Zealous Atheism

What is with these wild-eyed freaks of late who, foaming at the mouth, are taking up the time of school boards and court rooms everywhere? Now, let's get one thing straight, I'm not on the side of rabid radicals of any religion. I am, by upbringing and faith, Christian. I don't use this as a reason for telling anyone else how to conduct their lives, what to believe or not believe, and what to teach or offer to teach in the schools, provided it is a voluntary course with actual academic value and doesn't promote violence or intolerance. So a school wants to offer a class on the Bible in history and literature. Get over it, people, nobody will be forced to take this class and no level of anger or venom is going to remove the historical influence of the document known to us as the Bible. It does not require faith in or adherence to the tenets of the Bible to recognize that it is the document with the greatest single influence on European and American history and literature following the Christianization of the Roman Empire. If studying the history and literature of the Middle East you'd better check out the Koran. If you want to get grounded in Asian history and literature you're going to need the Art of War as your guide.

The whole concept that a book that founded a majority religion could have, therefore, significance as an academic document is lost, however, on the militant atheists. I need to, again, pause and point out it's the radicals in any religion that cause my hackles to rise, not the genuine but tolerant adherents, so don't think I have the least bit of a problem with atheists. One of my favorite musical artists of all time is a firm atheist, Gary Numan, and I respect his views, which are thought out and based on his personal experiences, and he respects the views of those who believe differently than he does. All fine and cool, let's move on then. If you want to write a textbook, codify a curriculum, and present a course on the importance of Nietzsche, be my guest. So long as, like the Bible in History and Literature course, it is voluntary, there is no viable reason to deny such an offering to those students interested. If radical Christians then turned and sent in a band of outsourced lawyers and petitioners to prevent students from having the opportunity to take the course, I'd be just as annoyed. You, on the other hand, would be outraged and would call them hatemongers and repressionist zealots. So why is it that you think you're standing up for the rights of students by denying them access to discourse just because it involves a book you have philosophical and religious disagreement with?

You see, part of the problem is that the radical atheists aren't atheists because they don't believe in a deity. They're atheists because they're pissed off at someone who does. Atheists who simply don't believe in a deity aren't threatened by religious displays any more than they're upset by the tooth fairy, Santa Claus, or Harry Potter: it's all just fiction to them and it's not an attack on their person if someone else is crazy enough to take it as real. They aren't going to go shutting down the expression and exploration of others, even if they would have great passionate debates with them over the validity and proof of their respective positions on the spiritual. It is one thing to firmly, strongly, and passionately, even vehemently have a view, it is another to try to quash the rights of another to simply learn the concepts of another view.

No, Christianity is not and should never be the national religion of the United States of America. Atheism is not and should never be, either. With your constant lawsuits against everything from the pledge of allegience to Boy Scouts in public parks to nativity scenes in public view to courses about the influence of the Bible, you've become the new book-burners. Shame on you. Chill out and stop telling everyone else how to believe.