Atheism’s growing pains

[cbayer]

http://www.salon.com/2012/10/06/atheisms_growing_pains/

SATURDAY, OCT 6, 2012 06:42 AM PDT

As the movement matures and becomes more politically engaged, deep divisions are emerging. That's a good thing
BY ADAM LEE



In the last decade, atheism in America has risen from a tiny, demonized fringe to a serious presence in the public and political arenas. The latest polls show that almost 20 percent of Americans now identify as non-religious, and the atheist movement — a loose coalition of skeptical, rationalist and humanist groups — is making inroads everywhere from high school campuses to the halls of Congress. Last March, as many as 20,000 American nonbelievers braved cold and rain to gather on the National Mall for an event called the Reason Rally, with a lineup of prominent speakers that ran the gamut from student activists to elected officials.

As the atheist movement gains numbers and prominence, it’s inevitably been forced to confront questions about what it ultimately seeks to accomplish. Some in the movement favor a narrowly defined set of goals: defending the separation of church and state, keeping creationism out of science classes, protecting atheists from job discrimination and prejudice. But other atheists, while not opposing these goals, see things more broadly. They note that the religious-right lawmakers who promote creationism and state-church entanglements are also rabidly opposed to equality or legal protection for LGBT people; try to ban abortion and contraception, or throw obstacles in the path of women seeking them; sermonize that global warming must be a hoax because God wouldn’t let the planet change that much; advocate a social-Darwinian worldview where the rich have unlimited power and the poor get nothing but societal neglect and harsh repression.

And then, there’s a growing recognition that we have problems within our own community — a realization that atheists, like every other group of people, include sexual predators, bigots and defenders of privilege, and that giving up religion doesn’t necessarily erase these harmful attitudes. For example, at the Women in Secularism conference in February, it emerged during a panel discussion that there’s an informal network of atheist women who warn each other about which prominent atheist men to avoid.

All these debates had been simmering in the atheist community for months, but they boiled over a few weeks ago in response to a post by Jen McCreight, a graduate student, secular activist and blogger in Seattle. Until then, she had been best known for “Boobquake,” a tongue-in-cheek response to an Iranian cleric who fulminated that “immodestly” dressed women cause earthquakes. Treating this as a scientific hypothesis, she invited women around the world to join her in wearing racy clothing for one day to measure precisely how much of God’s wrath it unleashed. At first it seemed like lighthearted fun in support of a good point, but she wrote that it had encouraged some men in the atheist community to view her as a sex object, rather than a person with ideas worth taking seriously:

What I originally envisioned as an empowering event about supporting women’s freedoms and calling out dangerous superstitious thinking devolved into “Show us your tits!” I received sexual invitations from strangers around the country. When I appeared or spoke at atheist events, there was always a flood of comments about my chest and appearance. I’ve been repeatedly told I can never speak out against people objectifying or sexually harassing me because a joke about my boobs was eternal “consent.”

more at link

[dkf]

1. Oh for goodness sakes isn't this the ultimate personal choice?

I would never try to talk someone into being an atheist. Live and let live and let people come to their own conclusions.

[cbayer]

2. Do you think the author is saying anything different?

[dkf]

3. Yes by making it into a movement. To me that suggests active convincing.

[cbayer]

4. I think it is a movement, but I don't think they are trying to convert.

They are multiple organizations representing atheists, secularists, humanists and agnostics. They share some goals, though each appears to see itself as unique in some way.

Their voice is growing, particularly when it comes to church/state issues, which is a good thing. I think they are also gaining more recognition, respect, understanding and acceptance.

Those are all good things, imo. Growing pains are not surprising, but I think there is a growing voice within the community that all will benefit from.

[onager]

6. Oh. Just another tiresome sales pitch for Atheism+...

The woman holding the sign in the photo is Jennifer McCreight, for the curious.

Now a little fact-checking on that splendiferous piece of one-sided puffery from Mr. Lee:

The groundswell of enthusiasm for Atheism+ shows that the idea tapped into a widespread sentiment within the atheist community. Many of the people who stepped forward to count themselves among its ranks declared that it was exactly what they had been waiting for.

Heh. Maybe, but only if you ignore the groundswell of people also calling A+ a "coalition of PC whiners, tinpot dictators, and professional victims."

Anyone who wants to know more about the various A+ dramas can just check out the fora at JREF, Rational Skepticism, or the dreaded Slyme Pit. With articles like this, all you're seeing is the A+ side. As I point out every time one of these thinly-disguised P.R. pieces is posted.

(In fact, shortly after the post that gave birth to A+, Jen McCreight announced that she was taking a hiatus from blogging due to the volume of vicious insults and threats she almost immediately received.)

Oh good grief. Her "hiatus" lasted exactly one week, and McCreight herself called it a "vacation." Anyone can easily check that themselves.

A few rude people did note McCreight's blazing hypocrisy in this episode. McCreight had previously written that anyone who quits an Internet argument should "stick the flounce" - i.e., stay out permanently once they have flounced out. McCreight herself couldn't "stick the flounce" and had to justify her week-long "hiatus" somehow. So, vacation!

What we do expect is that all atheists will treat each other with basic respect and decency.

Quotes from one random thread at the A+ forum, with link. Check out the respect and decency!

http://atheismplus.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1168

How many permutations of this fucking thread am I gonna see?

"Hello, I am a hyperskeptical smug privileged asshole, and I think you're too dogmatic about this feminism thing..."

Yeah, shove it back up your ass with the rest of the turds...

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I ain't suggesting the mods do shit. This is a safe space for oppressed groups, and to me part of maintaining that safety is making sure privileged fuckhead derailers like you don't get the wrong idea that they're actually -welcome- here. Because you're not.

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This isn't meant to be a safe space for assholes. It's meant to be a safe space for people who have common interests in both atheism and social justice. As has been explained many times in this thread, there's more than one way to expose the assholes. They've come in to spew their shit all over our brand new carpets, and some of us want to shut off their hoses and mitigate the damages, and you're content to wait for the cleaning staff to come in on Wednesday.

[cbayer]

7. Do you think your post highlights some of the growing pains he is talking about?

There is an opportunity for atheists/secularists/humanists/agnostics to work towards shared goals.

Lobbying, legislative initiatives and judicial actions can perhaps be best accomplished by larger groups working together.

There are always going to be those who want their own splinter groups, but many may be looking for a single organization that represents them and their interests on a larger scale. Like the AMA does for doctors, even though many doctors are more tightly aligned with their speciality group.