An opinion piece in today's Washington Post:
America doesn’t need more God. It needs more atheists.
This particular piece isn't behind a paywall. Anyone can access it. It is a
*long* read, but well worth it.
I don't think the atheists here need the provided advice, namely to be clear and open about your atheism, but I can't take this advice because I'm not an atheist. The article says to ask yourself, "Do I think a supernatural being is in charge of the universe?" If the answer is "no" then you're an atheist. For me the answer is "yes."
I qualify the question in my mind a bit. I believe someone or something is in charge of the universe. It isn't a requirement for me that this someone or something be supernatural. I still think that means I'm not an atheist. Is this someone or something God? I guess it is in my mind, because that's the name I use.
But I am aligned with all atheists because I don't believe any of the world's religions have the slightest inkling about the nature of God. Certainly everything in all the world's religious books is myth, though with plenty of useful observations and lessons about human nature and the nature of the world, and with some useful history sometimes mixed in.
I've probably said this before, but all you people who turn away the Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses who come to your door, fear not. Invite them in and engage them in conversation. They're on a schedule and will only stay 15 or 20 minutes. The exchange of ideas in person is invigorating and much different than interactions online.
Whenever it comes up whether I believe in God, which it occasionally does, I always answer yes, and if the circumstances are appropriate I add that I don't belong to any of the world's religions, that I have my own beliefs that are still vague and unformed. If I'm feeling especially bold I might add that I don't think I really know anything about the nature of God.
This answer always seems to satisfy everyone, or at least no one speaks up, though admittedly I live in a part of the country that tends liberal. Such an answer might not go unremarked in the Bible Belt.
For those who choose not to read the article, here are a few choice excerpts:
Washington Post:
My (non)belief derives naturally from a few basic observations:
- The Greek myths are obviously stories. The Norse myths are obviously stories. L. Ron Hubbard obviously made that stuff up. Extrapolate.
- The holy books underpinning some of the bigger theistic religions are riddled with “facts” now disproved by science and “morality” now disavowed by modern adherents. Extrapolate.
- Life is confusing and death is scary. Naturally, humans want to believe that someone capable is in charge and that we continue to live after we die. But wanting doesn’t make it so.
- Child rape. War. Etc.
...
One of the boys asked what a “myth” was, and I told them it was a story about how the world works. People used to believe that these gods were in charge of what happened on Earth, and these stories helped explain things they didn’t understand, like winter or stars or thunder. “See” — I flipped ahead and found a picture — “Zeus has a thunderbolt.”
“They don’t believe them anymore?” No, I said. That’s why they call it “myth.” When people still believe it, they call it “religion.” Like the stories about God and Moses that we read at Passover or the ones about Jesus and Christmas.
...
My children know how to distinguish fact from fiction — which is harder for children raised religious. They don’t assume conventional wisdom is true and they do expect arguments to be based on evidence. Which means they have the skills to be engaged, informed and savvy citizens.
...
Lies, lying and disinformation suffuse mainstream politics as never before. A recent Washington Post-ABC News poll found that 29 percent of Americans believe that President Biden was not legitimately elected, a total composed of those who think there is solid evidence of fraud (22 percent) and those who think there isn’t (7 percent). I don’t know which is worse: believing there to be evidence of fraud when even the Trump campaign can’t find any or asserting the election was stolen even though you know there’s no proof.
...
We need Americans who demand — as atheists do — that truth claims be tethered to fact. We need Americans who understand — as atheists do — that the future of the world is in our hands. And in this particular political moment, we need Americans to stand up to Christian nationalists who are using their growing political and judicial power to take away our rights. Atheists can do that.
...
But you also don’t get to leave things up to God. Atheists must accept that people are allowing — we are allowing — women to die in childbirth, children to go hungry, men to buy guns that can slaughter dozens of people in minutes. Atheists believe people organized the world as it is now, and only people can make it better.
...
That’s right: Atheists take more political action — donating to campaigns, protesting, attending meetings, working for politicians — than any other “religious” group. And we vote. In his study on this data, sociologist Evan Stewart noted that atheists were about 30 percent more likely to vote than religiously affiliated respondents.
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And when religion loses a fight and progress wins instead? Religion then claims it’s not subject to the resulting laws. “Religious belief” is — more and more, at the state and federal levels — a way to sidestep advances the country makes in civil rights, human rights and public health.
In 45 states and D.C., parents can get religious exemptions from laws that require schoolchildren to be vaccinated. Seven states allow pharmacists to refuse to fill contraceptive prescriptions because of their religious beliefs. Every business with a federal contract has to comply with federal nondiscrimination rules — unless it’s a religious organization. Every employer that provides health insurance has to comply with the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive mandate — unless it’s, say, a craft supply store with Christian owners.
Case by case, law by law, our country’s commitment to the first right enumerated in our Bill of Rights — “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion” — is faltering. The Supreme Court has ruled that the citizens of Maine have to pay for parochial school, that a high school football coach should be free to lead a prayer on the 50-yard line, that a potential wedding website designer can reject potential same-sex clients. This past summer, Oklahoma approved the nation’s first publicly funded religious school. This fall, Texas began allowing schools to employ clergy members in place of guidance counselors.
...
But atheists can do one thing about the country’s drift into theocracy that our religious neighbors won’t: We can tell people we don’t believe in God. The more people who do that, the more we normalize atheism in America, the easier it will be — for both politicians and the general public — to usher religion back out of our laws.
...
And the next time you find yourself tempted to pretend that you believe in God? Tell the truth instead.
--Percy
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