Why atheists (have to) care about religion.

This well-made little editorial short film embedded below documents the legalized discrimination against atheists in various states all across JeezusLand (the former Republic of Armed Desire). Teachers should make it part of the public school curriculum.


(Thanks to Erik again)

Notes: My optimystic(alist) take on that
While I am not devout enough to proselytize the Atheist creed actively (not the film's purpose), I do, like the (film)maker, resent the institutionalized inquisition by Theists against Atheists and/or non-theists. I try to keep an open "optimystic(al)" mind. None of the Taoist, Buddhist, spiritualist, mystical, and scientific outlooks that influence my thinking have any need or concern with gods. I have some confidence in the existence of spirits or spiritual energy, and the One Mind, but "gods", like "self", seems to be an artifact that arises out of mammalian or primate psychology, as far as I can tell. Given that there still is no accepted scientific theory, and not even the rough notes to begin to construct a theory of what mind is, what a thought is, or what consciousness is, it has always seemed a little premature for someone to proclaim complete knowledge of the psychic superstructure of the universe, let alone to force it onto people who do not see it the same way.

We have just begun to scratch the surface of the universe, have a (begin Carl Sagan voice here) billionth of a billionth of it under our scientific wings, and the rest of it remains unaccounted for, "mystical".

What is scary is that the religious nutcases are so afraid of freedom, so afraid of free thought. Maybe they think that the non-believers will not be under their social control, but statistics show that the Christians are just as likely, or a little more likely, to cheat, steal, fornicate, shoot the place up, and so on. Dogma product works just the opposite of as advertised.

I don't feel as oppressed as the guy in the video. You need to keep your own psychic flexibility and metacognition open and active. While they want you to say that you believe in god(s), they don't always define it or say which one. Is god "love", (the one) mind, science, Thor, Shiva, the flying spaghetti monster, Eris, or even yourself? Yeah, I believe in that. They do sometimes use the term "Supreme Being", which is probably not unlike a Supreme Pizza among the other Bee-ings, or the word "Creator", which sounds like either a massive software application which created this simulation, or the process which wrote it. Why would I believe in any of these things? Better to keep your options open, hold on to the zen. (not the mp3 player) Doesn't anybody believe in nothing, the void? Has the zero not been discovered yet? Who can believe that the universe is simple enough to model in a small primate brain, with any validity? I'm not buying it. That's my mysticism: accepting the reality that the universe is too great to compress into a format which is small enough to be comprehensible to the categories of my mind.

The person in the video could have avoided a lot of trouble if his parents or teachers had taught him the importance of lying to your oppressors. Almost everybody is a nazi, and when they come knocking on your door to ask if you have Anne Frank in the basement, you should happily tell them no, and consider that to be better integrity than if you ratted her out, right? The capacity to deceive, which exists everywhere in nature, evolved for a reason: to protect, like skin and hair. If you want to join the boy scouts or run for office, tell them you believe in god, while assuming that the word is their euphemism for the Great Spirit, the singularity, or whatever, i.e. without defining what the word means to you.

Having said that, I do appreciate him making his statement and trying to change society.

All religions are fundamentally intolerant, but here the theistic ones have effectively ganged up on the non-theistic thinkers.