shoop and the atheists

Atheists, of course, have every right to be atheists. One of the most powerful moments of Obama's inauguration was his inclusion of non-believers--in the past, our leaders tended to list the various major religions when they wanted to evoke our national crazy quilt, so Obama's message was huge, timely, and absolutely right.

That said, atheists sure bitch a lot.

To be fair, I think American atheists do have one legitimate complaint--our money. If I decided that there was no God, and I still had to proclaim my trust in Him every time I earned or spent some cash, I'd be miffed, no question. And it's worth remembering that putting God on our money and sneaking God into our pledge of allegiance came out of the Cold War 1950s--it's by no means something we Americans have always done. So if atheists feel the need to protest those elements of our country and our society, full speed ahead.

Here's where atheists tend to go wrong. One, they tend to be really, really smug about their atheism. They have three basic arguments for believers: 1) I don't believe because I'm smart; you believe because you're an idiot; 2) I don't believe because I'm brave enough to face reality; you believe because you're scared; and 3) I don't believe because I'm sane; you believe because you're crazy. All three arguments pretty much kill dialogue before it starts.

The other area where militant atheist reasoning hops the track is that they blame a belief in God--anybody's belief in God--for the world's problems. (It's every bit as silly as believers blaming atheism for the world's problems.) Yes, former president Bush claimed that Jesus wanted us in Iraq--but that's not a belief in God issue, that's a being-obtuse-about-one's-belief issue. Same with pharmacists who won't fill certain prescriptions, same with the intelligent design folks, same with any "believer" who's being obnoxious and in-your-face. For all their intelligence and reason, militant atheists seem to miss that point, and pretty consistently. But that's what happens when you're a militant anything, really.

You miss points.