By Jim Downard
What do you want to Ask an Atheist? Submit your questions online or fill out the form below.
As an atheist you could be considered a member of a minority. 3-part question: (1) What kinds of challenges have you faced in your life as a minority member? (2) Do you hope for a future which inverts the ratio so that ‘believers’ are the minority? (3) Do you consider yourself a ‘militant atheist?’
1. During my working life I generally kept my philosophy to myself, and experienced no direct reaction from the religious apart from the stray personal chats people get into in a working environment. I do not think that experience is typical for those who live in areas where religions are worn more openly on their sleeve, such as in the Bible Belt.2. Knowing both the science on how humans construct beliefs, the history of how diversity has played out in our past, and the philosophical need for freedom of conscience, I doubt seriously that most people can get by without embracing some sort of religious frame (which itself does not have to be even slightly true). Previous attempts to eradicate religion (French and Russian revolutions come to mind) were notoriously ineffective in that, along with violating individual freedom of conscience big time, so the issue seems to be moot. It’s like asking would I hope for governments without faction (as the Founding Fathers desired). That ain’t gonna happen. And, given how composers and artists from Bach to Michelangelo generated spectacular art inspired by their faith, I see no cultural utility in circumscribing what floats peoples’ boats as it may.
3. I would consider myself a “militant” defender of reason, evidence, individual freedom and conscience. Stupidity and superstition offends me, as it should all thinking beings, and if standing up against such things qualifies as militancy, so be it. Millions of people draw on their credulous acceptance of religious doctrines to oppose the teaching of evolution in schools, while others are inspired to hack heretics to death with swords. How can such things not warrant standing up for reality and decency and act in opposition to them?
