Atheists - the new gays!

Arts & Sciences Religion & Spirituality
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dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilb … he_ne.html

[quote]Is it my imagination or have the atheists come out of the closet (in the United States) since 9/11?

Prior to 9/11, it would have been career suicide for a public figure to come right out and say God is a fairy tale. Now it’s a feature of popular culture. You can see it on cable of course, in shows such as BullSh*t, Real Time, The Daily Show, and Southpark. But it’s also a feature of network TV. The main character on House is written as the most brilliant human on the planet, and he’s an atheist. The new show 3lbs has a similar character. I can’t remember anything like that ten years ago.

Famous atheist Richard Dawkins’ book The God Delusion is #5 on Amazon.com. Sam Harris is right up there with his books The End of Faith and Letters to a Christian Nation. They aren’t selling in numbers anywhere approaching the top religious books, but they are best sellers. When was the last time two books promoting atheism were best sellers at about the same time?

I think the hidden benefit of Islamic extremism is that it freed the atheists from their closets. The old mindset in the United States was that almost any religion was good, and atheism was bad. But since 9/11, atheism has moved above Islam in the rankings, at least in the minds of Christians and Jews in the United States. [/quote]

While I don’t think being an atheist should be some great matter of personal pride (as it often seems to be with many atheists I know), I’m glad we’re approaching an era where a presidential candidate could conceivably admit to not believing in God and actually have a prayer (hehe) of being elected. We’ve come a long way from when JFK’s being a Catholic was actually an issue in his candidacy!

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Why not? Many faithful take great pride in what they believe; can’t atheists do the same? :wink:

I’m not sure we’re there yet. There’s a pretty big gap between Southpark characters and presidential candidates. :stuck_out_tongue:

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One problem Atheists have is…

They have no one to talk to during really good sex!

(Think about it…it’ll come to you :wink:)

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:laughing: Oh! Oh! Oh Flying Spaghetti Monster! Oh yeah!

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“There is no God! There is no God! ahhhhh…”

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[quote=“TainanCowboy”]One problem Atheists have is…

They have no one to talk to during really good sex!

(Think about it…it’ll come to you :wink:)
[/quote]

N…oh God! N…oh God!

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I’ll pray for all of you…:pray:

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Why?

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Let’s not get too excited about all this new-found acceptance. Atheists are the new gays in the sense that they’re the group that it’s still okay to look down on.

[quote]April 2, 2006 – Given the increasing religiosity of American culture, it’s perhaps not too surprising that a new study out this month finds that Americans are not fond of atheists and trust them less than they do other groups. The depth of this distrust is a bit astonishing nonetheless.

More than 2,000 randomly selected people were interviewed by researchers from the University of Minnesota.

Asked whether they would disapprove of a child’s wish to marry an atheist, 47.6 percent of those interviewed said yes. Asked the same question about Muslims and African-Americans, the yes responses fell to 33.5 percent and 27.2 percent, respectively. The yes responses for Asian-Americans, Hispanics, Jews and conservative Christians were 18.5 percent, 18.5 percent, 11.8 percent and 6.9 percent, respectively.

When asked which groups did not share their vision of American society, 39.5 percent of those interviewed mentioned atheists. Asked the same question about Muslims and homosexuals, the figures dropped to a slightly less depressing 26.3 percent and 22.6 percent, respectively. For Hispanics, Jews, Asian-Americans and African-Americans, they fell further to 7.6 percent, 7.4 percent, 7.0 percent and 4.6 percent, respectively.

The study contains other results, but these are sufficient to underline its gist: Atheists are seen by many Americans (especially conservative Christians) as alien and are, in the words of sociologist Penny Edgell, the study’s lead researcher, “a glaring exception to the rule of increasing tolerance over the last 30 years.”[/quote]

abcnews.go.com/Technology/

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Yeah, that may be. Check this out:

Atheist expelled for questioning classmate’s belief…in leprechauns?

Always two sides to a story, of course. I get the feeling the issue involves the student’s attitude vis-a-vis authority as much as it involves the religious dispute. Still, “…mine was not a protected class of people” has a creepy ring to it.

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He says this (the boldface bit) as if it’s accepted fact. I’ve seen statements saying that American culture is gradually becoming less religious.

As for atheists becoming the “new gay”, I’ve long suspected this would be so. Haters gotta hate someone, and once gays gain full rights the haters will turn their sights onto atheists. :frowning:

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Yeah, that may be. Check this out:

Atheist expelled for questioning classmate’s belief…in leprechauns?

Always two sides to a story, of course. I get the feeling the issue involves the student’s attitude vis-a-vis authority as much as it involves the religious dispute. Still, “…mine was not a protected class of people” has a creepy ring to it.[/quote]
I read the story. It had everything to do with being an asshole, and absolutely nothing to do with questioning a belief in leprechauns. Not that I would agree with the expulsion if I were at that school, though.

By the way, I’ve made peace with my own atheism as per being surrounded by family who are devoted and even evangelical Christians. I happily ask my dad to say the blessing when he’s over at dinner. At weddings and funerals (the only two occasions I darken the door of that relic of the Dark Ages, a church) I don’t snicker or grimace at talk of heaven or the blood of Jesus H. Christ. Which is hard, let me tell you.

Are atheists hard put on? Well, for me, considering that I’m in a fairly enlightened part of Canada, and not the troglodytic parts of the USA, I wouldn’t say so. Now if I lived in deepest, darkest Texas or Louisiana or some such place I imagine I’d have to keep my non-Christian-believing beliefs to myself (actually, I’ve been told as much by friends who’ve spent time in those places).

Oh, for fairness sake, I would say that rural Alberta might be a bit touch’n’go about atheism too.

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Why not? Many faithful take great pride in what they believe; can’t atheists do the same? :wink: [/quote]

No, they can’t.

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yeah, no need to go getting all happy about it. kind of misses whole point.

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Greater acceptance of atheism and various religions seem to be continuing to become the norm in the US: