Yesterday

Yesterday I posted this article to my facebook profile because I thought it was interesting. For those who don't want to read it, it's basically saying that the atheist position always offends religious people simply by being said.


In one paragraph:


"This simple declaration that I think someone is wrong about what is fundamentally a pretty abstract topic appears to offend large numbers of people for no particularly good reason. If I tell someone that I disagree with them about sports, politics, the death penalty, weather or any number of other topics, they might be annoyed, but disagreements about religion seem to cause offense at the drop of a hat."


The writer compares this reaction to our non-belief to instances where we state opinions about other things and notes that only our non-religious position gets people's panties all in a bundle. Simply stating our opinion is enough to incur wrath.


In the end of the article, the writer notes that the atheist position is based on what science has told us is true about the world and that theists who find that the science clashes with their 6,000 year old world shouldn't be mad at the science, they should be mad at whoever told them the earth was 6,000 years old and just get over it.


He could have made his point better than saying at the end, "In summary, if my position offends you, I wish that it didn’t but, well, suck it up, princess," but it's still a good point. If a Raiders fan can handle my pro-Niners stance, if a conservative friend can handle my Socialist, pinko-commie rantings, if my male friends can handle my over-excited posts about the latest hook-up on Glee, then theist should be able to handle the atheist position without calling themselves oppressed by our mere existence.


So what happens as soon as I post this article online? A couple religous people come onto my page telling me what I should and shouldn't post because it's offensive. The first person to comment only read the title of the article (Atheism is All About Upsetting People of Faith) before even commenting with, "so your just a atheist to piss of people who have faith?" (I left his original spelling intact). After asking if he had even read the article, he posted the first paragraph as "evidence" of it's offensiveness:


"When I proclaim myself to be an atheist, I am saying that all of the hundreds of proclamations that various religions make about the existence of gods are, in my opinion, not believable."


And then added something about the "Golden Rule" (as if he was following the Golden Rule by coming on my page to give me his what-for), and said, "It's also good to know Kate that you like 'upsetting' me and others of faith." As if simply stating my position was intentionally upsetting him and people of faith. Which was, if you'll remember the entire point of the article in the first place. There were other commenters, none so rude as this person who ended up removing me as their friend, but all as ignorant to their own hypocrisy in dealing with atheists. In one instance, atheism is "just another religion" and in another, it is a position to be exhorted against and derailed, which is something they would never do to another person's religion.


It's sad that people are so ignorant and can't "suck it up, princess," but this ignorance at the cost of a friend? That's a tragedy. However, I did tell this person in a private message: "Anyone that would remove me as a friend for stating my own religious non-belief was never my friend in the first place. And I'd NEVER remove someone for joining any religion they want. Take the post however you want, but you did exactly what it predicts theists do: become offended simply for saying, "I don't believe in god and here's why."


I still haven't heard back from this person, and I don't expect to. Still, the entire situation is sad.