Is Atheism Dangerous? January 5, 2010
Posted by jetson in Personal.Tags: Atheist, beliefs, god, religion
trackback
It has certainly been described by some groups of people as dangerous. Just google the term and read all of the hatred. Then follow that with a google on “most hated groups.” The very first item in the list at the moment I write this is a list of the most hated groups, with atheists at the top (39.6%). So, there you have it, atheists must be dangerous. But hold on just a minute…
I am an atheist. I don’t believe that there have ever been any real gods in the history of our world or universe. I think this way because there is literally nothing that suggests to me that a god is at the helm. And I am not even remotely dangerous. In fact, I don’t know a single person who is seriously mean or dangerous. Sure they are out there, but whether they believe in a god or not is in no way correlated to their level of being dangerous. There are no studies that show any link between atheists and dangerous people, or mean people.
People who don’t believe in God are just people, like everyone else. Most of them are closet atheists, so no one around them even realizes (I’m willing to bet there are closet atheists in most households.) And now that we have studies that show atheism growing, people are just going to have to accept the reality that there are atheists among you, no matter who you are, or where you live.
Atheism is not dangerous at all. What is dangerous are people who are bigoted and hateful towards any group that doesn’t agree with them about their religions, gods, or worldviews. What is dangerous, are people who think they have a direct line to a divine creator of the universe, and use that line to claim superiority over other people. What is dangerous, is ignorance and intolerance of opposing views and beliefs – just look at what some groups are doing in the name of their particular god.
There are people in this world who will stop at nothing to be hateful and dangerous to anyone who does not agree with them. It is NOT atheists. Atheists may have the wrong answer on God, but they are NOT dangerous.
“What is dangerous are people who are bigoted and hateful towards any group that doesn’t agree with them about their religions, gods, or worldviews.”
Which, of course, includes many atheists. (see how the secular French treat Muslims, for example)
But yes, you’re right. There is a *lot* of intolerance towards non-believers. Hate is never the answer.
Are atheists not covered under worldviews? I wouldn’t assume that atheists are hate-free. But I would not use a secular society as an example of atheists mistreating Muslims. A secular society, by definition, is one that includes believers.