Can you trust me?

A recent study at the University of Minnesota has granted me my deepest pathological desire: to be a subversive minority somehow despite being the whitest, most middle class dude around. It seems as though atheists are more distrusted in this country than Muslims, homosexuals, and immigrants (apologies to those who have read this already at Sullivan and Drum). Drum correctly points out that the numbers are probably higher than 3% and that aside from political unelectability, actual discrimination against atheists is almost nil. What is this straw man, then? Who do people think these dangerous atheists are?

I did a quick search for atheists in the news and found this article from Focus on the Family from earlier this year describing how atheists are now claiming the government discriminates against them, just like homosexuals claim. So watch out for these two diabolical groups! This is a funny connection to make, since homosexuals seeking marriage rights and government recognition of their partnerships are often working within religious guidelines. Many (I would say most) are as religious as most other Americans. Similarly conservatives raise the bugbear of polygamy and connect it with homosexuality and atheism. Hasn't polygamy primarily been in the domain of religious groups, who institutionalized it primarily as a way of guaranteeing patriarchy and curbing women's rights?

Then I found this gem from today's World Net Daily, which successfully links together evolution, atheism, and Hitler. Of course this sort of argument is a commonplace rhetorical trick, but let's think about the "disasters of atheism" for a second, which supposedly include 20th century communist and fascist genocide. Does anyone think these murderers put a gun to people's heads with the psychological motivation of "I no longer believe in God or a transcendental morality, therefore I am no longer accountable for this murder"? Compare that with the (routine) motivation among religious loonies of "I believe in an absolute power and you don't, therefore I must kill you." The recent case of the Christian convert in Afghanistan is an isolated instance of this. Of course, there are greater social and economic reasons behind religious fundamentalism, but there comes a point when the religious ideology becomes an active psychological force in encouraging violence and murder against the other.

I acknowledge that there is a militant kind of atheism which is essentially a form of religion in itself. But as a nonbeliever who just doesn't care all that much, I sigh and shake my head at all these poor imbeciles who can't live without a cause greater than themselves and their fellow human beings.