Fortunately, I don’t have to worry about that. P.Z. Myers has a link to a blog entry by Hank Fox, a copy editor who was offended by a quote in an article he was editing for a major newspaper. It was something along the lines of, “My co-pilot was an atheist before, but he’s been a good Christian ever since.”
He tried to explain to his superiors how offensive it sounded, akin to slurs against a race or faith, things that would never be published by a reputable paper. They didn’t get the point Fox was trying to make, so Fox decided he would quit the paper rather than indirectly support their point of view. He writes,
make an atheist joke or insult, and even though the exact same model of callous unconcern is the core of the thing, most people today can’t see that there’s anything wrong.
Most people are unable to generalize the lesson of insult, because they can’t see atheists as a people, a group, with a deeply held set of beliefs and a common concern of acceptance.
The difference is, Jews and blacks, and later gays, made noise. Made themselves and their concerns felt by the larger society. Made themselves HEARD.
But atheists have yet to do that, really. There are a number of books on the recent bestseller lists about atheism and the nature of religion, but there has still been almost nothing in the way of defensive actions or protests at the still-very-common vilification of atheists by religious people.
Something else occurs to me: If it’s black jokes or insults, it’s racism. If it’s Jewish jokes or insults, its religious or cultural persecution. If it’s mistreating women, it’s gender bias. If it’s gay discrimination, it’s homophobia.
But if it’s atheist jokes and insults … what?
Atheists today face discrimination so subtle, so pervasive, that it doesn’t even have a name.
Read the whole thing. It’s worth it.
I can’t recall ever being discriminated against because I’m an atheist, but there was one time when a friend had invited me to go to her place for a games night with friends she’d recently made at her new church. We’d been friends for a while and she’d never a church-goer of any kind before until some people where she worked encouraged her to join them. The games were usual board and word game things and silly stuff, typical youth group events. Then as people tired of games, the woman who ran the group started talking about faith and the hows and whys of Ukrainian Orthodox Christianity. Then I got grilled on whether or not I went to church and why or why not. I wound up feeling really uncomfortable and left soon after. My friend apologized to me for that but I think that was the last time we did anything together.
