Why Are You Atheists So Angry? 99 Things That Piss Off the Godless (2 page)

2. I’m angry that atheists in the United States are often
denied custody
of their children, explicitly because of their atheism.

3. I’m angry that it took until
1961
for atheists to be guaranteed the right to serve on juries, testify in court, or hold public office in every state in the country.

4. I’m angry that
atheist soldiers
— in the U.S. armed forces — have had atheist meetings broken up by Christian superior officers, in direct violation of the First Amendment. I’m angry that evangelical Christian groups are being given exclusive access to proselytize on military bases — again in the U.S. armed forces, again in direct violation of the First Amendment. I’m angry that atheist soldiers who complain about this are being harassed and are even getting death threats, from Christian soldiers and superior officers — yet again, in the U.S. armed forces. And I’m angry that Christians still say smug, sanctimonious things like, “there are no atheists in foxholes.” You know why you aren’t seeing many atheists in foxholes? Because Christians are threatening to shoot them if they come out.

5. I’m angry at preachers who tell women in their flock to submit to their husbands because it’s the will of God, even when their husbands are beating them within an inch of their lives.

6. I’m angry that so many parents and religious leaders terrorize children with vivid, traumatizing stories of eternal burning and torture, to ensure that they’ll be too frightened to even question religion. And I’m angry that religious leaders explicitly tell children — and adults, for that matter — that the very questioning of religion and the existence of Hell is a dreadful sin, one that will guarantee that Hell is where they’ll end up.

7. I’m angry that children get taught by religion to hate and fear their bodies and their sexuality. And I’m especially angry that female children get taught by religion to hate and fear their femaleness, and that queer children get taught by religion to hate and fear their queerness.

8. I’m angry about the
girl from the Muslim family in Delaware
who was told — by her public-school, taxpayer-paid teacher — that the red stripes on Christmas candy canes represented Christ’s blood, that she had to believe in and be saved by Jesus Christ or she’d be condemned to Hell, and that if she didn’t, there was no place for her in his classroom.

9. I’m angry at priests who rape children and tell them it’s God’s will. No, angry isn’t a strong enough word. I am enraged. I am revolted. I am trembling with fury at the very thought of it.

10. And I’m enraged that the Catholic Church consciously, deliberately, repeatedly, for years, acted to protect priests who raped children, and deliberately acted to keep it a secret, placing the Church’s reputation as a higher priority than, for fuck’s sake, children not being raped. I’m enraged that they shuttled child-raping priests from town to town, failed to inform law enforcement officers and in many cases flat-out stonewalled them, deliberately dumped the child rapists in remote, impoverished villages… and then, when the horror finally came to light, responded with defensive entrenchment, and equated the accusations with either anti-Semitic bigotry or petty gossip. And I’m enraged that the Church actually
argued, in court
, that protecting child-molesting priests from prosecution, and shuffling those priests from diocese to diocese so they could molest kids in a whole new community that didn’t yet suspect them, was a Constitutionally protected form of free religious expression, and that the Church should therefore be immune from prosecution for it.

11. And I’m angry that so many Catholics are so willing to defend the Catholic Church’s behavior in the child rape scandal. I’m angry that they’re letting their fear of eternal punishment in Hell, their desire for eternal reward in Heaven, or simply the comfort they take from the soothing rituals and traditions of the Church, take priority over taking the most obvious moral position a person could take — namely, that people and institutions should not protect child rapists. I’m angry that if their softball league, their charity group, their children’s school, did what the Catholic Church did and continues to do, they’d almost certainly quit in outrage… but because it’s their church, they stay in it, and defend the blatantly indefensible.

12. I’m angry about 9/11.

13. And I’m angry that, after 9/11 happened, people of Middle Eastern descent were attacked and their businesses vandalized, because they were Muslims, or because people assumed they were Muslims even if they weren’t, and they blamed all Muslims for the attacks.

14. And I’m angry that
Jerry Falwell blamed 9/11
on pagans, abortionists, feminists, gays and lesbians, the ACLU, and the People For the American Way. I’m angry that this theology of a wrathful god exacting revenge against pagans and abortionists by sending radical Muslims to blow up a building full of secretaries and investment bankers… this was not some fringe theology held by a handful of weirdos picketing funerals. This was a theology held by a powerful, wealthy, widely-respected religious leader with millions of followers.

15. I’m angry that the Bamiyan Buddha statues in Afghanistan — magnificent, monumental works of art over fifteen hundred years old — were
dynamited by the Taliban
, because they were idols, and were believed to be an affront to God’s law.

16. I’m angry about circumcision. I’m angry that, in the United States in the 21st century, millions of people are still cutting off part of their sons’ genitals, for no good medical reason and against all good medical advice, because Bronze-age goat-herders thousands of years ago thought their god demanded it.

17. I’m angry that little girls are getting their clitorises cut off because their parents’ religion teaches that it’s necessary.

18. And I’m angry that so many people defend religion against the charge of female genital mutilation by saying, “Oh, but that’s not what the religion really teaches, if you look at the original text, blah blah blah…” The fact is that the Islamic religion as it is widely believed and practiced — as well as other religions as they are widely believed and practiced (this practice is not limited to Islam) — teaches that little girls need to have their clitorises cut off… and it enrages me that so many people react to this fact by defending the religion and not the children.

19. I’m angry about the
Protocols of the Elders of Zion
. I’m angry that a forged document claiming to be a Jewish plot for global domination — not just a fraud, but a pathetically obvious fraud — was taken seriously and widely disseminated as fact. I’m angry that this forgery was used for decades, by individuals and governments, from Russia to Nazi Germany to Egypt to the United States, to justify hatred and fear of Jews… even to the point of justifying their systematic extermination. I’m angry that this continued to happen for decades after the document was conclusively shown to be a fraud, and that it continues to be taken seriously by many to this day.

20. I’m angry about honor killings. I’m angry that in Islamic theocracies, women who have sex outside marriage, women who date outside their religion, women who spend time with male friends, women who disobey their male relatives, are routinely executed. I’m angry that in these theocracies, even women who have been raped get executed for the crime of adultery. I’m angry that the ones who are only beaten and imprisoned are the ones who get off lucky.

21. I’m angry that, in Islamic theocracies, girls as young as nine years old can be married against their will.

22. I’m angry that, when a nine- year- old girl in Brazil was raped, the doctors who performed an abortion on her, and her family who approved the abortion, were
excommunicated
by the Catholic Church. And I’m angry that there was no excommunication for her stepfather who raped her.

23. I’m angry that seriously ill children needlessly suffer and die because their parents believe in faith healing or believe that medical treatment will anger their god. And I’m angry that, in
thirty-nine states
in the United States, these parents are protected from prosecution for child neglect.

24. I’m angry that, in
fourteen states
in the United States, child care centers operated by religious organizations don’t have to adhere to basic standards of health and safety, and don’t even have to be licensed. I’m angry that children in these child care centers have been harmed and have even died because of poor or non-existent staff training or grossly unsafe conditions, and that the operators are immune from prosecution.

25. I’m angry at the Sunday school teacher who told comic artist Craig Thompson that he couldn’t draw in Heaven. And I’m angry that she said it with the complete conviction of authority… when she had no basis whatsoever for that assertion. How the hell did she know what Heaven was like? How could she possibly know that you could sing in Heaven but not draw? And why on Earth would you say something that squelching and dismissive to a talented child?

26. I’m angry that almost half of Americans
believe in creationism
. Not a broad, theistic evolution, “God had a hand in evolution” version of creationism, but a strict, young-Earth, “God created man in his present form at one time within the last 10,000 years” creationism.

I should clarify this one, as people often misunderstand it. When atheists say that we’re angry about how many creationists there are in the U.S., a common response is, “What business is that of yours? Don’t they have the right to believe whatever they want? You’re just as intolerant of their beliefs as they are of yours!”

So let me explain. If creationists are trying to get their religious beliefs taught in the public schools — paid for by everyone’s taxes, forced on children whose families don’t share those beliefs, in direct violation of the First Amendment — then it isn’t just their own business, and I have a right to be angry about it.

But if they’re not trying to do any of that — if they’re just ordinary people trying to get by, working two jobs to pay the bills, and they’re leaving their school boards alone — then I’m not angry at them.

I’m angry for them.

I’m angry that they’ve been taught to fear and scorn one of the most profound, powerful truths about the world, and to embrace a lie that flatly contradicts an overwhelming body of evidence. I’m angry that they’ve been taught that loving their god means rejecting the reality of the Universe he supposedly created. I’m angry that they’ve been taught that scientists — people who care so much about the Universe they devote their lives to painstakingly figuring out how it works — are wicked and evil. I’m angry that they’ve been taught that virtuous religious faith demands that they disconnect themselves from the march of human knowledge.

I’m not angry at them. I’m angry on their behalf.

27. On this topic: I’m angry that school boards across the United States are still — more than eight decades after the Scopes trial — having to spend time and money and resources on the
fight to have evolution taught in the schools
. School boards are not exactly loaded with time and money and resources, and when they spend it fighting this stupid fight, they’re not spending it, you know, teaching.

28. And, in a similar vein: I’m angry that science teachers in the U.S. public schools often don’t teach evolution, or give it only a cursory mention, even when teaching it is sanctioned and indeed required — because they’re afraid of sparking controversy and having to deal with angry fundamentalist parents. Evolution is the foundation of the science of biology — biology literally doesn’t make sense without it — and kids who aren’t being taught about evolution are being deprived of one of the most fundamental ways we have of understanding ourselves and the world.

29. I’m angry that right-wing Christians in the United States are actively
campaigning against anti-bullying laws
in elementary and high schools, on the grounds that religious freedom includes the right to harass, threaten, and intimidate gay kids.

30. I’m angry that, in public, taxpayer-paid high schools around the country, atheist students who are trying to organize clubs — something they’re legally allowed to do — are routinely getting
stonewalled by school administrators
. I’m angry that the
Secular Student Alliance
has to push high school administrators on a regular basis, and has even had to sue them, simply to get them to obey the law.

31. I’m angry about what happened to
Jessica Ahlquist
. I’m angry that, in a public, taxpayer-paid high school in Rhode Island, a banner with an official school prayer was prominently posted in the school auditorium — in direct violation of the Constitution and of clear, well-established legal precedent. I’m angry that when Ahlquist asked her high school to take down the banner, her request was rejected, and she had to go to court to get her school to comply with the law. And I’m angry that, when she won her lawsuit — in an entirely unsurprising, non-controversial ruling — she was targeted with a barrage of brutal threats, including threats of beating, rape, and death.

32. I’m angry about what happened to
Damon Fowler
. I’m angry that when he asked his public, taxpayer-paid high school to stop a school-sponsored prayer at his graduation, he was hounded, pilloried, and ostracized by his community, publicly demeaned by one of his own teachers, targeted with threats of violence and death, and kicked out of his house by his parents.

33. And I’m angry that what happened to Jessica Ahlquist and Damon Fowler are not isolated incidents. I’m angry that things like this are happening around the United States, and all around the world. I’m angry that, even when the law clearly states that the government can’t endorse religion or force it on its citizens, people are often too intimidated to insist on their legal rights… because they’re afraid they’ll be bullied, ostracized, and threatened with violence by their classmates, their co-workers, their communities, their friends, even their families. I’m angry that this doesn’t just happen to atheists: it happens to Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Wiccans, religious minorities of all varieties. And I’m angry because these people aren’t wrong to be afraid.