letter to the editor: much confusion about atheism
The following letter was published yesterday in my local newspaper:
Atheists are contemptuous of others' religious beliefsI am aghast at people who force their religious beliefs upon others. I don't have a problem with people who practice their own belief systems, nor with people who tell others about what they believe in the hope that others will freely embrace or reject these beliefs.
However, a group of people with galling arrogance and intolerance impose their religion on the public square, driving out all other faiths. These people demand that everyone live by their moral standards, and they call those who do not acquiesce to their narrow viewpoints hateful and hurtful names that more aptly apply to themselves.
The people I write about are atheists who hold their humanistic beliefs and moral relativism to be superior to others. Other beliefs are contemptuously treated as unworthy of free speech rights. The Constitution prohibited Congress from establishing a federal religion. The founders knew all about this because 12 of the original 13 states had an established state religion (only Delaware did not).
A creche in the town square, or whatever symbol they strike down, is no more establishment of a state religion that eating a bagel is conversion to Judaism.
[name and address redacted]
My response follows:
Much confusion about atheismContrary to what has recently been printed in these pages, atheism is neither a religion nor a faith, but rather the absence of supernatural beliefs. Atheism is not a narrow viewpoint, although it does rigorously examine all claims to truth. While many atheists are humanists, neither humanism nor atheism is synonymous with moral relativism. Dissent from the religious status quo is not arrogance, and an unbiased public square is not intolerance. Such misinformation is common, but it should not go unanswered.
Atheists do not demand – as many religious people do – that government power be used to enforce their opinions; instead, we would rather government stay out of the religion business altogether. The secular position is one of simple neutrality by government: not providing financial or material support for any particular position. For example, I know of no atheist who advocates changing our national motto to "in no gods we trust." Rather, we think that the original motto of "e pluribus unum" (approved by Ben Franklin, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson) should not have been altered. Contrast this with many believers' demands that government endorse their monotheistic beliefs in our national motto, on our currency, and in our Pledge of Allegiance.
If some people want to display a creche, a crucifix, or the Ten Commandments on a block of granite, there is no reason why they can't use their own money and erect it on their own property; our Constitution protects their right to do so. Such displays in the public square (paid for by public taxes) may not represent an establishment of religion, but they are an unnecessary and unwise entanglement between the religion of some and the government of all.
Forcing atheists to subsidize believers' religious expression shows blatant contempt for the First Amendment, as this is little more than demanding a special subsidy while calling it "free speech." Salman Rushdie, a writer who knows something about dealing with theocrats, notes that believers often demand a double standard: "Religions play bare-knuckle rough all the time, while demanding kid-glove treatment in return."
Religious opinions deserve no special privilege, and should not be funded from the public coffers.