It’s a small and entirely symbolic gesture, but each week for the past few years I’ve participated in A-Week, a cause which consists of changing one’s Facebook profile photo to support the movement and show that one is an atheist.
Why bother? Atheists are more discriminated against in the U.S. than any other group. First, a personal anecdote. In 2009, I served in a Mississippi high school as an intern working to help integrate technology in the curriculum. On my first day at the school, I was walking around introducing myself to the faculty. One of the teachers asked me what I had majored in at college. I simply answered, “philosophy” – this was our only interaction and the only thing he knew about me. He then looks me in the eyes and tells me, “Oh, you’re one of them atheists. We hang people like that around here.” Mind you, I had said absolutely nothing about my religious preferences.
And there’s more. Polls show Americans would be less likely to support an atheist as president (45% support) than “black (94 percent), Jewish (92 percent), women (88 percent), Hispanic (87 percent), Mormon (72 percent) or homosexual (55 percent).” Nearly 40% report that atheists agree with their vision of American society “not at all”, and almost half of those surveyed would disapprove if their child wanted to marry an atheist. (Stats from NPR story.)
The only other grouping of individuals that ranks as low as atheists when it comes to trust? Rapists.
“According to researchers Gervais, Shariff and Norenzayan, the driving factor behind anti-atheist prejudice is distrust. Many people see religion as the foundation for morality, with supernatural surveillance and the promise (or threat) of an afterlife as crucial mechanisms for keeping people in line. Without belief in God, the reasoning goes, what’s to keep someone from lying, stealing, cheating and general chicanery?” (NPR, again.)
As an atheist, this is still shocking to me, and disheartening.
I do my best to live a good life for myself and for others. I care about making my life the best it can be, and when possible and reasonable, reaching out to others and making a difference in their lives. I believe we only have this life, and it’s therefore extremely important to me to make this world at this time as good as it can possibly be. I volunteer my time and money as often as I can. I have worked for a non-profit and even started my own with the hope of making things better. Why do any of that without the promise or threat of an afterlife?
Because I care about other people.
I feel inherently connected to others and the world, and I appreciate that they have rich inner lives just like me. I understand injustice, struggle, and pain and do what I can to minimize it. Because I value my own life, I value other life, and treat it with as much dignity and respect as possible. Sometimes in my life, I have fallen short, as all humans do. But I strive to be the best I can.
I would go so far as to say that if the only reason a person is not lying, stealing, and cheating is because they fear punishment, they are not actually morally praiseworthy at all – and that would be supported by many major ethical theories such as deontology and virtue ethics.
So each year, I take a week to proclaim loudly that I am an atheist. And I strive to be good without Gods.
For more information on A Week, check out the website here: http://www.aweek.biz/
I think it shows a lot of ignorance for that teacher to assume you were an atheist just because you majored in Philosophy. There are plenty of theist philosophers. That teacher might need to become enlightened before teaching anymore kids.
Exactly! Thanks for the comment.
For myself, I think ideally you take everyone as an individual and don’t categorically label someone distrustful simply because they belong to a certain group. With that being said, it is interesting for me to ponder what would be the basis of this apparent distrust of atheists.
I would guess there are various factors that lead one to categorically distrust an atheist. One fact I would speculate is a certain form of xenophobia. The status quo is theism and to encounter an atheist is to encounter a “stranger.” I think this factor continues to be overcome as people begin to know each other and become more familiar with atheist. I think this categorical dismissal is just as silly as people categorically dismissing Christian as anti-rational. Maybe some of the “loudest” Christians in the evangelical south are anti-rational but most Christians are not anti-rational.
I think in a similar way there is a distrust of atheist because the “loudest” atheist are typically anti-religion instead of tolerant of religion. There is a vocal strand of atheism that views religion with animosity seeing religion as something keeping humanity from reaching its full potential. This is the form of atheism and political leader I would fear. There are quite a few relatively recent historical atheist leaders holding this position who were incredibly vicious and intolerant.
Joseph Stalin’s regime murdered from 3 million to 60 million people.
Mao Zedong killed between 20 million to 60 million people.
Plutarco Elias Calles whose policies led to the murder or expelling of 4,000 priest in Mexico from 1926 to 1934.
Perhaps these horrendous tragedies which have occurred over the past century have worked their way into our collective subconscious. Perhaps this unconscious reason of lacking trust in an atheist political leader has to do with the relatively recent history of the past century. I am not trying to argue that it was their atheism alone that led them to these extremes but simply pointing out some on the surface reasons why there could be a lack of trust with atheist political leaders. Additionally, I am not so much trying to justify this lack of trust as am I trying to explore what could be some of the underlying reasons for this sentiment.
I definitely think it’s worthwhile to look into the reasoning for the mistrust of atheists, as I think that could be an important step in changing that image.
I’m not entirely convinced recent atheist leaders are enough to do that, as there have also been similar Christian leaders such as Adolf Hitler and Radovan Karadzic.
I do think you’re onto something with the combination of some xenophobia and the negative image of many of the “loud” atheists who are quite intolerant. That’s one of the reasons I like the Atheism Week campaign – it’s an opportunity to raise awareness of how many atheists there are while making the point that all of us are not intolerant.
A lot of the things I’ve seen this week made me realize that there is a rather large lack of atheist movements that make any attempt at tolerance. Very interesting.
I appreciate the insight, and it’s given me some things to think about.
Excellent article JJ Sylvia. I don’t consider myself an atheist, but am not a traditional theist either, as most concepts are far too small and exclusive. I’m a universalist who believes much as you do, which gives some family members fits.
Thanks for the comment, George. Do you or have you attended a UU church? I ask, because I’ve recently been looking into them myself, as they seem welcoming to atheists.