nonplussedbyreligion:

religiousragings:

noxlupus:

w3djyt:

religiousragings:

I haven’t taken the time to verify this quote, but I think what this says is the reason why we are suddenly seeing such a big rise in “militant” atheism.  The push to get extreme religion into politics has been very strong of late.  People who otherwise would not care have been becoming vocal because a line is being crossed that should not be crossed.  ~ Steve

Verified

Just when I thought I couldn’t approve of him more…

Heres the thing people never seem to get. Atheism is a religion. It is the belief in nothing. But still a belief. They have no more right to demand the absence of Christianity or any other religion than we have the right to demand the absence of them. A militant atheist is no better than a militant Christian or Muslim. Get off your high horses people. You aren’t better than me because you believe in nothing. And if you attack my religion in the name of yours then i will shed your blood too. Im a militant Christian.

Atheism, my dear person, is not a belief; it is not a religion.  It is the absence of belief in a god - the rejection of religion as the only basis for moral thought.  It is as much a belief as not-sky-diving is a hobby.  We merely think that things that are verifiably and repeatedly proven true should be the basis of our government.  ”Beliefs” are things that cannot be subject to verification.  This is our, “high horse”.  Radical and dangerous, I know.

The separation of church and state is a rather passionate issue with me, as it was with our founding fathers.  It may not be important to you, but it is extremely important to us.  You are free to believe what you want to believe, but you are not allowed to impose those beliefs onto our government.

And atheists are not talking about blood.  The have never, at any time, talked about blood.  You are the one who brought up blood.  The “militant” atheist is about justice, fairness, and equality, and will actively promote these ideals loudly and persistently.  If you try to use blood in your effort to violate the U.S. Constitution, we would prefer that the law deal with you as the dangerous person that you are.  We will not, however, back down from this fight simply because religious militants threaten us with violence.

Peace,

~ Steve

Yes to what Steve had to say. @ noxlupus, “And if you attack my religion in the name of yours then i will shed your blood too,” proves you’ve not only missed the point of atheism, but Christianity as well.  If you want to know how to deal with those who dispute your religion, you only need to look to your Bible.

Matthew 5:11-16  ¹¹ “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. ¹² Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you ¹³ “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot ¹⁴ “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵ Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. ¹⁶In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

Matthew 5:21-22 ²¹ “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ ²² But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sisterwill be subject to judgment… And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.

These aren’t the ramblings of Paul, but actual words in red, ‘spoken’ by Jesus. We shouldn’t have to teach you about your Bible, but we’re more than capable of doing so.  When militant atheists fight against legislation, Christians like you also benefit from it.  If atheists didn’t fight to keep religion out of public schools, your children would have to allow Muslims to have times of prayer during the school day.  Equal opportunity would have to be given to students of all religions and belief system.  Religious education classes would be required to teach positively about all religions, not just Christianity.  Religion does not equal Christianity.

The word militant may be where you encountered a problem.  It does not always mean a call to arms, or a threat of violence, something that you seemed to miss.  Militant atheists tend to fight with our minds.  The bloodshed seems to be a religious thing. ~ Kim

i’m an atheist and i’m no illusion that atheists can be a bunch of fuckers

lately especially there’s been some seriously gross racist shit pulled by atheists around tumblr

and guess what? when those people atheists are being shitty to wanna say all atheists are a bunch of racist douchebags i’m not going to complain

it might not be true for me/my friends/my circle/the people i know, but that doesn’t matter, and pulling the old “not all of us are like that” is derailing

instead i’m just going to continue trying my best not to fuck up, learning from it when i inevitably do, and collecting fellow atheists when they’re being shits where i can

stfuconfederates:

This is a post I promised to write a while ago when some of my friends asked me to come get my fellow white atheists. I just now am getting around to it, but the timing works out. Also, blanket statements that I may make will apply only to Christianity and atheism in the US.

First off, I’m an atheist. I was raised by (militant) Southern Baptists, and as far back as 7 years old I can remember having no faith whatsoever. This came at a time when faith could have helped me through a lot of the things that were happening to me but, try as I might, I didn’t and couldn’t believe.

I’m not going to get into a lot of the specifics of why I don’t/can’t believe, because that’s not relevant to what I’m going to say right now. But it’s important for me to note that an atheist is what I am, not a way I identify or a thing I ‘believe’. And, for our purposes here, I am an atheist who does not believe in a god (negative atheism) vs. somebody who definitively believes that there is no god (positive atheism).

Now: Christianity is a big topic. You have: The Bible itself in original form and languages, translations, mistranslations, books removed, meanings distorted, massive cultural differences and misunderstandings that arise, and then you have Christians themselves, many of which have absolutely nothing in common with each other save for the title of ‘Christian’. You have protestants, Catholics and Latter Day Saints. You have the Westboro Baptist Church.

And Christianity has been (and often still is) oppressive. Or perhaps more appropriately, Christianity has too often been used as a tool for oppression. It has been an essential tenet to American Exceptionalism, human enslavement, patriarchy, Islamophobis, homophobia, transphobia, rape culture, colonization, war, war, war, murder, genocide, white supremacy. These are undeniable facts. You can say well that was the person and not the religion, but there are plenty of interpretations on the religion (and yes, the Old Testament supports all of those things^^^).

Where we (atheists) often get confused is where the fact of oppressive Christianity =/= oppression of atheists (at least in a sense of systematic oppression) today. Yes, bad things happen to atheists. Christians are often rude to atheists, along with making tremendously fucked up comments like God doesn’t believe in atheists and you just believe in God but don’t want to admit it and you’ll go to hell if you disagree with me. That hurt me a lot when I was very young, because I was made to believe that there was something deeply fucked up about me because I couldn’t believe. I was also told that nobody was actually gay and homosexuality is just a rebellion against God, which made all those sexual thoughts about men all the more confusing, and I was made to feel shame for virtually everything that I was, and am. And yes. It hurt.

But instances of anti-atheism are, essentially, localized. Other than the lack of representation in government (and often the school system), atheists are given a great deal of consideration. For example: plenty of companies hold policy that doesn’t allow for their employees to discuss religion at work (say ‘Merry Christmas’ or ‘blessed day’, etc), and there are a number of anti-discrimination policies put in place that keep ‘religious beliefs/lack thereof’ from being a determining factor in hiring and firing. Does this mean that atheists don’t get fired from jobs for being atheists? No, we do. But is it, today, a national trend? I’d be inclined to say no.

In other words, Christianity targets members of the LGBTQ community, Muslims, immigrants, and uterus-bearers far more than it does atheists.

Now, here’s what is perhaps the main point of this long-winded post. Current atheist recruiting tactics are horrendous. It’s generally the assumption of white people that Black folks will respond positively to anything that ‘connects things to enslavement’. We’ve seen it with vegans, to an atrocious degree (see: your people were slaves! like the animals are now!), and we’re seeing it now with atheists. In various forms, but here’s one of them.

The Old Testament condones slavery, so how can you be a Christian?

Yes, it’s true, the Old Testament not only condones slavery but suggests (the Tower of Babel) that darker skin is a direct punishment from God for sin. These are, naturally, issues. BUT

You have to keep in mind that A. Not everybody believes in the Old Testament or considers the OT to be relevant in the new covenant/post the birth of Jesus -B. Human beings that were enslaved were exposed to Christianity during this period, as the only thing that could grant them salvation. The history is complicated, and all fucked up, but to approach a Black Christian with the assumption that they should forsake their beliefs because the OT condoned slavery is not your assumption to make. C. People can, truly, believe whatever they want, and those beliefs don’t always come from the same places or causes. It is the degree to which those beliefs manifest in harmful actions that determine the level to which those beliefs must be countered.

In other words, don’t attack somebody for being something that you can’t possibly understand in terms of racial identity and history (coughIslamophobiacough). Also, don’t compare anything to human enslavement, ever, and don’t assume to dictate how an oppressed person should feel about their oppression. We forget, so often, that faith can help people.

Now. I see other queer people who are Christian and have an overwhelming desire to ask what the fuck is wrong with them. But I don’t. I have to remember that being a Christian =/= believing in Leviticus or identifying with the Christians who are, nose to toes, horrible fucking people.

Attack Christianity all you want, as far as I’m concerned. People who call themselves Christians made my life a living fucking hell for a long time, and still do so to a lot of people I know. Horrendous things have been done in the name of Christianity (and they still happen), and I firmly believe that, at its core, Christianity is a terrible force of fuckery.

(but one Christian does not equal Christianity, and if a person isn’t being hateful or oppressive with what they believe and practice, it’s simply their choice to believe and practice it)

And if you’re still being racist, sexist, and homophobic in your atheism, you’re still not that far from Leviticus.

(Source: reallyreallyokthen)

thegoddamazon:

I can’t even express the level of fuckass…you know what? Let me go smoke a cigarette.

White Atheists kill me, yo.

i will come collect any fellow white atheists who think this shit is even remotely okay. and by “collect” i mean give you a good fucking hiding

sea-bear:

… All the religious fanatics and Christian and Muslim weirdos who criticize atheists can take a flying leap — and when Bill Donohue rants and raves about atheist billboards, it’s a vindication and a triumph. But when one of our own, the black atheist Sikivu Hutchinson, speaks out in criticism, it’s a message that must be taken seriously and addressed…

You know what’s awesome about PZ Myers? Unlike most other White atheists, he knows when to sit down and listen to PoC atheists.

White atheists, take note. Instead of losing your shit when a PoC says that something you’re doing is racist, pay attention. Just because you’re an atheist doesn’t mean you’re free from all illogical and irrational actions and beliefs.

From Sikivu Hutchinson’s blog post entitled, “Slaves like Us: American Atheists on the Plantation”

… In the Harrisburg incident some black residents spewed anti-atheist slurs and labeled the AA group the Antichrist.  Vandals tore part of the billboard down and it was removed shortly after it was mounted.  But AA’s ahistorical paternalistic approach to “secular” public service messaging is one of the main reasons why New Atheism is still racially segregated and lily white.  Clearly AA doesn’t give a damn about the reality of urban communities of color in the U.S. vis-à-vis the institutional role of organized religion in a white supremacist capitalist context…

(Source: sea-bear-joan)

British-born author, literary critic and journalist Christopher Hitchens has died at the age of 62.

He died from pneumonia, a complication of the oesophageal cancer he was suffering from, at a Texas hospital.

Vanity Fair magazine, which announced his death, said there would “never be another like Christopher”.

He is survived by his wife, Carol Blue, and their daughter, Antonia, and his children from a previous marriage, Alexander and Sophia.

Why are all the atheist tumblrs (aka tumblrs about atheism not personal atheist’s blogs) full of so many *isms and bigotries? Newsflash: you don’t need to misrepresent religion to criticise it. Organised religion does plenty to critise. 

Even the “better” ones are usually full of veiled or outright ableism, setting belief in a diety as “crazy” or “stupid” or with a bit of racism thrown in: “barbaric”, “savage”.