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An entire list of reasons would make for a book, but I will attempt to outline some of the reasons why I defend atheists without a lot of meaningless rhetoric and will attempt to use real data, quotes and other ways of demonstrating my point.
Blasphemy Laws
Speaking out against religion or holding an atheistic view of religion can still result in death or incarceration. In many cases, holding a religious view in opposition of the predominant religious view in the area can result in the same. Here are the countries that still have blasphemy laws:
1) Afghanistan – Execution by hanging
2) Algeria – Incarceration
3) Australia – On the books but hasn’t been used since 1919
4) Bangladesh – Incarceration and possible hard labor
5) Brazil – Up to a year’s incarceration and/or a fine
6) Canada – Blasphemous libel is punishable by up to two year’s incarceration, although the law is not really in use
7) Denmark – Blasphemy law hasn’t been used since 1938 although it’s still on the books
8) Egypt - In Egypt, the law against blasphemy is one of the instruments which the government and the Sunni majority use to victimize Egypt's minorities. The most persecuted minorities are Shia, Sufi, Christians, Baha’i, and atheists. The persecution may involve surveillance, harassment, prolonged detention, mistreatment, and torture.
9) Finland – Can result in a fine or incarceration
10) Germany – Incarceration or a fine
11) Greece – Punishable by up to two year’s imprisonment
12) India – Blasphemy laws were rescinded in 1860 so that Christian missionaries could proselytize. They are back on the books now and are applied to any and every religious or non-religious group
13) Indonesia – Maximum 5 years imprisonment
14) Iran – Can result in torture and incarceration
15) Ireland – Maximum $25,000 fine
16) Israel – Up to 1 year imprisonment
17) Italy – Fine
18) Jordan – Up to 3 years imprisonment and a fine
19) Kuwait – Imprisonment and/or a fine
20) Malaysia – Up to 3 years in prison and a fine
21) Malta – Fine
22) Netherlands – Up to 3 months in jail and a maximum fine of $3800
23) New Zealand – Up to 3 years imprisonment, although the law hasn’t been used since 1922
24) Nigeria – Execution or imprisonment
25) Norway – Fine, although it hasn’t been used since 1912
26) Pakistan – Life imprisonment or execution
27) Poland - While Poland's penal code makes no reference to any sort of blasphemy law, it states that "Whoever offends religious feelings of other people by publicly insulting an object of religious cult or a place for public holding of religious ceremonies, is subject to a fine, restriction of liberty or loss of liberty for up to 2 years"
28) Saudi Arabia – Execution
29) Sudan – Imprisonment, fine and up to 40 lashes
30) United Arab Emirates – Unknown
40) United Kingdom – Fine but hasn’t been used since 1977
41) Yemen – Execution
It’s fair to note that blasphemy in non-Christian (majority) countries is often used to persecute other faith groups like Christians. However, the fact remains that while religion is given preferential, hands off treatment and as long as free speech and human rights is suppressed by the religious, blasphemy charges will continue to remain on the books in many countries around the world.
Blasphemy laws are the enemy of free thought and free speech.
Anti-Atheist Bigotry
Many religious people don’t want to face the fact that atheists face bigotry of all kinds. They are generally depicted as moral-less scoundrels. This perception is demonstrated and proven in studies as well as the popular media.
Here’s an example:
A new study by the University of Minnesota Department of Sociology has found that Americans perceive Atheists as the group least likely to embrace common values and a shared vision of society.
Worse yet, Atheists are identified as the cohort other Americans do not want to see their offspring marrying!
These are just some of the result from a forthcoming article slated for publication in the American Sociological Review by Penny Edgell, Joseph Gerties and Douglas Hartmann. The research is part of the American Mosaic Project which monitors attitudes of the population in respect to minority groups. AANEWS obtained an advanced copy of the study that was based on a telephone survey of more than 2,000 households.
Researchers concluded: "Americans rate atheists below Muslims, recent immigrants, gays and lesbians and other minority groups in 'sharing their vision of American society.' Atheists are also the minority group most Americans are least willing to allow their children to marry."
Disturbingly, Atheists are "seen as a threat to the American way of life by a large portion of the American public," despite being only 3% of the U.S. population according to Dr. Edgell, associate sociology professor and the lead researcher in the project.
Edgell said that Atheists "play the role that Catholics, Jews and communists have played in the past" in that we provide "a symbolic moral boundary to membership in American society."
And if that wasn’t enough evidence for you, here’s some more:
Americans find atheists a particularly repugnant minority. According to Gallup, they are more disliked than any other major religious group, with the exception of Scientologists.
Research by Gallup also indicates the majority of Americans would not vote for a well-qualified atheistic presidential candidate. Even a gay candidate, the data suggest, would face less formidable discrimination.
But what is it about atheists that make the American public revile them so intensely?
To illustrate anecdotally, in 2007, a Sunday-school teacher asked a class of fifth and sixth graders to draw a Christian and a non-Christian. One student drew his Christian as a cheerful-looking man holding a cross and declaring, “I LOVE GOD!!”
His non-Christian was unkempt, tattooed, covered in piercings, holding a bottle of “drugs” in one hand and displaying angry eyebrows. His speech balloon read, “Cussing! God isn’t real!”
This is, to my observation, actually a pretty accurate depiction of the popularly perceived dichotomy between theistic and atheistic character. The atheist is beheld as a hopeless individual roaming a world which, devoid of gods, is without purpose or potential for the morality that would ward him away from swilling down bottles of “drugs.”
The prevalence of this sort of stereotyping, particularly in highly conservative areas like Oklahoma, is unfortunate.
These aren’t out of sight out of mind instances. These studies and polls show a consistent, widespread bigoted attitude towards atheists similar to what homosexuals (sadly another minority that is often targeted by the religious) and criminals. This attitude is not just prevalent in America, but presents itself all over the world.
Political Interference
Religion is often used to politically denigrate and marginalize atheists and other freethinkers. This has happened throughout humanities existence and continues to happen worldwide. Even the rise of Nazi Germany saw atheists targeted:
In Germany during the Nazi era, a 1933 decree stated that "No National Socialist may suffer detriment... on the ground that he does not make any religious profession at all".[13] However, the regime strongly opposed "godless communism",[14][15] and most of Germany's atheist and largely left-wing freethought organizations were banned the same year; some right-wing groups were tolerated by the Nazis until the mid 1930s.[16][17]During negotiations leading to the Nazi-Vatican Concordat of April 26, 1933 Hitler stated that "Secular schools can never be tolerated" because of their irreligious tendencies.[18] In a speech made later in 1933, Hitler claimed to have "stamped [atheism] out".[13] The actual word Hitler used was "Gottlosenbewegung" which refers specifically to the communist freethought movement, not atheism in general.
Today, you can find many American news stories about Religious Political Leaders who wish to have their brand of religious morality shoved down the throat of every citizen. It’s not hidden. This sort of discrimination doesn’t live in the shadows, as many atheists, women, Pagans, agnostics, humanists and homosexuals (to name a few) can attest too.
A fair number of Christians believe that you need religion to have any type of morality. Some believe that atheists are value-less and live only to sin and cavort in any manner that will please us. This isn’t true but it’s a myth that continues to persist because some wish to demonize the atheist and brand them as sub-human and not worthy of serious consideration.
Some claim that atheists are too loud and disrespectful. Granted, there are some that cross the line between challenging belief systems they perhaps see as dangerous and being a complete douche bag. However, that number doesn’t make up the majority nor does it mean that their concerns are any less valid because of their ‘noisiness’.
It’s time that Christians stop playing the victim card. For hundreds of years, Christians have sent out missionaries, put up billboards, used televangelists, knocked on doors, used politics, demonized non-believers, built palaces called churches and enjoyed a largely unchallenged, privileged status in North American society and still do. Around the world, religious ideas also share many of those traits and in greater degree than North American society.
Let’s not pretend otherwise. Christians aren’t victims in North America. In many cases, they’re the aggressors.
There are Christians who are kind hearted and loving. There are atheists who also embody those traits. There are also douche bags on either side. But let’s not pretend that atheists somehow hold the upper hand while Christianity as a whole is cringing beneath the power of the 2% (or so) who claim they’re atheists.
It’s not true.
So, why do I defend Atheists?
