The Persecuted Majority
So yesterday, I was talking about the importance of actor Daniel Radcliffe coming out as an atheist on my Examiner blog. I mentioned that Radcliffe’s admission may have been a career risk in come out as an atheist. One comment that a Christian made on the story was that it was more of a career risk to come out as a Christian than an atheist in America.
I have heard similar claims from Christians about other professions including believe it or not, politicians. I always find it funny when Christians who make up roughly 75 to 80 percent of the population whine about how they are being persecuted by the roughly 15 percent of non-believers. While some Christians will claim that just because people go to church, they may not necessarily be Christian. This then turns into “Who are the Real Christians.” But that aside, multiple polls still show that at least 34 percent of Americans are fundamentalist Christians. So they would still outnumber atheists two to one.
There are certainly some professions which have more non-theists than other professions though. Scientists, college professors, journalists, comedians, etc. all have large numbers of atheists in their fields. Out of those groups atheists probably only outnumber theists in the fields of science and comedy. Despite the large number of atheist college professors and journalists, there are still more theists in those fields. Christians aren’t however discriminated against in the field of science, but as it happens the more we learn and question it seems the less people believe. But that is another blog for another day.
The point today is that Christians are not being persecuted in America. In fact, usually when religious persecution takes place in America, Christians are generally the ones doing the persecuting. The claim that Christians are being persecuted because they can’t turn schools into churches like they used to is just laughable. I always find it funny that when secular society puts an end to religious persecution that is seen by religious fanatics as persecution in and of itself.
In general though, I think many Christians enjoy being persecuted and so they cry persecution when ever they can whether or not there is actual persecution going on or not. According to the Bible, Jesus was persecuted and so by playing the persecution card, some Christians feel like they are more Christian. It seems to be a way of shoring up one’s faith.
Filed under: atheism, faith, Real Christians, Religion
