DangerousTalk

Atheism is on the rise in America and the world and as such we have become a bigger target for religionists. Many religious people attempt to make it seem like being a vocal atheist is something new and militant but the fact is that there is nothing new, mean, or hateful about criticizing ridiculous ideas.

While I talk about a more detailed definition of atheism in another article, being vocal about atheism basically boils down to the pretty simple concept of criticizing ridiculous ideas. The modern atheist movement is not about murdering religious people. Nor is it about making religion illegal. That would be what real militant atheists might advocate if they actually existed. But that is not reality.

The modern atheist movement also is not trying to convert religious people to some other ridiculous supernatural idea. We leave that type of evangelizing to the religionists.

Modern atheists tend to advocate a free market of ideas in which every idea is thought about and scrutinized. Bad ideas get criticized and ridiculous ideas are ridiculed because they are… well, ridiculous. It isn’t the fault of atheists that religious and supernatural beliefs tend to be ridiculous. If religious people don’t want their beliefs ridiculed, then they shouldn’t have such ridiculous beliefs.

The thing is that most religious people know that their beliefs are ridiculous. They know that in the free market of ideas their beliefs won’t hold up. So instead of abandoning those ideas in favor of more reasonable ideas which present a more accurate model of reality, they often try to place their beliefs above criticism.

Religionists have dominated our culture in an attempt to form a monopoly on the free market of ideas. They have made it socially unacceptable to criticize their ridiculous beliefs. It is perfectly acceptable to criticize political ideas, philosophical ideas, literary ideas, etc., but when it comes to religious ideas, criticism is seen as impolite, rude, and even hateful. Why is that?

If an idea or belief is ridiculous then people should be free to criticize it as being such. In fact, people are free to criticize and ridicule ridiculous ideas and beliefs in every other avenue of discourse except in relation to religion.

Now religion’s monopoly has been broken and their ideas and beliefs are going to have to compete in the fair market of ideas like every other idea and belief. Not surprisingly, religions aren’t holding up and that is why atheism is on the rise.

Filed under: atheism, Atheism NOT Religion, censorship, culture war, Decline of Religion, People of Reason, Religion