When this hit the news the other day I was waiting for the other shoe to drop and I knew this is what would happen: ATHEIST TERRERISTS DARWINDAWKINSCOMMIEBASTARDS ARE UNAMERICUN!!!1!! etc etc ad nauseum. Let the misconceptions begin...
Actually, the main (stated) reason why he went on a rampage was something to do with overpopulation and he was a bit of a nutcase, obsessed with the idea that humans were destroying the earth (to a degree, this could be true, however, I am often tempted to welcome this with open arms). He didn't go to the Discovery channel to make people "convert" to atheism-- he went there to convert people to his obsessive form of environmentalism. A distinction I can't expect idiots to make...
Americans, least of all, I expect to have any understanding of atheism, which, taken by itself says NOTHING but that it is the absence of belief in gods. FROM that absence a myriad of ideologies MAY arise, many which are mutually exclusive and have nothing to do with religion per se: secular humanism, existentialism, communism, Darwinism, nihilism, Objectivism, etc. All this covers a lot of different ground, but none of them are religions. A nihilist may be an atheist, but not all atheists are nihilists. A secular humanist may be an atheist, but not all atheists are secular humanists. And so on.
When someone tells you "I am an atheist" it doesn't really tell you a lot. When someone tells you "I am a humanist" or "I am an Objectivist" or "I am an existentialist" they are telling you a lot more information. On this one board, we've got atheists who fall under a variety of political, scientific, moral and philosophical points of view, many of them overlapping.
Understanding such nuance requires at least some degree of intelligence. I don't expect that from most people, least of all religion-saturated Americuns.
Actually, the main (stated) reason why he went on a rampage was something to do with overpopulation and he was a bit of a nutcase, obsessed with the idea that humans were destroying the earth (to a degree, this could be true, however, I am often tempted to welcome this with open arms). He didn't go to the Discovery channel to make people "convert" to atheism-- he went there to convert people to his obsessive form of environmentalism. A distinction I can't expect idiots to make...
Americans, least of all, I expect to have any understanding of atheism, which, taken by itself says NOTHING but that it is the absence of belief in gods. FROM that absence a myriad of ideologies MAY arise, many which are mutually exclusive and have nothing to do with religion per se: secular humanism, existentialism, communism, Darwinism, nihilism, Objectivism, etc. All this covers a lot of different ground, but none of them are religions. A nihilist may be an atheist, but not all atheists are nihilists. A secular humanist may be an atheist, but not all atheists are secular humanists. And so on.
When someone tells you "I am an atheist" it doesn't really tell you a lot. When someone tells you "I am a humanist" or "I am an Objectivist" or "I am an existentialist" they are telling you a lot more information. On this one board, we've got atheists who fall under a variety of political, scientific, moral and philosophical points of view, many of them overlapping.
Understanding such nuance requires at least some degree of intelligence. I don't expect that from most people, least of all religion-saturated Americuns.
“Society is not a disease, it is a disaster. What a stupid miracle that one can live in it.” ~ E.M. Cioran
