What exactly do people think atheists are, anyway?
Inspiration for this post comes from a Secular Blasphemy post earlier this week.
First, here's a quote:
"A Gallup poll in 1999 asked American voters the following question: "If your party nominated a generally well-qualified person for president who happened to be an X would you vote for that person?" X took on the following values: Catholic, Jew, Baptist, Mormon, black, homosexual, woman, atheist. Six out of the eight categories secured better than 90 percent approval. But only 59 percent would vote for a homosexual, and just 49 percent would vote for an atheist."
Wow. I never would have guessed that. I mean, I've never really thought about it or anything. But then there was this post in the comments section:
"many of these so-called "elitists" [collectively meaning atheists, agnostics, humanists, etc. - Ed.] have been advocating more European-type collectivist and anti-individualist ideals" [than religious Americans]
And this is truly enlightening. This person apparently thinks that "atheist" means "not concerned about others, only out for themselves and what they can get from others, etc." Otherwise, why be so surprised that many of us think that our government (which is, after all, "of the people, by the people, for the people") should help take care of everyone, and not just us. Presumably many, many other non-atheist Americans feel the same way, or else how do you explain the previous statistic?
Listen, I don't believe that some supernatural being set my mission as a game show - "do what I say, and later you'll get into heaven; don't do what I say and things will be much less pleasant for you". But that doesn't mean that I feel free to run willy-nilly and all amok on your believing selves. I don't need the fear of an "afterlife" to keep me in line in this one. My life is more pleasant if I'm nice to other people - because in turn, they are often nice to me. Yeah, I don't believe that people are really that much more "special" in evolutionary terms than dogs, cats, etc. That doesn't mean that I prey on others like a slavering beast. Some animals mate for life; why would I think that all humans would be more self-serving than that?
9:08:29 PM 
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