Atheists are NOT Psychopaths

Can we please let go of the meme that christians are good, and all goodness stems from religion, making atheists bad? Yes, I am an atheist. Yes, I have morals. No, I don't get those morals from religion. No, I am not a psychopath. Please, just stop thumping me with the badbadperson stick, ok?

Erik Rush (the Other Rush, as he bills himself) from WorldNetDaily, in Atheists' Middle-Finger Salute. (That's just how we greet each other, Mr. Rush, because we're atheists and have no manners.)

Over the last few holiday seasons, a city in the state in which I reside denial? paranoia? has enjoyed (I use the term facetiously) literary criticism: if you are going to use sarcasm, either do it or don't. Don't use sarcasm and then explain that you are being sarcastic. Either you respect your audience enough to believe that they will recognize sarcasm, or you don't. I use sarcasm all the time, because I assume that the readers of this blog are intelligent enough to recognize it. (Props to my peeps!) more than its share of media attention, some of it on the national level, as regards its policies and procedures relating to holiday displays. Last year, in fact, this place was used as the centerpiece for Bill O'Reilly (of Fox News) decrying the ongoing war on Christmas. There. Is. No. War. On. Christmas.

Some contend who? you? reporters? syrians? that the aforementioned issue of holiday displays in this city started when a local Jewish organization sought to display a menorah as part of the city's downtown holiday fare. a Jewish middle finger salute?. Unfortunately, it was met with resistance due to agreements and conditions in place between development authorities and area business owners. uh-huh. it wasn't the war on christmas? Pure bureaucracy, but anyone could guess where this was going. well, once O'Reilly got involved, yes.

Given the sensitivities that exist these days you mean everyone wanting equality and not being afraid to demand it? Mr. Rush is black. As the direct beneficiary of the "sensitivies" that existed during the 60's, you'd think he'd recognize them for what they are., emotions began to run high, and accusations of religious and ethnic insensitivity materialized out of thin air! It was magic!. Two years ago, I even became involved in a minor print slugfest kapow! with the New York Times writer who opportunistically singled out the community as anti-Semitic we like the Jews, just not their blue and white displays . This city became embroiled in a controversy involving "parity" as a direct beneficiary of "parity", you'd think . . . in their holiday displays, where they would be located, how high or low-profile they would be and so forth. In the end, with the whole nation looking on, the city council settled on a multicultural display reflecting various religious and secular winter traditions. did it involve a Festivus pole? a Flying Spaghetti Monster display? a blank plaque representing atheism?

There is nothing this columnist can see wrong with a multicultural display reflecting religious and secular winter traditions whose? was there a Ramadan display in your plans? what would a Ramadan display look like, anyway? I am now picturing a string of lights in the shape of tiny crescent moons.– but then, there is nothing this columnist can see wrong with overtly religious displays being permitted on city-owned grounds or at city facilities either i can. i pay for city-owned grounds and facilities with my tax dollars and i'm a freakin' atheist. why should i have to pay for that? why can't i have roads without potholes instead? aren't there far more important things for my city, and every other city, to be doing?. Here, the "church and state" argument so frequently employed was specious, given that the new display featured both Christian and non-Christian themes, rather than the city opting for no display at all. first of all, it doesn't matter that you add the obligatory santa display to make it both xtian and nonxtian. you're still displaying religious themes on public property. separation of church and state still applies. that's like saying that you can torture prisoners as long as you give them healthy, delicious meals afterwards, thus fulfilling some of the Geneva Convention requirements.

No doubt the unspoken "slippery slope" many municipalities and businesses perceive pertaining to religious displays is that, having permitted some, they would then be obliged to similarly recognize every high holy day that came across the transom, bulldozed through by minority sects threatening lawsuits if their desires were not met. well, yeah, because it's ok to let the majority abuse the minority. and high holy days only count if they're christian high holy days.

Of course, none of these flaps we hear about are really about holiday displays anyway. that's true. they're about the fact that this is a representative democracy, not a theocracy. they're about the fact that the rest of us are sick of having someone else's beliefs shoved down our throats when we live in a country founded on religious tolerance. *reads ahead* oh, no. They are about the anti-religious i'm not antireligious. neither are muslims, jews, hindus, buddhists, atheists, or pastafarians. you can worship anything you want for all i care. worship jesus, worship a tree, worship my socks, if you want. just leave me out of it. seeking to promote a morally ambivalent i'm not morally ambivalent, nor do i want other people to be so. i'm all about morality, just not what-underwear-are-you-wearing morality, wholly secular society ok, i'm all about that and a complicit establishment press that aids them in doing so the media elite!, as well as fomenting discord between religious sects and denominations. you guys do that all on your own. you don't need any help at all from the atheists.

The reader may be aware that in the Washington, D.C., area, print advertising was purchased by atheist group The American Humanist Association, featuring such things as a man dressed as Santa Claus with the legend: "Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness' sake." i watched a 60 second tv ad all about the holy bible 5 times last night. it's ok for xtians, but not ok for atheists? and what exactly is wrong with the message "be good"? if god doesn't inspire you to be good, keep being good anyway. we all benefit.

Certainly, in America, atheists are free to purchase whatever advertising they like. damn straight. The question, however, is why such people find it necessary to raise the proverbial middle finger toward the religious in such a manner. Would a responsible media provider accept advertising from a Christian group that openly attacked other religions? Of course not. necessarily, if you are telling me that jesus gets me to heaven, then you are telling me that atheism does not. it's an attack. unless "you're burning in a lake of fire for all eternity" is supposed to be friendly? Said media providers, however, are as cowed by atheist groups as businesses and municipalities when it comes to this issue. yeah, we're scary. without jesus to stop us, we might torture people or start wars!

The problem – as religious people realize if you're the only one who sees it . . .– is that we are not some inherently moral, advanced race from "Star Trek." uh, what? Not all individuals are predisposed to "be good for goodness' sake." that would be practically everyone, in my experience. Ideals such as the Golden Rule and concepts of the sanctity of life, for example, are rooted in Judeo-Christian thought and are thoroughly ingrained in Westerners – but not so much in those of other cultures. those muslims, always killing people! You know, because our christian leaders aren't ordering torture and war. Because christians have never . . . crusades . . . inquisition . . . smallpox blankets . . . Left to their own devices, all human beings are capable of some pretty heinous acts when answering only to themselves. hey, i'm not the one torturing people. and timothy mcveigh? christian. The Nazis dispensed with a deity, and we all know the extent of barbarism to which they fell. yeah, that was the problem with the nazis. not enough god. Many of us are routinely appalled by the heartbreaking and wholesale lack of humanity displayed in certain underdeveloped nations when conflicts arise. Africans!

Anyone who does not believe that religion, particularly Christianity, and traditional values in America are under attack is kidding themselves. or you're a persecution freak. The war on Christmas, at which folks snicker up their sleeves and throw quotation marks around in print, splat! is but a battle in the war that seeks to win Americans over to a self-seeking, unaccountable mindset mine! come, join me, come to the dark side. we've got cookies! and worldview in which they will be controlled by the State rather than guided by God's laws. "controlled" "guided". sure. whatever.