\nAs an aspiring politician, I strive to improve society by applying statistical analysis to decision making. I look at numbers and facts, and try to logically create policy that achieves the greater good for society, especially in a scientific transhuman way\u2026 Millions of productive hours (the equivalent of at least hundreds of millions of dollars) are being spent needlessly by atheists in security check lines every year \u2014 all because a number of religious people may use planes as terror weapons.<\/span><\/p>\n
I envision a fast track line for atheists at all commercial airports, with only visual screening from a distance by TSA personnel. To use such a line, a traveler would simply have to publicly check that they\u2019re an atheist when getting ticketed, and then off they\u2019d go through security with no wait.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Hemant Mehta at the Friendly Atheist offered this response<\/a>:<\/p>\n
Terrorists will just lie and say they\u2019re atheists.<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
But honestly, that\u2019s not even my biggest concern here. My biggest concern is the false assumption that all (or even most) terrorist attacks are religiously motivated.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s simply not true<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n
\nLess Than 2 Percent Of Terrorist Attacks In The E.U. Are Religiously Motivated<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n
The murdering spree by two gunmen on the offices of a French satirical magazine have incited horror across the world. That\u2019s completely justified. But what\u2019s been lost in the mass outpourings of solidarity and condemnations of barbarity is the fact that so few of the terrorist attacks carried out in European Union countries are related to Islamist militancy. In fact, in the last five year, less than 2 percent of all terrorist attacks in the E.U. have been \u201creligiously motivated.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2013, there were 152 terrorist attacks in the EU.\u00a0Two<\/a>\u00a0of them were \u201creligiously motivated.\u201d In 2012, there were 219 terrorist attacks in EU countries,\u00a0six<\/a>\u00a0of them were \u201creligiously motivated.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2011,\u00a0not one<\/a>\u00a0of the 174 terrorist attacks in EU countries in 2011 were \u201caffiliated or inspired\u201d by terrorist organizations. 2010, 249 terrorist attacks,\u00a0three<\/a>\u00a0of them were considered by Europol to be \u201cIslamist.\u201d In 2009, of 294 terrorist attacks,\u00a0only one<\/a>\u00a0was related to Islamist militancy \u2013 though Europol added the caveat, \u201cIslamist terrorists still aim to cause mass casualties.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what these numbers look like:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The vast majority of terrorist attacks in E.U. countries have for years been perpetrated by separatist organizations.<\/p>\n
Of 152 terrorist attacks in 2013, 84 of were motivated by ethno-nationalist or separatist beliefs. That\u2019s more than 55 percent. That\u2019s down from 76 percent the year before. While the report notes this decline, it also states that a number of separatist groups are showing \u201cgreater sophistication, incremental learning and lethal intent.\u201d<\/p>\n
Religious motivations makes up just a slightly larger portion of terrorist attacks in the U.S.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
The vast, vast majority of terrorist attacks are politically motivated, not religiously motivated\u2014and yes, nonreligious\u00a0people participate in politically motivated terrorism. Click here to read an FBI list of terrorist attacks<\/a>. You may be surprised at the diversity of nonreligious motivations. For all of Zoltan\u2019s claims that he\u2019s making his suggestions based on \u201cstatistical analysis,\u201d he\u2019s not doing anything of the sort.<\/p>\n
Of course, he\u2019s making a claim that I\u2019ve often seen made in atheist circles\u2014that atheists are more moral, etc., than are those who are religious.<\/p>\n
Yes, it is true that only a very small percentage<\/a> of those in prison in the U.S. identify as atheists. However, it is also the case that atheists in the U.S. tend to have\u00a0higher education levels<\/a>, and better educated people are less likely to go to prison<\/a>\u00a0(for a variety of reasons). Similarly, African Americans, who are significantly less likely<\/a> than other groups to identify as atheist, are significantly overrepresented in the prison population, largely\u00a0as a result of\u00a0racism in our criminal justice system.<\/p>\n
The low rate of self-identifying atheists in prison in the U.S. is not evidence that atheists are more moral than other populations. It\u2019s more complicated than that.<\/p>\n
I grew up in an evangelical home. I was taught that evangelicals were\u00a0more moral, more kind, less violent, etc., than those in other groups. I see a similar tendency in the atheist movement today (or, to be specific, in the atheist movement that organizes online and through conferences and atheist organizations). This is concerning.<\/p>\n
Atheism does not make one more moral than others. Atheism is not an ethical system. Indeed, atheists adhere to a wide variety of ethical systems that are sometimes at odds with each other. Stalin was an atheist,\u00a0and yet he\u00a0did things that I, as an atheist myself, find reprehensible. This is because he adhered to a different ethical system than I do, even though we share our lack of belief in a God or gods.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s stop patting ourselves on the back for being better than everyone else and start spurring each other to be the best we can be. Oh, and Zoltan? Please educate yourself about\u00a0terrorism, because you\u2019re getting it wrong<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Atheism does not make one more moral than others. Atheism is not an ethical system. Indeed, atheists adhere to a wide variety of ethical systems that are sometimes at odds with each other. Stalin was an atheist, and yet he did things that I, as an atheist myself, find reprehensible. This is because he adhered to a different ethical system than I do, even though we share our lack of belief in a God or gods.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":845,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[381],"class_list":["post-25885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-atheism","tag-morality"],"yoast_head":"\n
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