It’s always nice to find that someone else has already done such a thorough job of covering a particular point, that I don’t really need to add anything myself.
Certain idiotic blatherings on Fox News, about some atheist bus adverts in the US, were among a number of things I’ve seen lately which annoyed me enough to catch my attention, but also frustrated me enough to put me off trying to write anything coherent. If I tried describing this from scratch I think I’d just end up pounding the keyboard halfway through the first paragraph, and that’d probably just make me seem even less successfully witty and erudite than usual.
So a big thank you to Michael Rosch for this article at the Examiner, which very neatly takes apart this video.
The posters causing all the furore bear no more provocative a slogan than “You can be good without God”. It’s an entirely positive message, and demonstrably true. It says nothing critical about anyone, such as those who might choose to be good with God. It’s just a message of inclusiveness, letting the non-religious know that not everyone sees them as immoral monstrosities, and reminding the religious that sometimes other people who think a bit differently from you might be okay.
And there are still some people who’ll say things about it like:
I feel it’s an outright attack on Christianity.
I feel like the language of it is inflammatory…
You have to realize that there are a lot of Christians in that area who are highly offended by this.
It’s quite staggering how puny, flimsy and fragile your most deeply held convictions must be if they’re so easily threatened. Nobody even has to mention Christianity for you to feel as if you specifically are suffering an “outright attack”. The claim that “You can be good without God” – the mere suggestion that people who don’t share your religious views are not pure evil – is “inflammatory”.
And if some Christians are “highly offended” by the way that people with contrary ideas sometimes don’t just shut up and let Jesus have the complete run of the place… well, I refer you to the always eloquent Mr Stephen Fry, who asks: So fucking what?
Ugh, I’ve already spent far more time thinking about this than is good for me. I’m going to bed.
Well said. And your headline is a classic!
If Christians shut up and let Jesus have complete run of their places, well, their homes and churches would look completely different than they do now!
I’m glad people can be good without God. It makes me feel less cynical, to be honest.
This is the classically predicted flailing defense by a toxic meme that is under attack via rationality.
Take offense.
The meme has built up an intrinsic immune reaction to thoughts that might harm it.
Even innocent requests for information might trigger an immune response.
What you see is a self-replicating entity in action.
Thanks, Michael. You’ve just made Christianity sound even creepier than it already did.
COTG Godlessness and Mississippi, Mormons, moral…
Welcome to the Aug. 9, 2009 Common Era (no AD here!) issue of Carnival of the Godless….
The Christian’s “offense” is like if I told you the only way your wife could be happy was to be riding my massive rod, and then claim to be offended when you suggested otherwise.
It’s because of their perversion of the Golden Rule, I tell you. Lack of empathy makes you an audacious asshole.
I’m a little perplexed as to why you care?