know, that same part of their brains that tells them to look both ways before crossing the street instead of simply closing their eyes and praying to Jesus also lets them know that this life really is important because it’s all there is; I can understand why they’d care then.

  • elbruce

    Wow, we sound like pretty horrible people. I had no idea.

  • http://sciencenotes.wordpress.com/ Markita Lynda—it’s Spring after the Winter that wasn’t

    There’s a nice video, showing crowds, from Phil Ferguson of Skeptic Money–he who found himself beside the “Secular Pro-Life” table at American Atheists and set up a collection for Planned Parenthood.

    When he gave the $300 to Planned Parenthood, they told him that he caused great consternation among their picketers by urging them to picket more because he was giving $10 to PP for every picketer, and coming back every couple of weeks to do it again.

  • Mike de Fleuriot

    As you know atheist hate is everywhere, just this morning, I got a comment about “Why do I can what people believe, and why don’t I just shut up and leave them be” (note, there was no question mark at the end of the sentence) To which I replied that time of theists having freedom to say whatever they want with out question or comment has long passed, and that they need to factor this into their lives from now. I think it will take a lot more hammer blows before they understand and accept this, but we are many and getting more, so if I tire (ha!) I know the rest of you will step up to bat.

  • http://www.goddiscussion.com Deborah

    Great article, Christina, and I appreciate your linking our site with the transcript of Richard Dawkin’s interview with the Washington Post (urged to ridicule belief). The article did not put down Dawkins or atheism in any way.

    Our site is not “anti-atheism,” particularly since we have a number of atheist-agnostics on board and regularly feature atheism and freethought on our podcast (as well as mix of some crazy stuff). We are working on creating an open tent atmosphere to get theists and non-theists to appreciate separation of church/state and doing what we can to stop the prejudice and discrimination toward atheists and freethinkers, and have made some progress.

    It’s a different audience from Freethought Blogs, but I can assure you, just because we discuss gods and religious belief does not mean that we are against atheism. I am an atheist-agnosic and own the site.

    • http://www.freethoughtblogs.com/wwjtd Christina

      You’re right, your article didn’t put down Dawkins and/or atheism.

      I didn’t mean to make you think that I thought it did. I linked to your article because you had a full transcript of Dawkins’ speech.

  • Mriana

    I work with Deborah on the God Discussion and I do many humanist and atheist articles, so I can totally back up Deborah’s statements. I’m a humanist, which I think JT can tell you that, because we’ve met many times. I’m biased, but personally I think it’s better than where Hemant’s blog is. :)

    • http://www.freethoughtblogs.com/wwjtd Christina

      I linked to your blog because it had a full transcript of Dawkins’ speech, not because it was anti-atheist. Sorry, I guess my post is not clear on that!

  • mem from somerville

    As I wrote on Adam Lee’s summary of responses:
    http://bigthink.com/daylight-atheism/christian-responses-to-the-reason-rally

    The one I saw that was most head-shaking was by a rabbi, who posted a photo of Minchin and asked “Tim Minchin, atheist headliner at the Reason Rally. Would you join a group, religious or not, that allowed him to be a member?”

    Scary photo: http://screencast.com/t/V9tCDuNUBv

    From http://www.algemeiner.com/2012/03/27/atheists-rally-for-irrationality-in-washington-d-c/

    So, my choice is a group that mocks religious blowhards, or a team who uses religion to taunt school girls trying to get an education….hmm…let me think which team I prefer….

  • godlesspanther

    Every single one of those articles (I did click on and at least skim over every one of them) could make the exact same point in a much more concise way. Instead of the numerous paragraphs they could just as well have said:

    “Hi, I am [name of author] and I am a blithering fucking idiot.”

    Don’t dance around — just get to the point.

  • http://www.jbowersphotography.com Joe Bowers

    They want to shut us up, marginalize us, shame us onto bent knee. Keep up the assault on religion, and damn the torpedoes. Never forget for a moment that they would round us up and kill us all if they could. Atheists and anyone else who doesn’t drink their particular brand of Kool-Aid. They’ve done it before and they still do it today in countries where the church is in control.