4 Reasons Atheists Have to Fight for Their Rights
From Alternet:
Atheist activists get this one a lot. When we speak out about ways that anti-atheist bigotry plays out, we're told that we're not really oppressed. We're told that, because we have legal protection, because anti-atheist discrimination is illegal, therefore we don't really have any problems, and we're just trying to gain unearned sympathy and win the victim Olympics. (I'd love to hear Bob Costas do the commentary for that!) It's a classic Catch-22: If we speak out about oppression and point to examples of it, we're accused of "playing the victim card," and the oppression becomes invisible. And if we don't speak out about oppression ... then the oppression once again becomes invisible.
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Not everyone is able to fight these fights. Not everyone is able to risk hateful ostracism and violent threats from their community. It's hard enough for a 16-year-old high school student like Jessica Ahlquist to face down this kind of venomous hostility. It's even harder when you're trying to hold down a job and support your family, and you literally can't afford to alienate your bosses and co-workers and customers. Yes, the law is mostly on our side, and atheists and church-state separation advocates generally win these lawsuits. (Although not always -- more on that in a tic.) But it doesn't do much good to have the law on your side if fighting a legal battle is going to destroy your life.
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If you were mugged, nobody would tell you, "Quit whining -- there are laws against mugging, you have legal protection, you don't have anything to complain about." The fact that there are laws against mugging did not stop you from getting mugged. It is reasonable for you to say something about it, and to express distress that it happened. And if muggings are happening a lot in your town or your country, it is reasonable to ask your community to pay attention, and to do something about it.
Lots of very interesting specific examples are given in the article.
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Or else what, I ask? Will the world stop turning on its axis in the direction you believe it should, or the fact I'm not going to help your mental masturbation to make you happy mean that I am the enemy now? Get a grip, please, don't try to drag me into your fantasy world. I'd probably break all the china there.
That is an oppressive system, a complete denial of individuality. Too many jump to assumptions about what others think or feel, when they can never really know, or tell them what they should think and try to impose their own brand of bullshit.
People are alive, and life is about change. Anyone can change their minds, should never be forced to make false allegiance to what they do not believe. I think we had a good article in GD a while back about atheist chaplains in the service. They explained the ]terrible trespass on the minds of the non-believer to be dforced to pretend they believed things that they did not, they wanted them to live a lie to please others.
The chaplaining plan was to give atheists protection, as they needed support. In the death of Tillman in Afghanistan it was tossed in that he wasn't part of the club.
Pat Tillman, Christian Supremacism in the Military, and Atheists as Worm Food
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SENIOR PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It came as a shock. Halfway through a day of testimony about the Army's mishandling of the death of Pat Tillman, Tillman's mother, Mary, shared her outrage at remarks from one Army investigator that Tillman's family found highly insulting.
MARY TILLMAN, MOTHER OF PAT TILLMAN: He said that we were -- we would never be satisfied, because we're not Christians, and we're just a pain in the a**, basically. He also said that it must make us feel terrible that Pat is worm dirt.
http://atheism.about.com/b/2007/04/26/using-the-military-to-promote-religion-christian-supremacism.htm
So, because he and his family exercised their human right to freedom of thought, they get no respect? Only if he'd agreed with the majority or the powerful, was his life worthwhile? Thought police?
Nobody gets to tell me what I do and do not believe, what is best for me in my time on this planet. Even if a person is forced to convert or make an outward show of compliance by their messed up society, they will find a way to express themselves, but it should never be this way anywhere.
Screw 'em. JMHO.