Collected from my exploits elsewhere on the internet; this was in response to a discussion about this article and in particular it was in response to some who agreed that Atheists should perhaps "tone it down" a little.
I'm certainly not an "Evangelical Atheist", though at the same time I make no secret of my viewpoint. There is another way of defining "Anti-Theist" which is advocated by Christopher Hitchens, which is the meaning I use when I refer to myself as such. Rather than being the sort to seek out and pester those of faith and to actively seek to destroy a person's belief in god or gods (since you cannot destroy something that does not exist, sorry, had to get that jab in), an Anti-Theist - in my parlance - is someone who, rather than being an Atheist who wishes that god was true, is someone who is actually quite glad that the proposition is increasingly absurd.
It seems readily apparent to me that these complaints about people who are openly, publicly and unapologetically atheist is that are based in the recognition that since the Enlightenment religion has done nothing but lose ground. It has had to give up its place as a political authority, and an educational authority, and a scientific authority, and now it is losing its place as a moral authority. The idea of god has been continually modified to be just outside the reach of our knowledge, as our knowledge has invaded god's domain and found him to be absent. He used to live on top of the mountain, then on the clouds, then in space, and now he has been pushed back to the farthest reaches of the universe, to particles so small or so dense or so fleeting that we are just barely learning to recognize their existence. The apologies for Gods absence have made him from a being which was actively and personally invested in the world, who spoke in human language, to a mere spectre of its former self in order that the description of what it is does not rouse peals of laughter from anyone who hears them. Some part of them, it seems, also recognizes the absurdity of their beliefs, and in order to shelter them from the harsh truth (as has always been the motivation and purpose of religion) god has been pushed into the most obscure corners of science and philosophy in the vain hope that he might be safe there.
The Non-Religious, Atheists and Agnostics, considered together, now equal Christians in number worldwide, and that number is growing. Religionists recognize, perhaps not consciously, that god is finally losing its hold on the world, and because they are afraid of the tables being turned, of the world where a presidential candidate believing in god is viewed as a dangerous and unstable relic from a bygone age; where churches are no longer allowed to exist, free from taxes or threats of eminent domain, simply for being churches; where THEIR children will be ridiculed by other children for still believing in god, as children today are ridiculed above a certain age for still believing in Santa Claus. In a debate with Sam Harris, Rabbi Wolpe, and Rabbi Shavit, Christopher Hitchens made the following statement:
"One of the reasons I like doing this - some people say "don't I ever get tired of debating with the religious?" No, absolutely I don't because you never know what they're going to say next.
"Sam [Harris] and I don't mind being called predictable it's very easy: We know what we think, we say straight out what we think we know and what we think is not possible to know, why we don't think there's a supernatural and so on. But this evening already we've had [Rabbi Bradley Artson Shavit's] suggestion that God is only really a guru, a friend when you're in need, I mean, he wouldn't do anything like bugger around with Job to prove a point. And, which if I now tell you that "Well, that must mean that THAT book is NOT the word of God" You'd say "Well whoever believed that that was the word of God?"
"Let me just tell you something: For hundreds and thousands of years, this kind of discussion in most places would have been impossible to have, or Sam and I would have been having it at the risk of our lives. Religion now comes to us in this smiley-face ingratiating way because it's had to give so much ground, and because we know so much more. But you've no right to forget the way it behaved when it was strong, and when it really did believe that it had God on its side."
Religion's death knell has been sounded, and in their fear they are trying to shut us up. They would keep their "John 3:16" t-shirts and their Fish magnets and their "National Atheists Day - April 1st" bumper stickers, but for some reason our equivalent expressions are "offensive" and we are lesser people for making them openly. Well I say this: This is a free country, with free thought, and we will proudly compete in the marketplace of ideas that OUR Enlightenment made possible for all of us, instead of the Inquisitions that STILL exist anywhere that God rules, and if you find that the primitive fear-mongering of religion cannot hold up among people who want to be free then it is no fault of ours.
Fortunately for us, we have no dogma that forbids us from being "out" about our faith, as the Christians do:
"Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.
Therefore when thou doest [thine] alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men.
Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth:
That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.
And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites [are]: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen [do]: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.
Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him." Matthew 6:1-8
For those that are paying attention to such things, those words aren't just any jerk from the Bible, but are as a point of faith the very words of the Christ Jesus himself. And so I repeat my challenge: OUR openness and public statement of our stance is offensive to you, and we are to respect YOUR feelings, but you are to be given license to not only call us fools and damn us to hell, but you are allowed to disobey your God when you do it?
Bollocks. I'll not put up with it and no sane and freedom loving person will.
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