Meme Madness Monday - Christians v. Atheists Edition

Welcome to another Monday of Meme Madness where I go find stupid memes on the internet for us to point at and laugh. Or criticize. Or all of the above. Let's see what we have this week!

Meme #1: An atheist commits a crime: don't judge him; A Christian commits a crime: clearly a product of Christianity

Strawmeme warning! I have no idea what this meme-maker is responding to. This seems to me to be a misrepresentation of what happens in a conversation.

In my experience, Christians will ask where atheists get their morality implying or blatantly stating that only their version of the god of their religion is the source of morals. I have heard the accusation that atheists have stopped believing because "they just want to sin." I have heard Christians flat out state that to start down the path of disbelief is to join all the big atrocity-makers of the twentieth century, including but not limited to Hitler, Stalin and Mao. Setting aside the fact that Hitler as Christian and SS uniforms included "Gott mit uns" (God with us/God on our side), the implication is that lack of belief led to mass murder and oppression when in fact a political ideology did.

Reminder: atheism is simply a lack of belief in deities, any deities. Where you get your morals and what political ideology you adopt are separate issues.

So, when Christians throw out this blanket accusation that atheists are horrible people who just want to sin without any kind of accountability, it is often pointed out that jails are full of Christians and there have been all kinds of atrocities committed in the name of Christianity.

One of the problems with the meme is treating atheism and Christianity as if they were identical, as if they were both world views. It would be more appropriate to say atheists and theists.

As I said, I'm not sure why this meme was made, but it strikes me that if someone commits a crime, their atheism has nothing to do with it. Where do they derive their morality? Many atheists are secular humanists. As for Christians, there are actually Christians who have committed crimes because of their religion. Andrea Yates, anyone? Well, that's probably unfair. She was probably mentally ill. But her religion was what fed her delusions. It is the desire to save her children from hell that led her to undertake her crimes.

And I just have to say, I never see any news report where a crime happens and the religion is pointed out except under two circumstances: the person is atheist, in which the conservative press piles on about the dangers of atheism, and the person mentions some Christian doctrine about the crime, in which I think the detail is warranted. And oh my does the conservative press go into a frenzy to excuse the person!

But let's be clear: religion or lack thereof is usually not really applicable in why a person commits a crime. But I'll tell you what, all those  Christians who say that Christianity just makes everyone better people, more moral, more upright, this meme is important. It flat out doesn't make people better.

This is, I suspect, the actual origin: some atheists are pointing out Christians committing crime in order to show this last fact, that Christianity didn't hold them back, in response to all the accusations about atheism and crime.

Meme #2: When Christian girls say they love Jesus but date non-Christian guys

Um, what? You can only date Christians if you love Jesus? Is this a new rule? 

I imagine it would be better for a marriage for people to have the same religion. Not necessary, mind you, as long as there was good communication. But it seems that if religion is a big part of your life, you would want that to be part of your family life. But dating? Why not just date people you like and want to get to know? 

I have other questions too. Like, can your friends be non-Christian? Do you have to surround yourself with Christians or Jesus will be sad? 

I don't know, man, seems pretty limiting. 

I guess I just don't get why this has to be the case, but then I don't get this "love Jesus" thing as if the dude was still here walking around and a real person you could meet, so what do I know?