Damn Those Overrated Gays And Atheists!

Mark Juddery, who styles himself a judge of all things overrated, has a list on HuffPost of “The 10 Most Overrated Things Of The Decade.”  Topping his list is gnu atheism:

…Just as it was cool in the nineties to come out as gay, it was cool in the 2000s (especially for really smart people) to adopt another once-scandalous lifestyle choice: atheism. The non-believers were inspired by such prophets as Christopher Hitchens (who devised the term “the new atheism”) and Richard Dawkins. Hitchens’ book God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything was (as you might guess) an attack on religion, justifying the author’s own passionate atheism. This is like complaining against the management of the Elvis Presley Fan Club, and hence concluding that Elvis didn’t really exist.

It was cool in the nineties to come out as gay?!  Tell that to the thousands of people who suffered as a result.  Or to the teenagers who still suffer horribly from bullying as a result of being (or being perceived as) gay.  Or to the millions of people denied the basic human right of marriage.  Or to the homosexuals being executed in Muslim countries or pursued in east Africa.  How cool is that?

Second in difficulty to coming out of the closet as gay is coming out as a non-theist.  This is especially true in a society that heavily privileges religion.  It’s so cool to be an atheist that polls tell us that it is the least popular and least trusted group in America.

Juddery’s Elvis Club comparison is itself overrated.  As the Friendly Atheist points out:

If the Elvis Presley Fan Club had damn near all the power in the government and constantly tried to pass irresponsible, unconstitutional laws designed to promote Elvis merchandise, you’d be pissed off, too.

People who are gay or atheists, or both, have suffered an awful lot throughout history.  The fact that anyone at all thinks they’re now cool is an enormous step forward.  They are not only NOT overrated, they can’t be rated highly enough.