Opinion Columnist: Militant Atheism Harmful, Counterproductive Practice

I am an atheist.

However, I do not agree with the lawsuits and attacks targeted at certain aspects of religion in this country by the militant branch of atheism. Militant atheists need to settle down in their attacks on religious America.

There are many branches of atheism, and some of them are militant. For the purposes of this column, a militant atheist is a person who is hostile toward religion and does not want it in the world anymore. Most of the attacks made by militant atheists are toward government buildings or schools expressing any sort of religious ideas or symbols.

For example, back in 2003, Thomas Van Orden filed a lawsuit against the State Preservation Board of Texas trying to remove the Ten Commandments monument from State Capitol grounds. He argued that this violated the establishment clause of the first amendment, meaning that Texas was endorsing a religion. Governments should not endorse or make any laws based on religion. Having a Ten Commandments monument, even one that was presented to the state, does neither of those things.     

According to Fox6, a local Fox affiliate in Tennessee, a girl was suspended for saying  ‘bless you’ to another student. This incident is another example of the lunacy often accompanying the tender subject of religion in schools. Schools should have no position on religion. Someone saying ‘bless you’ after you sneeze does not affect anyone’s freedom. I say ‘God bless you’ all the time, and you won’t find me in church on Sunday. 

Spreading the good word of atheism, however, is something I completely agree with, except, of course, when it turns into something crazy and unnecessary. According to the American Atheist website, “Activism and education are, first and foremost, about raising the profile of atheism and normalizing atheism in the public discourse.”

This makes total sense. There are many things wrong with organized religion and the way it expresses itself here in the U.S., and if someone comes over to the dark side because of atheistic activism, that’s great. It’s not super important to try to change people, though.

Attacking religion and banning it from our vocabulary is not the way to go when it comes to spreading atheism. Religion is an extremely personal thing, and when you attack it, you not only stir up a firestorm of hate, but you also come across as the bad guy. This weird need to remove religion from the world is unnecessary, and militant atheists are doing no one a favor.

Of course there is some validity to a secular world, especially when you look at extremists who take religion too far or lawmakers who say that their religious beliefs are more important than human rights. However, extremism is not the case for most religious people, and militant atheists need to realize this and calm down.

The opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of San Marcos Corridor News.

Jeffrey Bradshaw is an Opinions Columnist with the University Star where this was originally published and is reprinted here through a news partnership. |  @CorridorNews