Help people ‘come out of the closet’ about their non-belief
For as long as I can remember I haven’t heard a good reason to think that there was a supernatural aspect to our natural world. We live in a natural world where the machinery of nature is indifferent to humans and our narcissistic desires for special meaning and purpose. Don’t like the way the universe works? Go find another one.
When I was very young I realised that religion was rather provincial. People aren’t born believing but instead they get it from their surrounding community and family. Immigrants came with their own religion. I had friends who were religious and they would talk to me about their invisible friends. There were gods, faeries, spirits, ghosts, and so on. I was particularly curious how they chose their religion and what they thought of other competing religions. Were they decoys made by a devil, a simple human delusion, or did they perhaps have a new-age belief in a unified god beneath any and all religions?
My friends were generally quite honest about how they were born undecided but then later chose to believe in a particular supernatural idea because of being taught by grown-ups. They were all thankful to have been taught the correct religion. All said their religion made them feel good, and I didn’t doubt their sincerity for a second. Most of them reconciled the variety of religions by saying that other people were delusional and ignorant while citing obvious examples of manufactured religions like Cargo Cults or Scientology. Surprisingly they very rarely invoked tricks from the devil as a reason. I thought that devil decoys would have been far more popular; a supernatural war with human souls as the currency was a rather spectacular and appealing idea.
According to my friends anyone who worshiped the wrong gods was delusional or ignorant of religious evidence, but what I wanted to know was how they were so sure they weren’t delusional themselves. They answered by way of talking about their feelings and how they just felt a connection to something special and supernatural. So did the follower of every other religion. I’d ask them whether people can fool themselves into feeling false gods? They’d always agree, but they wouldn’t apply it to themselves. They demanded a special place in the universe.
For a long time I was unconvinced by the supernatural and so I called myself an Agnostic, a fence-sitter. It took many years to realise that I was giving religion a privileged position by not also sitting on the fence when it came to the issue of unicorn existence, homeopathy, psychic powers, or whether water dowsing works. There is no good evidence for any of those supernatural phenomena but I wouldn’t waste time by saying that I’m agnostic about unicorns.
Or, in other words…
The typical understanding of the term Atheist is that it’s someone who says there is no god, but I don’t make that claim. Being that sure about what I couldn’t possibly know makes no sense, and no Atheist I know claims to have that kind of certainty. Instead Atheism is not a rejection but rather an absence of gods until it’s proven otherwise. Fundamentalist it is not.
Unfortunately the term Atheist has a stigma about it in some parts of the population, and this means that non-believers worry about the reaction of making their views public. There is a feeling that atheists need to ‘come out of the closet’ (so to speak) and that’s why I’m glad to see that the Humanist Society of NZ has launched their atheist bus campaign.
“There’s probably no God, now stop worrying and enjoy your life”
In the 1901 Census approximately 1 in 30 people did not give a religious affiliation. One hundred years later 4 out of 10 people did not specify a religious affiliation (source). These 40% subsidise churches through taxes and these churches often have large adverts proselytising their ideas, so rather than just proclaiming a world-view (as claimed by some) I see this bus campaign as speaking up for a part of society that is underrepresented.
So, please consider donating to the campaign to help atheists come out of the closet, because we’re just like Christians who don’t believe in Thor, Wotan, Banaitja, Xemu and Rangi and Papa. Atheists just go one god further.
December 10th, 2009 at 5:19 am
Matthew, very well written. I was similarly a kind (and non-confrontational) “agnostic” – actually, I called myself a “confusist”, content to be uncertain… (an old essay survives on my ideas: http://old.davelane.org/confusism_demystified.php)
Then I read Dawkin’s “God Delusion”, and it felt like finding home at long last – reading an eloquent distillation of all the misgivings and distrust (”alien” thinking, to my mind) that I’d seen around me growing up in the USA. He convinced me to get off the fence. Since then, I’ve been open about my atheism, celebrating it, even, and engaging in discourse with believers. I’ve encouraged others to be open and honest, too. Sort of like Linux users – who are good at “passing” for something vaguely distasteful but more socially mainstream to avoid drawing undue attention to themselves – I think the god-fearing world has underestimated our numbers for eons, and we need to celebrate our well justified lack of certainty.
Of course (a favourite argument of mine for Creationists and ID apologists), the systematic unjust marginalisation (to the point of stake burning, torture, etc.) of atheists over a couple millennia has caused humans to evolve (after a fashion) into Creationists. Ironic.
Dave
December 10th, 2009 at 5:24 am
By the way, I love that Dawkins quote (at least I heard it from him first) about “going one god further”. For some reason, it reminds me of a great description I once saw of the defensive Japanese martial art, Aikido: “Aikido is the art of helping an aggressor overcome his or her aggression”.
Oh, and another great one, which I’ve used to great effect in response to house-calling evangelicals: “God made me an atheist. Who are we to question his plan?” Elegant on so many levels.
December 10th, 2009 at 7:38 am
Perhaps save the donations for starving children. I’ve never come across discrimination against atheists in my lifetime. I’m also surprised that you’ve run into so many religous people growing up. Where was that? Was it in nz?
December 10th, 2009 at 8:36 am
Heh, well the donations were at $666 a little while ago but I guess someone decided that number wasn’t a good way to end the first day and it’s a little higher now.
@Richard,
About 60% of NZ is religious and so I’m a little surprised that you think it’s odd to run into many religious people, and also odd to me that you’ve never come across any discrimination. When I grew up there were some particularly strong minded Christians (teachers and students) that wouldn’t mind telling children they were going to burn in hell, etc., which I found somewhat absurd (apparently their invisible friend was going to send them to an invisible lake of fire). Thankfully I didn’t grow up in a religious household but I’ve had friends with horrible family problems because of supernatural beliefs.
Now I donate to ’starving children’ (via Heifer) and spend some spare time on what I consider to be charity (as well as the stuff you know about I’ve been working on and off on a teaching plan for prisoners). As far as I’m concerned it’s up to all of us to help each other because help isn’t coming from elsewhere. Of course most activities and charities generally speaking aren’t to do with feeding children but they can still be worth it, and I care a lot about how children are threatened with hell, if they’re told that ~4% of people (homosexuals) are evil, and how we view the basis for morals http://j.mp/51miwh and teachings like vicarious redemption http://j.mp/8K52oq
The purpose of these advertisements is to help publicise a part of society that isn’t normally visible, because without that effort people can think it’s abnormal or immoral.
I can only assume that you’ll be asking a piddling 10k from the Catholic Church.
December 10th, 2009 at 8:38 am
In lighter news…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7xZ-PJ9sTM
December 10th, 2009 at 5:26 pm
Wow, it’s up to $3.5k worth of donations, it’s on the front page of stuff.co.nz and it’s the second most viewed article…
http://www.stuff.co.nz/oddstuff/3149823/Theres-probably-no-God-coming-to-a-bus-near-you
December 10th, 2009 at 6:23 pm
I am sorry to hear about your friends growing up experiences and don’t mean to belittle that. I can only say that I grew up in the South Island and would be hard pressed to recall any serious discussion at school or university about religion, let alone discrimination. I knew one person at high school who was public about his christianity. He got a hard time just like anyone who was a little different.
My family background is Anglican and I went to state schools. Perhaps it is a very different experience for those with other churches in their background. In terms of burning in hell, I only ever heard that in american movies.
If your 60% is a census figure I would suggest there are plenty of people who will mark down that they are Anglican or whatever but don’t have strong beliefs about god, let alone discriminate against athiests.
Perhaps what we’re seeing here is how people’s lives can vary markedly even in such a small country. Personally I’ve had more athiests pushing their beliefs at me than non-athiests so I’ll struggle to give money that might encourage more of it, but I’ll keep my mind open as the campaign develops.
December 10th, 2009 at 7:20 pm
@Richard
I grew up in middle of the North Island (Hamilton, Rotorua, Meremere, Huntly, Kaimais, New Plymouth). There was some ‘burn in hell’ types around there, and for examples of how some New Zealanders view non-belief just read the Stuff.co.nz comments for the typical misunderstandings about morals, ethics, and condemnations to hell, etc.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/oddstuff/3149823/Theres-probably-no-God-coming-to-a-bus-near-you/
December 13th, 2009 at 11:01 pm
I grew up some time ago in NZ and was lucky not to have religion imposed from my family. However, I can remember being terrorised as a child (working as a paper boy) by an old women who told me I was a “sinner” and should repent. It was quite a frightening experience. A form of psychological child abuse.
These days I come across some really thoughtless Christian behaviour when I have a Christian ceremony imposed on me at the most inappropriate times. For example, a meal at work, at a school reunion, etc.
The more Christians who become aware that they are actually a minority in this society and shouldn’t act as if everyone agreed with them, the better our society will be.
And I think events like this campaign will help to bring home to at least some of these people that we actually skive in a pluralistic society.