Shout it from the rooftops! That’s a strange saying. Why would anyone do that? That’d be dangerous and, frankly, rather odd. Still, there are times when you sort of get that feeling. When you are bursting at the seams about something you are tired of hearing over and over and over and….you just want to climb up on your roof tiles and yell, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take this any more!” Of course your neighbors would call the cops and they’d come and take you away, so it really isn’t a very good idea.

However, if you are an American and you are an atheist and you live in the lower 48 right now, you are fed up to the teeth with religious propaganda being hurled at you from every corner. The politicians, our dumb-as-dirt president, the school board bullies, anyone who ever appears on Fox News, regular guests on regular TV shows, everyone on talk radio—in short, from every corner. But what are they pushing at us? Hope or fear?

That hope/fear dichotomy applies both to the current political landscape in this presidential election season, and to religion at all times and in all places. The Republicans keep pushing the Fear Button, as if being afraid makes us good Americans somehow. And Televangelists keep pushing that same button as if fear of hell will somehow make us better people. But where are the proponents of hope? Where’s the inspiration to look ahead, trying to make things better? Until very recently, Barack Obama represented that hope in politics. In religion? No one. The (archaic) fear of hell is far stronger than the (archaic) hope for heaven.

So why do doom and gloom, and panic and perdition, have to dominate so many religions? It is 2008, not 2008 B.C. We done invented them there horseless carriages, and movin’ pitcher shows and even flyin’ machines! Incredible progress! So what do we think about religion? Well, the same as we did 5,000 years ago. Why is that? Having taught ourselves so much about this incredible planet, as well as many of our neighboring planets; and finally peeking at the very bottom of the ocean floor and seeing life forms never dreamed of; and understanding the magnificent diversity of life all around us; why are we not singing songs of joy? Look at what we’ve learned! So why are we still carping about vengeful gods and evil devils? Why?

The Blogosphere

Back in November of 2006 The Washington Post put a question to their readers. They titled the blog “On Faith: Can There Be Common Ground?” and asked the questions: “If some religious people believe they have a monopoly on truth, then are conversation and common ground possible? If so, what would be the difficulties and benefits of such a conversation?”

Among the 900 or so responses were quite a few like these:

Daniel: “I believe in God but I do not try and assume I know what it is.”

I’m hearing Bronze Age thinking here. That’s like saying that although you don’t know what a Zqkthplm is, you damn well believe in it! Such inane replies spring from the harsh, incessant social pressure to conform and Believe in God. It doesn’t matter which god, which in itself seems silly, but there it is. American society will accept almost any religious beliefs, but nonbelief will not be tolerated. One of the most revealing demonstrations of this fact can be found in our Congress. Of all the members of the House and Senate, all 535 of them, only one is an avowed atheist. There’s just the one. Yeah, right. Well, good for Pete Stark of California, but I think that ridiculous statistic speaks for itself. The pressure is intense to acknowledge a god of some kind and Daniel’s illogical statement bears that out. And what is that sort of “belief” based on? Hope or fear?

Another responder, Joseph, had this to say: “I shudder to think what society would be like today in absence of the restraining influence of religion, especially Christianity.”

Must we continually list the atrocities caused by Christianity and its intrinsic intolerance? The Crusades, the Inquisitions, burning witches, killing Jews (they were “Christ-killers,” remember?) because they “caused” breakouts of plague and they killed Christian babies and…well that list is very long. Let’s not forget the Thirty Years War and the killings in Northern Ireland. Or the Christians giving Native Americans two choices: convert or die. The current madness in Iraq is a direct result of Christian arrogance, and Bush’s own words about his messianic mission attest to that fact. Oh, Joseph, there is so much more. 

The above partial list does not take into account the personal  tragedies. The endless guilt and feelings of sin and shame that are forced on True Believers should not be taken lightly. There is no way of knowing how much suffering has been caused by religions. But for thousands of years, billions of people have been spoon-fed this message of misery. I was one such victim and I can verify the despair that Christianity forced on me. (See last month’s column.)

Silence is not always golden. And as long as uninformed opinions like those of Joseph and Daniel are clogging the blogosphere, we atheists must speak up. So I finally did. I finally did post my own words to that blog. Here’s what I said:

Kishor Trivedi wrote: “All of us approach one God by various names, such as Isvara, Rama, Krishna, Jehovah, Allah, God, and so on. The Allah of Islam is the same as the God of Christians and the Isvara of Hindus. The God of Gandhi cannot be different from the God of Mother Theresa [sic].”

This has been the universal fallback position of True Believers ever since humans, for the most part, stopped killing each other because of their differing religions. Killing people because of their strange religions was the initial reaction when humans first began to spread out geographically and bump into each other. Over the centuries it seemed that the religious killings were fading away. Alas, today it is as bad as it’s ever been. Why? Because we now bump into each other not at the speed of a horse-drawn cart, but at the speed of a 747. The Internet has sped up that process even further.

Unless and until zealous religions fade away, the killing can never stop. Why? Because the religions themselves, if you are orthodox and fundamentalist about them, demand it. There can be no room for infidels in the perfect world of a religious fundamentalist.

The God of Gandhi is indeed different from the God of Mother Teresa. The two could never have been worshipping the same God for the simple reason that one of them worshipped a God who sent a Savior named Jesus and one did not. Nothing complicated about it. The One True God either sent Jesus or he did not. There is no room for a middle position. This same kind of yes/no proposition can be applied to all religions in all times. There IS no universal solution to this dilemma unless all dogmatic religions are abolished. And we should all be so lucky.

Over 300 messages were posted after mine but not a single one addressed my words. Wonder why. But that happens to me a lot. I am challenged so I ask the logical question, “How do you know your beliefs are true?” This is always followed by quotes from “holy” books, so I then ask how they know their books are holy. I never hear from them again. The only answer they can offer is that, well, it says so in the book. Not such a good answer, is it?

Many atheists believe that responding to religious claims as I did is futile. Useless. A complete waste of time. According to a December 3, 2007 article in The Nation magazine titled “The Atheist’s Dilemma,” columnist Katha Pollitt seems to feel that way. She wrote, “in a way it’s pointless for non-Muslims to weigh in on Islam.” Why? Does that mean that unless you’re a thief you should not weigh in on thievery? Should non-Catholics not weigh in on priests’ abuse of children or the “sins” of birth control and abortion? Should men not weigh in on women’s rights? I assume we all feel we have the right to weigh in on those issues.

Pollitt: “Why should Muslims care, any more than a Jew cares what a Hindu thinks about Moses?” I’ll tell you why: Because we live in an increasingly shrinking world. If religious intolerance shapes public policy in any country, then moderate Muslims must care. Atheists must care. Suicide–bombers aren’t born. They are created by religious fanatics. Bigotry is never a good thing to teach children and is very difficult to “unlearn” as so many of us discovered. So we atheists with the courage to speak up should do so, loudly and clearly, whenever and wherever, about what is being taught to our youth. They are, after all, the future. We all have an obligation to weigh in on such issues. And part of that obligation includes promoting the idea that we humans have it in our grasp to make things better. That is called hope. We need no invisible gods to do it for us. (By the way, they won’t.) But we need to get off our butts (and knees) and stop praying and start doing.

By casually dismissing religious debates, Pollitt entirely misses the point about the number of people who will be watching such exchanges from the sidelines. And a large percentage of those onlookers will be young people. I have been at this long enough to understand how large that number is. It is staggering. People profess loudly but usually doubt silently. Then a lot of them write to me. I know how difficult it is to be a skeptic surrounded by ardent believers, and this is why so many people take comfort in confiding in me. I may be a total stranger, but as a believer-turned-skeptic-turned-atheist, I represent hope to many. Yes, Virginia, there is life after religion. Right here on Earth. I’m not sure if Pollitt was lucky enough to have been raised without any religious brainwashing, but she writes as if she were. Clearly though she does not understand (or at least doesn’t write as if she does) the pain of religious indecision. It can only be understood by those who have gone through it.

Today’s Youth

The world has changed quickly, with Wi-Fi and texting (What is the past tense of the new verb, text? Today I text. Yesterday I….??) and I am aware of how many young people are visiting my site. They write and express their fears about “What if there is a God and you’re wrong?” I always answer by asking, “Which God are you talking about?” Believe it or not, after all these years, that question still stumps a lot of people and often that alone starts the wheels turning. I am encouraged by this. Young minds need to grow in spite of the stifling coercion of organized religion.

Still, when I ask which God, the puzzled replies seem to indicate that what I asked was, “Are you a Klingon or a Vulcan?” “A good witch or a bad witch?” All I’m asking is which God do you think might exist and what are the properties or characteristics of that God? Is that such an unreasonable question?

One of the most smug and ridiculous assertions ever put to me was this: “I don’t need organized religion to know that there is a God and that Jesus is His Son and my Savior.” Whoa! That’s a mouthful! I’m still trying to figure out how anyone could discern the details of Jesus as Savior, or why anyone would need a Savior, without any organized religion. Visions? Magic voice mail? A fortune cookie?

If you are young and have doubts about your religious training; and are perhaps visiting my site for the first time; and wonder what’s true and what’s not true; well, hang in there. Nourish your doubts until you are satisfied in your own mind. Be honest with yourself and don’t distrust your own common sense. Read whatever you can get your hands on. Don’t lose hope. You can Google literally anything today. So Google! When your search is over, I promise you, you’ll feel better. You’ll feel the sense of a burden lifted from your shoulders and an intellect freed of restrictions. You’ll feel like, oh, I don’t know, maybe shouting it from the rooftops!

But never give up on our fellow humans. We are curious and intelligent. We can be kind and wise. We just may figure this whole thing out someday and learn to live peacefully with each other in hope. Not fear.

http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/2006/11/can_there_be_common_ground/comments.php

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/03/14/MNG7BOKV111.DTL