Meme Madness Monday - Atheism is Just Like Religion Edition

Another Monday, another day of looking at dumb memes. Today, I thought I'd look at ones that specifically address atheism. Let's jump right in!

The first one, above, is actually a comic from Answers in Genesis. It features a surprised Ken Ham, who runs AiG, giving some side-eye to the imagined reader of the comic. We are clearly meant to identify with him and share his surprise, as noted by the exclamation point above his head, about the atheists' exclamations. The comic provides a sort of footnote that that this is "from actual atheist items," a statement I can believe. However, I think much has been misunderstood in terms of intent and meaning on the part of the atheists, and of course, Ken Ham makes a living demonizing science and atheists as antithetical to the correct and proper reading of the Bible which leads to The One True ChristianityTM (i.e. the one he happens to espouse). Having looked a little at what Ken Ham does, I think he's a slick salesman that has been able to make a good living out of his schtick.

The whole gimmick of this cartoon relies on the misinformed idea that atheism is a religion. There are lots of sayings that show the ludicrous nature of this: that bald is a hair color, that not collecting stamps is a hobby, that off is a TV channel. But just looking at the definition of religion, atheism has no dogma, no official texts, no sanctified places, no rituals or rules, no festivals or initiations, no prayer, and so on. Atheism is the opposite of theism. Both are simple pronouncements about the belief of a god. Atheism is not the opposite of Christianity. It just so happens that in the US, where Ken lives, Christianity is the majority religion so fundies see atheists as opposing them in particular.

The comic also relies on the notion that to have an opinion about religion is to be religious yourself. When I look at the shirts and signs in the comic, I can't help but think that these are people that are concerned about the impact of religion on politics. In the US, we are supposed to have a separation of church and state (or religion and government if you prefer). In considering policy, our leaders need to look to data and not what a religion says. Should you curb other people's rights because of what your particular interpretation of your holy book says? What gives you that right? Ken Ham is one of those people trying to muddy the waters by saying there is no neutral stance, that our science is informed by our "worldview." This is also a person though that says he won't believe a finding if it conflicts with his book, so there's that.

About the details of the cartoon, it can be hard to understand the intent of these statements from "actual atheists." Why did they say these things? What was the discussion? It can be hard to reconstruct what was intended, but of course, creationists don't care about things like context. They cherrypick the items that support their view and run with it. In any case, "trust in science" and the Darwin fish are clearly not religious. Lots of religious people, including Christians, accept the findings of science and accept the science of evolution. You have to be a particular kind of fundie not to realize that science is not an opponent of science. You have to be the kind of Bible literalist that denies reality.

God-free is also not necessarily religious. Some religions are god-free, but most people without god are also without religion. Two of the shirts strike me as tongue-in-cheek: atheism evangelist and devout atheist look to me like usernames or labels people apply themselves in an ironic fashion or as a way to indicate their passion. It does not presume religion.

As to the signs, "believe" with LIE highlighted just seems like a funny quip about Christians who say you just have to have faith. "God made me an atheist" also just seems like a very tongue-in-cheek statement in response to someone who says atheists know deep down that god exists à la Romans 1:18. Yeah, we all just want to sin. But if god made us, he made us atheists. He knew we wouldn't believe. The response is about this claim to knowledge about god and what he did. "Jesus was wrong"  is just an opinion. It is not necessarily religious to have an opinion on something in the Bible. "Jesus saves you from thinking" is another quip about how religion stops thought. What else is there to explore when you can just say "god-done-it."

In short, none of this actually is religious. It is an opinion on religion and an attempt to remove a particular religious belief from a set of discussions and use reason to make informed decisions. Being secular is not a religion, but if you want your religion to be the law of the land, this can be impossible to understand. If you're Ken Ham, you don't understand what secular means, either. You think it means anti-Christian.

Does it? One question: did these men commit atrocities in the name of atheism or their political ideology?

I get why the religious want to go there. Religion has literally killed in the name of its deity. The Bible has Yahweh giving the go-ahead for genocide. The crusades (although with geo-political interests) were fought between two clashing religions. The Inquisition claimed numerous victims. There were all kinds of religious wars fought.

Sure, there were also non-religious wars, but you can't deny that people fought to establish the primacy of their religion.

Communism is not synonymous with atheism. You can believe all kinds of political and economic theories and be an atheist. There is actually a strong libertarian crowd who are atheists.

I think one of the things people don't understand when they look at communism is why religion was seen as a threat. The Catholic church held lands and political power. It wasn't simply a set of beliefs and practices. The orthodox churches also held power, albeit not like the Catholic church. Not to go onto a tangent about the history of these churches, but they weren't seen as innocent organizations merely praying to a deity. Look today at the way the various religions are grabbing for power in the US with calls to allow preachers to endorse politicians directly from the pulpit.

I would like to be clear, what happened under those leaders is deplorable, and I don't see any way to find a positive in the regimes alluded to. However, atheism does not necessarily lead to murder.

Anyway, at this juncture in history, what atheists are most interested in, if they take an interest, is creating a secular state with freedom of and from religion. Religion is a personal matter for the individual.

I'm not sure how to file this meme: poisoning the well in that it makes an appeal to negative emotions and hate or slippery slope in that it implies that atrocities are some eventual end to this belief. There definitely is a category error because communism is a subset of atheism, like Christianity or Islam is a subset of theism, or the Catholic church is a subset of Christianity (despite what some Christians say). Go find out how many people were murdered in the name of Secular Humanism, and we'll rediscuss. I can wait.

That's it for meme day! Have a great week!