EDITORIAL PIECE IN DULUTH NEWS TRIBUNE 2008
ATHEISTS ARE YOUR FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS-------HAVE MUCH TO OFFER THE WORLD
The News-Tribune has provided viewpoints, letters, and
news stories recently that refer to religion in public life and to secularism,
atheism, freethinking, and humanism.
There have been some misunderstandings that need clarification. The following should help.
Who are atheists?
We are your friends and neighbors.
About ten to fifteen percent of Americans are atheists, approximately
thirty-six million of us. No doubt you don’t believe in ALL of the currently
worshipped gods. We agree but do not find reason to believe in ANY gods,
spirits or devils. That is all there is to atheism; there is no doctrine, no
militia and no war plan. As with people of faith, some atheists are good, some
are bad. Atheists experience joy,
warmth, morality, celebration, art, music, friendship and family as do
religious people.
Who are secularists? In
America today we uphold our secular nation as planned by Jefferson, Madison and
other founding fathers. They were almost all secularists. With grim awareness
of Europe’s bloody religious wars, they purposefully established a proud new
nation free of religious domination and equally tolerant of religion and
non-religion. Our Constitution has no mention of gods and specifically states
that there be no religious test for public office. Being sworn into office on a Bible or Koran is unofficial, a
personal preference. However using a religious document can seem rude, suggesting a religious partiality inappropriate to public office that was
designed to represent all constituents. From the beginning many Christian sects
sought to deny our nation’s secular character and to erode the
constitution. We must remember
that Congress under George Washington asserted in an official treaty that The
United States “is in no wise founded on Christianity”. And secularists are
proud of our Minnesota State Constitution. Article I, Section 16 states that “no preference to be given
to any religious establishment or mode of worship … nor shall any man be
compelled to attend, erect or support any place of worship, or to maintain any
religious or ecclesiastical ministry, against his consent ……nor shall any money
be drawn from the treasury for the benefit of any religious societies or
religious or theological seminaries”. (Duluth City Council’s support of the Kroc Religious
Center seems in violation of Article I.)
What about Freethinkers? We
assert the right of everyone to think and decide for her or himself based on
reason and evidence. We deny
the automatic validity of ‘holy’ books.
We subject religious assertions to scientific test. We reject coercion by imam, rabbi or
priest or anyone so that we can understand nature and humanity free of
mythology or superstition.
What do Humanists think? We are committed
to reason and science as the best way to understand and decide. In addition, the American Humanist
Society’s Principles also include separation of church and state, the right of
privacy, reproductive freedom, and the fullest realization of the best and
noblest of which humanity is capable.
As you have noticed there is much overlap of these
thoughts; many of us are atheists as well as freethinkers and secularists and
humanists. You can be as well.
Perhaps you already are.
What are the values and benefits of freethought?
You can recognize and retain what is valuable and
reject the dangerous aspects of religion. The dangerous aspects are 1. The
demand of most religions that only it is true and that others must be
eliminated; 2. the insistence that religion must be spread to every person,
everywhere; 3. the degradation of non-believers; 3. the indoctrination of
vulnerable, trusting children with religious fears and myths, 4. The claim that religion is above
criticism and immune from scientific inquiry. Those meme ideas have been extremely effective in the spread
of religion but good people recognize them as wrong and that they are a formula
for bloody civil strife.
With freedom of thought you can examine every person
or situation in the light of reason without the filters of Bronze Age creation
myths. You can consider morality
on the basis of what causes pain or pleasure to sentient beings (including
primates and other animals).
The statement that people like Stalin do horrid things
because they are atheists won’t deceive you. We know atheists can do good and horrid things just
like religionists. However
atheists cannot do bad things because of atheist doctrine or sacred book
instructions as there aren’t any.
Religions on the contrary do have doctrines that require hate and
killing (jihad, Salem Witch Trials, inquisitions, Biblical commands to kill
homosexuals, infidels and to stone to death a non-virgin bride, etc).
In place of prayer as barter or pleading with a god
you can regard introspection and meditation as valuable self-reflective
thought. You can use your mental energy to determine if there is something
useful you can do to help humanity face our many problems.
My friends and neighbors ask me why I am so vocal
about these matters. They say religion is the private business of others. But
it isn’t kept private. The
religion of others intrudes on me and on you! Religion’s long stubborn
resistance to knowledge and science harms us all. We must all wait longer for a
cure of diabetes, for example, because of religion’s interference with stem
cell research. We all are
currently forced to contribute our tax money for religious warfare and
for the spread of religion under the guise of faith-based initiatives. We must endure Catholicism’s
restriction of legal and normal healthcare including contraception for family
planning and for prevention of disease even for non-catholic patients in their
hospital systems. Children must
die in Africa because of a religious blockade of contraception. Some religious strictures forbid a
married person with HIV to use a condom with his spouse.
And yet religious people have done and want to do more
good things. Imagine what they
might do if they didn’t have to dodge around supposed infallibility of the
Pope, the Torah or Bible or Koran. Imagine the relief of guilt and shame for
young people who needn’t be taught that they are sinful by nature. Imagine the social support and
wholesome gatherings of people of goodwill unfettered by devotion to vacant
mythology. Imagine not having to
pretend belief until you don’t remember that you were pretending. Imagine not having to lie to trusting
children about virgin births and resurrections and heavens and hells. Imagine
humanity growing past Bronze Age ideas about the nature and origin of the
cosmos. Imagine children and
parents learning how to test reality so not to become victims of Islamic
genital mutilation or pedophile priests, or televangelists. Imagine cooperation with other
countries in place of our faith-based fears and warfare.
I believe Jews, Moslems, Mormons and Christians can set aside superstition and save
from their books and traditions what is genuine and let go of the rest. Their organizations can become centers
of devotion to wholesome social value with a rational morality.
That is my quest. That is why I am outspoken. Why
shouldn’t wholesome religion start in Duluth or Superior? I will meet with any group religious or
not to consider this. Ask your
religious leader to read this essay. Ask them to invite me to your meetings or
invite me yourself.
William van Druten
Duluth MN
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