Crazy Tracy, and her ilk. I can think of a few words to describe her, but I think Crazy is adequate for the moment. You see, I don't think that regular religious people are a particular problem, (leaving the argument that they give a platform for the nutters aside). They go to work, put out the rubbish, and say "hi" to different folks, without even a second thought about race, sexuality, or religion. I would 'like' to think that these are what normal religious people are like. No, the real problem are the fundamentalists. They are genuinely dangerous. Not in the "I'm going to cut off your head and post it on the internet" type way, (although that certainly applies with aspects of Islam), but dangerous in the way that they could easily lead the country down a path of intolerance, irrationality, and quite possibly to a theocracy, all based on a book that for some reason they hold higher than any other notion they can think of.
"But why should you care what these people say? It's not impinging on YOUR life!", I imagine some of you may well be shouting. Well, as I said, normal religious folks don't. However, more and more in recent times the religious right is taking a stronger grasp of the political spectrum, not to mention the fact that socialist values, and the PC culture means that it is harder, and harder to voice and opinion that seems to insult, or degrade someone belief system.
So, I think the atheists of the world, who are frankly tired af all this religious bullshit, are at the point where our viewpoint needs to be taken into account. We are not happy to be dictated to by people who's life lessons are from scripture that is frankly barbaric, and who will take a 2000 year old book above all other ideas, regardless of evidence, or proof, or even common sense.
Religion is "inherently wicked" according to the superb Christopher Hitchens, and examples of this are not hard to find at all.
A recent UN resolution, supported by the US administration, is going to proclaim that criticism of religion is illegal. As absurd as it sounds, religion IS getting a foothold, and it needs to be actively countered, and not by sitting back muttering "well, it's got nothing to do with me". It has everything to do with you, and while you are getting on with your life, others are actively fighting to have their point of view forced upon you, whether you life it or not, to the point where you cannot even address what they are saying.
Here's Pat Condell;
The fundamentally religious bother us with their insistance that they are all about compassion, love, understanding, and tolerance, when it is patently untrue, and the opposite is more aligned with their stance. You only have to take a mere cursory glance at what is going on in the world to see that compassion, understanding, etc, are seemingly very far from the mind of the fundamentalist religious nut-job, and quite often from the run of the mill religious god-botherer as well.
religion is based on the premise of fear, hatred, intolerance, and the very notion that it is a "good" thing is utterly ridiculous, not to mention the notion they feel about their ideas being above all others, and should somehow be protected. Now, don;t get me wrong, they can believe whatever they want. They can have their Allah, God, Jesus, Zeus, Vishnu, Ganesh, and the great Ju-Ju in the sky (wtf?) as I'm frankly not overly interested in what they choose to believe. What I do object to is being labelled morally bankrupt, etc, and try their damnedest to have their religion thrust upon me, whether I like it or not. Atheists, and other groups under the same cosh, are perfectly allowed to have their rational response. To think otherwise would be verging on fascism, or at least theocratic.
I'm sure you remember the farcical debacle regarding the Danish cartoons? Now this is the sort of event where the hypocrites come out of the woodwork, feigning upset, and abuse. The fact remains that they feel that THEIR beliefs are to be held in higher regard than all others, namely the newspaper, and the artist. death threats were issued, and people did die. Buildings were ransacked, and rioting occurred. All over some cartoons. Ironically, the very issue the cartoon was raising was shown to be true by the very actions of the protesters.
It essentially boils down to THIS cartoon;
Unfortunately, freedom of speech is slowly being eroded by these people. People are careful what they say now as the threat of violence is very real. They have no issues whatsoever about telling you what THEY think, but when the tables are tuned, be it regarding beliefs, or moral questions, they stamp their feet like petulant children, and cry intolerance, and oppression. The sooner these people are shown they they do NOT trump the rest of us because of their supernatural beliefs, the better. They have NO right to impose their middle age belief system on us. I wouldn't mind, but it's not as though Islamic cartoonists are entirely innocent of drawing cartoons about jews.
The notion of Hell if you do not believe, (whether you have led a good life or not), as well as the death penalty for apostasy, genital mutilation, oppression of women, etc, is so hypocritical to the teachings they LIKE to talk about. By far the most dangerous of the religious is the literalist. The people who believe that the bible of Quran is THE word of God, and it must be taken, word for word, as is, and completely true. Anyone who has read the old testament will find that a truly frightening notion. Has there been a book with more death, genocide, slavery, incest, infanticide, and so on, than the bible? Taking this as the word of God is indeed a terrifying idea. They can wave their banners, and bibles, and proclaim their faith in whatever they want on the issue, but in the science room, faith has no place... Science does. Anybody who says otherwise is frankly an imbecile. I'd suggest watching Thunderf00t's series, "Why we laugh at Creationists", for this particular issue. he can debunk the nonsense with far more grace that I ever could.
Active atheism, (or as the opponents like to call it "militant atheism"), has come a long way in the last decade. The likes of Christopher Hitchens, San Harris, Richard Dawkins, Pat Condell, and Thunderf00t have some excellent material on the subject, and I implore you to go and find their stuff, and have a really good mooch. get your head in the trough of knowledge!
So, we are at the point where where religion does matter, a great deal, whether you believe or not. have a look at the reaction to the mere mention of 'non-believers' on BO's inaugural address, as well as the reaction to simple atheist billboards. I don;t remember this reaction to the hundreds of thousands of religious billboards, and church signs out there in the world.
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