Oh lordy
by digby
I guess it was inevitable that some horrible killer would end up being an atheist and that would open the door for people of all faiths to come together and demand that other atheists condemn him. That’s how these things work. For instance, this piece by Elizabeth Stoker Breunig takes on the New Atheists suggesting that it’s time for atheists to reckon with the fact that they are a problem.
Let me just preface this by saying that I am an Old Atheist. By that I mean I’m old. And I’m an atheist. To me atheism isn’t a movement. It certainly isn’t an identity. It’s just the lack of belief in a deity, period. If I wanted to join some church I’d pick one with good art and music. If I wanted dogma I’d use the Bible — it’s a very exciting read. None of this New Atheism stuff holds much interest for me.
I don’t hate people for believing in religion. It seems to me to be quite natural. I am interested in it because the vast majority of humans on this earth are interested in it and it has a huge influence on the world around me. And because it’s so natural I think understanding and tolerance are necessary for us to be able to live together. In fact, this atheist has been arguing of late that our self-righteous waving of the bloody Charlie Hebdo shirt might not be entirely justified if what we are aiming for is a decent and tolerant society instead of a “clash of civilizations.” It seems to me that secularism certainly has its blind spots too. Glass houses an all.
Anyway, in case it’s actually necessary to say it, I condemn the killing of people, period, by atheists or anyone in the name of religion or anything else. I’m against it, no matter who is perpetrating the act and that includes the state when it executes people, by the way. If this guy down in North Carolina killed those people because he was an atheist who hates Muslims he is a psycho. But I’m not going to “disavow” him because we aren’t members of an “organization” and we don’t share an identity. It makes no sense to me that the fact that I don’t believe in something that he doesn’t believe in either would make me responsible for his actions.