The Tip of the Spear

The current rise of atheism in the United States brings intense criticism on the ones who have brought the discussion out into the open. Authors such as Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, and Christopher Hitchens have provided atheists and freethinkers a penetration point and opening into the well-developed and dominant religious fundamentalism that has taken control of the United States in the last decade seeking to destroy the concept of separation of church and state. There are many freethinkers (atheist, agnostic, humanist, skeptic, etc.) in this country and have been since the beginning but it has not always been safe or productive for us to be open about it; it’s time that changed. A poll by Baylor University indicates that there are many ways to view god that would seem to negate or ameliorate the personal god of revealed religion and may not give an accurate count of how many people there are who at least have significant doubts.

There are even some freethinkers who do not like how these authors represent atheism and freethought believing there are better ways. While they may not like that they have to say, these authors have undeniably opened up a dialogue about the religious incursion into the separation of church and state that cannot be ignored and could not have come about by diplomacy; the discussion had to be forced into the open. We are tired of bigots like Jerry Falwell blaming everything on everyone who is not in their specific sect of Christianity.

It seems that it will take a variety of approaches to fully enable those with different views of religion and those with no religion at all to come out of the closet and openly identify with their disbelief. I don’t think that completely eliminating religious belief is a realistic goal; first we must gain social validity by allowing atheists to be seen as the patriotic, compassionate, intelligent, and moral people that I have come to associate with atheism.

China is a good example of a place where atheism was forced on the people as part of a broader economic philosophy. This created a spiritual vacuum that is now being enthusiastically filled by various religions in China and is a good indicator that religion and spirituality will not go away anytime soon; Sigmund Freud may be correct when he said that religion will continue to exist until we, as humans, overcome our innate fear of death.

Now that the veil of religious fundamentalism has been pierced by the likes of Dawkins, Harris, Dennett, and Hitchens, it is up to the rest of us who are concerned about the future to find out where our role comes in. Some atheists, such as Hemant Metha have started an “atheist outreach” by attending churches as atheists and opening communication with various churches nationwide. More people than ever are coming out of the closet as atheists or humanists and are reaching out to believers in an attempt to find common ground between them. This is likely where most of atheists, agnostics, humanist, and freethinkers will find our roles; but we probably couldn’t have come to this point if not for the works of Harris, Dawkins, Dennett, and Hitchens.