Sorry for the blasphemy to those believers among you – no offence intended đź‘ż But, but, but, this from the nameless one just started to boil my piss somewhat.
Ed Brayton notes over at Dispatches from the Culture War that internet pastor Mike Stahl has come up with an interesting idea to assist Christians in day-to-day life. According to Stahl, the nation should set up an “Atheist Registry” in order to provide an updated list of anyone who is a “self-proclaimed atheist,” just as you would do for people convicted of sex crimes or associated with terrorist groups.
So…. Not believing in a mythical man in the sky puts us in the same territory as sex offenders and people who want to blow up innocents, eh? Not too deranged, then.
While I don’t believe myself, I have always taken a live and let live approach to the matter of belief. I will actively defend the right of people to indulge in their religion as one of the basic civil liberties, the right to practice one’s religion – or, indeed, the right not to. It goes with all that stuff about free speech and freedom of association.
Why, then, should non-believers be listed?
“Now , many (especially the atheists ) , may ask “Why do this, what’s the purpose ?” Duhhh , Mr. Atheist , for the same purpose many States put the names and photos of convicted sex offenders and other ex-felons on the I-Net – to INFORM the public !
Why? Why does the public need to know? What business is it of anyone else? Okay, so some folk like to wear their atheism on their sleeves. Some, indeed, like to shout it from the rooftops and write books about it. Most of us, though, just go about our lives rubbing up alongside religious folk with no more thoughts about it as it isn’t an issue. You may believe, I don’t. We might, over a drink, indulge in a philosophical discussion about the existence of gods if we were so disposed, but it would – I hope – be an amicable affair, an exchange of views and differences of opinion. Another round and another subject would see it in context; a personal matter. I have no intention of converting you and hope you have no intention to convert me.
Although Stahl’s registry would only have a name and perhaps picture of the avowed, publicly declared atheist, and no physical address, he also believes that knowing who are the atheists in your neighborhood could lead to a wonderful opportunity to try and convert, too!
Given that Stahl is in the good ol’ USA, that isn’t going to happen any time soon. However, people who try to convert me get the same short shrift that door-to-door salesmen and telemarketers get – and it ain’t a convivial philosophical discussion. Anyway, in this man’s own words:
I mean , in the City of Miramar , Florida , where I live , the population is approx. 109,000 . My family and I would sure like to know how many of those 109,000 are ADMITTED atheists ! Perhaps we may actually know some . In which case we could begin to witness to them and warn them of the dangers of atheism . Or perhaps they are radical atheists , whose hearts are as hard as Pharaoh’s , in that case , if they are business owners , we would encourage all our Christian friends , as well as the various churches and their congregations NOT to patronize them as we would only be “feeding” Satan .
Frankly , I don’t see why anyone would oppose this idea – including the atheists themselves ( unless of course , they’re actually ashamed of their atheist religion , and would prefer to stay in the ‘closet.’ ).
Actually, I’m not ashamed of my lack of belief – it isn’t a religion, no matter how nutcases like Stahl might like it to be – but I do not see why I should be catalogued by this lack of belief any more than I should be catalogued by the state. I don’t care what Stahl believes, just so long as he keeps it to himself and leaves me alone to my lack of belief. One thing that is absolutely guaranteed to provoke a hostile reaction is any attempt to witness – and as Stahl should realise, those of us who do not believe in gods do not believe in Satan, either, so that threat tends to fall on stony ground.
One final thought about this deranged lunatic; for a man who seems to want openness in others, he is remarkably coy about himself. After all, his blog is invite only…
Mike Stahl, one of the legion of Lying P.O.S.’s for JESUS that infest the intertubes. It is with just a bit of wistful nostalgia that I remember a time when bigotry, mental illness and hatespeech was confined to the KKKlan meetings, street corners and soap boxes.
Cross commented at Scienceblogs.
“Frankly , I don’t see why anyone would oppose this idea – including the atheists themselves…”
Sounds a bit like ASH talking about the smoking ban.
He’s repeating one of the favourite tropes of believers and many agnostics that atheism is also a belief system. Perhaps those who regularly trot out this line when attempting to suggest to atheists that they are being strident and disrespectful ( another two of their favourite words ) might like to stop and consider now where this can lead. I’d also say that it’s another aspect of the obsession with identity politics, just rubbing along with each other and acknowledging differences isn’t acceptable anymore in a world where everyone is encouraged to identify with a tribe.
This one always gets my pip, frankly. The word is simple enough, it’s derived from the Greek and means without gods. That some twats now seem to have tried to reinvent the word to mean something else, doesn’t mean that it does mean something else. It still means what it always has; without gods.
It is a belief system in exactly the same way that baldness is a hair colour.
the nation should set up an “Atheist Registry” in order to provide an updated list of anyone who is a “self-proclaimed atheist,” just as you would do for people convicted of sex crimes or associated with terrorist groups
Naturally I am implacably opposed to anything like that and this is one of these shills for the other side who tags Christian next to his name and everyone swallows it. No Christians create registers like that.
It’s a beat-up.
” No Christian creates registers like that “.
I wonder if someone could compile a list of all the people who are only pretending to be Christians, alongside a list of all the real ones. I’m sure it could be done as every time someone does something particularly unpleasant in the name of the religion there is never any shortage of people informing us that this isn’t something true Christians would ever do. The Muslims have been working along similar lines so that now we know that, say, blowing people up isn’t done by real Muslims, it’s usually a conspiracy by dark forces apparently.
Sounds a bit like ASH talking about the smoking ban.
Yep – it does seem an awful lot like that. This is pure global socialist in form. The rest of the rhetoric as well.
Jesus….JESUS?
You mean that pretty boy who hung around with a load of sailors all his life?
Since most terrorists, not a few con-artists and many, many kiddy fiddlers are members of one or other god squad, and basically we secular types have no idea what the fuck believers might do if persuaded by a more important co-believer that their version of the sky fairy wants them to do it, I’d say if there’s to be a register of people who simply don’t do god then there need to be registers of all the believers with details of precisely what they believe and an independently assessed rating of how deeply they believe it. Quid pro quo, Mr Stahl. Mr Stahl? Bueller? Bueller?