Intellectual Badass

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A Misunderstanding

[TW] Rape

deconversionmovement:

stream-of-unconsciousness:

“I hate when people shove their religion down my throat! Now open your mouth so I can shove my lack thereof down yours.”

— Atheists

Let us clear up this fundamental misunderstanding. Atheists aren’t shoving disbelief down anyone’s throat. We are protecting human rights. We are standing up for homosexuals who can’t marry. We are standing up for women who can’t abort. We are standing up for children who aren’t allowed to think for themselves. We are standing up for the women who are oppressed in the name of religion — women who have their genitals mutilated in the name of Allah.

You are either religious or apathetic and only thing worse than a religious bigot is someone who is apathetic. You are on the oppressor’s side by default. Would you rather a religious husband who would require you to submit according to the Bible or an Atheist husband who would most likely treat you as an equal? Would you rather a country that accepts science or a country that partakes in anti-science propaganda because said theory disagrees with their religious scripture? Would you rather a country based on human rights or a country that limits rights due to religious biases? If you refuse to take a stand, that’s fine; however, don’t you dare speak against those who are making a stand for you. The universe forbid you are raped in some alley and end up pregnant. The religious will speak against your right to abort your assailant’s child. Most Atheists will support your right. Shoving disbelief down throats? Not quite. I can only hope you attain a better understanding of an Atheist’s position. I speak for myself, but I am 100% sure other Atheists will echo my sentiments.

Why do I feel like I’ve said this before many, many times before? Atheists don’t walk into churches and try to tell theists how to run their churches. I can’t speak for all, but I really wouldn’t care what they did if they kept it in their churches and home, separate from politics and policy. Theists however take their beliefs out of their churches and try to impose their beliefs on the masses.

I won’t even think globally here, I’ll just focus on America. The citizens of the United States are not only Christian and atheist. America, despite the beliefs of the GOP is not a Judeo-Christian nation, not by a long shot. The diversity of religions and belief systems that exist here are too numerous to name. Yet our policy and law makers have no problem eliminating every non-Christian when they use the Bible as a governing tool. When atheists stand up to that kind of blatant intolerance, we’re not only affecting change for secularist, but also for those of other religions. The fact that Muslin children don’t have to say Christian prayers in school is credited to an atheist. The fact that children can expect to go to school and not be indoctrinated into a religion that is not that of their parents, can be credited to an atheist. The fact that people were made aware of the “cross” left in the aftermath of 911 being used to turn a tragedy that affected those of different faiths into a Christian memorial, can be credited to an atheist.

We do not set out to preach logic and reason, for those are things that one must seek and acquire on their own. We do and will continue to share our knowledge, because that spread of knowledge is something we value. We do not go door to door making converts, but we do fight for things on a scale that not only benefits us, but those of other religions, even if we don’t agree with the religion. So as my fellow atheist blogger pointed out, what we have here is a misunderstanding. I’m known to give people the benefit of the doubt and assume that the misunderstanding was made without all the empirical data. Hopefully you and other theists will be less inclined to make statements as this in the future. I don’t make religious generalizations, I’d expect the the courtesy to be returned. ~ Kim