When Will There Be Guaranteed Freedom From Persecution To Be Religious

[Cin]

Originally Posted by Fenchurch

Well, of course you are. I don't know you, actually, but I'll take your word for it at any rate.

What bothers me is that you seem to be so emphatic about confirming this and I can't help but wondering - are you trying to convince others or yourself. I've been an atheist my entire life and I've never doubted for a moment that my sense of morality is, at the very very least, equal to that of any believer. But unless I'm directly challenged (and, sadly, I have been) I've never really felt compelled to justify myself in any way. It doesn't seem like anyone here is arguing with you, but your posts are tinged with defensiveness.

I don't know what your situation is, however, and I don't want to judge unduly. Perhaps you're new to your sense of identity as an atheist. Perhaps, like a lot of people, you were raised to be a believer, and then went through some agnostic phase before you had the courage to name your atheism to yourself. This is a process that should sound familiar to any lesbian from an intolerant family. Or perhaps you live in an area of the country where your atheism makes you a target for mistrust and contempt. This is yet another situation that many lesbians and trans-folk can identify with. My point is, people on this site are less likely to attack than to commiserate, whatever their world-view.

That being said, I agree with everything you have posted. You are identifying a problem with our culture that, at the moment, is not being addressed. But you currently have a President who takes pains to show respect for believers and non-believers alike. People are becoming accustomed to the fact that atheists are not ashamed of who we are, and will not be closeted. It's getting better - too slowly, of course, but most change is.

Didn't imagine it would come off that way. I don't feel like i need to justify myself morally. Nor am I newly atheist. Nor was my post actually about tolerance or intolerance from any community online or other wise. I was trying, apparently unsuccessfully, to illuminate how the religious right and many of our political leaders feel the need to conflate morality with religion. And how many people buy into it. Also my belief is that by holding our leaders accountable for what they profess to believe, one can sometimes affect change. Hopefully if you claim morality and you are serious about being a moral person and someone points out the ways that you are behaving immorally you will change the behavior. I think it is a tact that might have a chance. At least I thought so. Maybe I was wrong. Been that before.

And I never meant to give the impression I was speaking to anyone on this site about moral or immoral behavior. I don't know how I did give that impression. But let me be clear, I wasn't, in case there is confusion. I was referring to politicians, political leaders, elected officials and the religious right. If you use morality as your calling card, you can, at the very least, be expected to act morally.

Perhaps the confusion lies with a misunderstanding of what the thread is about in the first place. It is not a thread about atheism. It is a thread about the pressures to be religious. Hopefully my post was on point about that.