Thoughts on various topics from the perspective of a Jewish non-theist,taking the position that there is no evidence for the existence of a supreme being that directs our lives or the course of the universe.
Tuesday, July 16, 2019
Can Atheists Work Together with God-believers for a Common Cause?
The following originally appeared as a response to a post in "Atheist Revolution" on a different subject but I slightly revised it to discuss the following related issue..
In theory, atheists and god-believers should be able to work together for a cause in which they both have a stake, such as promoting a political candidate who equally recognizes both groups. Such was the case with President Obama. In his 2009 inaugural address he stated "We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and nonbelievers...".
But this is a rare occurrence. What's more common are scenarios in which liberal atheists who support the Democrats had to put up with the likes of Hillary Clinton, who during the 2016 election campaign continually harped on her Methodist faith, ("Why do Democrats keep snubbing atheists? We help drive the party") In all fairness maybe she did that to win over the ''god and guns'' demographics, but it obviously didn't work and it turned off a lot of atheists, including me. I can't imagine that it was much better for conservative non-believers who were confronted with Trump's' and Christian evangelists hijacking of the Republican party.
And as likely as not, when working with Christian organizations, atheists will be marginalized, just based on their numbers which will likely be much smaller than that of their religious counterparts. The majority mentality of the latter may well extend to such procedural matters as insistence on starting meetings with a prayer, notwithstanding the awkward position such rituals place the non-believers in attendance. This is a common occurrence even in the public domain, such as city council public sessions, and for which, unfortunately the U.S.Supreme Court has already given the green light.
So atheists who want to join forces with theists need to go into such alliances with eyes wide open and be prepared for a range of responses extending from initial acceptance to outright rejection, with the latter a more likely eventual outcome.
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I think you are correct that the norm in these situations will be for Christians to marginalize atheists. Some are probably not aware that they are doing so, and they may be willing to change their behavior as they gain insight into the effects of what they are doing. Clearly, atheists will need to decide for ourselves whether what we might accomplish through collaboration is worth the indignities we will likely encounter.
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