James Taranto of the OpinionJournal's "Best of the Web Today" has a couple of strong posts about "atheist jerks" (his term). Yesterday he posted some news stories about atheists and then concluded, "Maybe atheists would have an easier time winning acceptance if they didn't act like such jerks all the time." Today he followed up with this post (scrolled down page a bit for "Atheist Jerk Watch" and for active links):
Some readers took offense at our item Friday in which we accused atheists of acting "like jerks all the time." We were engaging in a little hyperbole, but we think we're entitled. As we have written, we are not a religious believer. What's more, we used to be a militant atheist, from roughly age 5 through 17, when we realized that militant atheism is silly and that being a militant atheist is tantamount to, well, being a jerk.
From WOAI in San Antonio, here's the latest example of atheist jerkiness:
A group of atheists at UTSA [the University of Texas at San Antonio] was asking students to exchange bibles for porn magazines Wednesday, and that has made some religious leaders angry. . . . "We consider The Bible to be a very negative force in the history of the world," student Ryan Walker said. He is part of a student group calling itself the "Atheist Agenda." Club members were on campus asking students to exchange religious materials for pornographic magazines like Black Label and Playboy.
Blogger Cory Doctorow has a photo of the "smut for smut" table.
Now, it's true that religious people can be jerks too. As David Gelernter writes, "when a deadly earnest young Christian approaches, displays an infuriating though subliminal holier-than-thouness, and tries to convert me--it happens rarely, but occasionally--I metamorphose for an instant into a raging leftist." But one can at least understand the overeager Christian: He thinks he's trying to save your soul. The militant atheist wants to make sure you know you don't have a soul.
Besides, organized religion does a lot more than try to convert people; it also engages in various humanitarian good works. To the extent that there is such a thing as organized atheism, it seems to be about nothing other than getting in people's faces.
Occasionally, but not often, you do hear about (or even meet) an atheist who really does seem comfortable in his unbelieving skin. Which is, I think, how a real atheist would be: completely unflappable in the face of passionate and proselytizing Christians. After all, if theism is complete nonsense and theists are irrational fools, why be bothered by their mere comments? Perhaps because, as Chesteron noted, if there was no God, there would be no atheists....
May I humbly suggest my post, "Singing about nothing in particular":
http://rvanwegen.blogspot.com/2005_12_01_rvanwegen_archive.html#113361694202819465
where I googled "Atheist Songs"?
Posted by: Ronald Van Wegen | Wednesday, December 07, 2005 at 04:49 AM