Yes, the multibillion dollar religious empire of the 700 club, the Vatican, the Moral Majority, Focus on the Family and the Republican party is now being threatened by the awesome, irresistible force of the University of Alberta Atheists and Agnostics. Look at that website! Three posts in October!
So says Naomi Lakritz in the Ottawa Citizen and the Calgary Herald (where the subtitle is "Silent majority is awfully tired of being told to shut up").
Step one of the game plan is to minimize the actual desires of the pro-religious faction. All they want to do is just say "God". Why can't the evil atheists just let them say the word "God"?
Step two is to declare that atheists are intolerant because they want to stop religious people from even saying "God". Don't we have free speech in this country? What about tolerance?
Step three is to outright insult atheists as narcissistic, by which I'm sure she means "selfish". Then pretend that atheists want to stop people from being buried under crosses if they so choose.
Let's take them in order.
Step one. This is absolutely crucial. The desire at this convocation is not to "God Bless" the dentists (some of whom are atheists) but to instruct them to use their skills for the "Glory of God". If you don't understand why I wouldn't want to be told to use my skills for the glory of your god, then you haven't read the bible. I have read the bible. The last thing we should be doing is adding to continuous history of murder that is currently the "glory" of your god.
Step two. I am not being intolerant. Are you even aware of the sheer hypocrisy of looking me in the eye and telling me to worship your god while calling me intolerant? That's what you're doing. You're telling me to glorify your deity and then complaining because I object to your instruction. It is your intolerance that stands out here.
Step three: If you want "narcissistic", read about the cruelties supposedly ordered by your god. Isn't one of the commandments, "thou shalt have no other gods"? That's narcissism. Narcissism is usually associated with criminal behaviour and even sociopathy. Would you like to examine the prison statistics by religious affiliation and tell me which of us is underrepresented in prison? Go ahead. Have a look.
She finishes with one more comment that begs for a response:
Rather, it's about how, when you see or hear the expression of someone else's faith, you don't demand it be squelched because you don't like hearing it.
This isn't about squelching your free speech or your expression of your views. I support your right to your religious beliefs along with my right to tell you you're wrong. I don't generally exercise this right, because I don't much care, until you insult me or knock on my door on a Saturday morning and disturb my game of Zelda.
This is about religious people, with control of a public ceremony, commanding people to worship their god. It's about loons like you, Ms. Lakritz, telling people that we're immoral if we don't share your beliefs.
That's intolerant. That's immoral.
6 comments:
Thank you!!
Yours is a fantastic post. Am going to write a one-liner on my two blogs, linking to it.
Well said. Great reasoning, well expressed.
Thanks for the support. It seems the University's administration has agreed that change is needed, unfortunately the cost of change is efficiency of this process and no decision is really likely until January.
Bravo! It needs to be repeated frequently.
Cost of change? What's that mean? You'd think they'd just remove the "glory of god" bit and strike a committee that can spend the next 70 years finding three word to replace it.
Odd.
Well, best of luck. As you know, since the Third Reformation, the Grand Council of Atheism has mandated that we all look out for each other.
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