The broader impact of atheism
Written by Robin Marie in Opinion, Politics at May 2, 2011
Greta Christina, who we interview in our upcoming podcast, has a great post up called “A Crisis of Faithlessness.” Basically, she talks about occasionally wondering whether the atheist movement is the cause she should be investing most of her energy in, considering how much else is profoundly messed up about the world.
But, she argues, the impact of atheism is not strictly limited to questions of religious beliefs - it has wider societal implications, with tentacles in many directions.
Without religion, homophobia would be a lot less rampant. Without religion, sexism would be a lot less rampant. Without religion, the U.S. wouldn’t be freaking out over government funding of birth control.
I concur entirely - and I relate to the occasional bout of wondering, could my energy be better allocated? But, as I explain in the comments over at her blog, it seems to me that atheism is in fact deeply connected to everything I most care about.
Take economic inequality, for instance - particularly the growing gap between the rich and the poor in the United States. At first glance, this is not a religious issue. But look deeper, and irrational belief rears its ugly head - even when people are not particularly (or at all; think Ayn Rand disciples) religious. Indeed, part of this country (Calvinist New England) was originally founded on the whole idea that the rich were rich because they were on a list; as for everyone else, well, they were suspect.
Today, I see so often how this assumption persists despite Calvinism being long dead and largely replaced by a fuzzy, all-loving God. People still assume - consciously or not - that there is a certain amount of justice in “free market capitalism,” and the virtuous and hard-working really can and should rise above everyone else who, apparently, qualify as unvirtuous/immoral. But from an atheist perspective, there is nothing out there keeping score; God/the invisible hand does not necessarily reward good or virtuous people with riches. That depends on us, entirely. And I think once you rid yourself of this knee-jerk assumption that there is some sort of large score keeper in the sky, you start to really see how fucked up things are and think, holy hell, there is no good reason for any of this to be like this.
Again, religion is not entirely responsible for this, far from it. But I think it is a sizable chunk of what is going on. And if I can encourage people to start to take responsibility for the society they see around themselves, I think that goes a long way, beyond simply not believing in God.
