THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume VIII, Issue # 214, November 5, 2006
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
ATHEISTS! WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?
By Alan Caruba
RELIGION, ATHEISM, & THE WORLD WE LIVE IN: WHY ATHEISM IS MUCH LESS OF A THREAT TO WORLD PEACE,
CIVIL ORDER, INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM, & WESTERN CIVILIZATION THAN IS ISLAMIC FUNDAMENTALISM -- THE PROPER
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GOVERNMENT & RELIGION -- IS CHRISTIAN FUNDAMENTALISM A GROWING THREAT TO
AMERICA & THE WEST?
FULL STORY:
If you are expecting me to launch into a diatribe about people who do not believe in God or religion, forget it. I don’t much
care what anyone believes, so long as he or she is not trying to convert or kill me for what I believe. Unfortunately, history
and our present times are a testament to the way religion has proven to be the justification for slaughters of every
description.
Atheists is a groundbreaking study conducted by Bruce E. Hunsberger and Bob Altemeyer and recently published
by Prometheus Books ($20.00) -- a slim, paperback volume, best read by people such as psychologists, sociologists, and
those interested in religious studies. Hunsberger was a professor of psychology -- until his death in 2003 -- as is his
collaborator, Altemeyer, who teaches at the University of Manitoba. They had previously collaborated on Amazing
Conversion: Why Some Turn to Faith and Others Abandon Religion.
To my surprise, virtually no studies have been conducted to determine why people become atheists. Most of us are aware
of atheists only when one of them institutes a lawsuit involving the separation of church and state. The notion that children
cannot pray in school, as do lawsuits to remove “One Nation Under God” from our coinage or to remove a religious symbol
from display, tend to annoy a lot of people.
Religion in American life became a hot political issue when the United States Supreme Court permitted abortions under the
penumbra of “privacy” rights. It flared up again as a right to die issue, but again the courts ruled this was a private matter to
be determined by individuals, family, and the advice of physicians. It drives the debate about same-sex marriage. Despite
the passion of the Religious Right, these issues, for good or ill, appear to have been settled in the minds of most people.
While America’s Founding Fathers all believed that religion served a useful purpose for the maintenance of a civil, secular
society, they all knew well of the evils that ensue from too much church involvement in the affairs of state. They took care
to protect freedom of religion, but also to create a form of government in which religious values might inform legislation,
but not be “established” as a requirement of citizenship.
For the Founding Fathers, you could be a good American, even if you did not believe in God. This is a good idea,
considering that two out of three American adults do not go to church every week. At 32%, those Americans who do
attend church still outnumber the 20% in Canada and the 14% in England. By most definitions, America remains a nation in
which religion plays a role in people’s lives, even if they are not active in either church or synagogue.
As the West either loses or ignores religious faith, the Middle East, the cradle of three major religions, Judaism, Christianity
and Islam, is a cauldron of religious fervor, pursuing an Islamic Jihad throughout its own region and exporting it in the form
of terrorist attacks worldwide. Westerners are baffled and angered by a “religion” for which war, involving terrorism and
mass murder, is a duty.
We have far less to concern ourselves when it comes to atheists. Indeed, one trait they tend to share in common is a saintly
tolerance for all lifestyles, including homosexuality, though “the rise in apostasy in the United states has occurred primarily
among persons with weak ties to organized religion who have been driven from their faith by the behavior of the ‘religious
Right,’” according to the study.
Atheists are people for whom the teachings of religion simply do not make any sense. Burning bushes, resurrection, the
Trinity, life after death, Heaven and Hell are illogical by atheist standards. Science, however, is based on the logic of
reproducible results and, not surprisingly, atheists have a great fondness for science, noting, among other things, that there
are many more galaxies than the one in which we inhabit a tiny planet.
Almost always arriving at their rejection of religion on their own, atheists tend to keep their views to themselves. The study
found that atheists are more self-aware and more resistant to conformity than others. They also tend to excel at critical
thinking.
“Religion’s big enemy in losing the battle for these minds proved not to be Satan, but its own scriptures, its various
teachings, and its history,” say the study’s authors.
As best as can be determined, only 3% of Americans are atheists. What matters most to them is their personal integrity.
They are, almost by definition, the least authoritarian of groups you can find and the least likely to attempt to convert
someone to their views.
The common perception is that Christian “fundamentalists” are growing by leaps and bounds, but those in America who
identify themselves in this fashion peaked in 1987 and their numbers, by 2004, had dropped to 30% of all Christians. Of
any religious group, fundamentalists are those least liked by atheists.
Interestingly, American atheists are more likely than most people to object to abuses of power by government. A “Born
Again” President, such as George W. Bush, is viewed as a danger to our constitutional system by atheists, as are
members of Congress for whom religion is a determining factor in law making.
Conservative and Libertarian political values, smaller and less intrusive government, fiscal prudence, laissez-faire
capitalism, and individualism would seem to suit most, but not all, atheists better than some form of Statism, Socialism,
or one-world government philosophy.
Whether we want to or not, all Americans and other Westerners find themselves locked in a life and death struggle with
the newest religion on the world scene, Islam, barely 1,400 years old and a strange conglomeration of things borrowed
from both Judaism and Christianity, but mostly reflecting the warring society and culture of Arab tribes in the Seventh
Century AD. It, too, has devolved into many sects, all convinced they possess the “true” Islam as cobbled together by
the self-proclaimed prophet, Muhammad.
One can only imagine what atheists make of this insanity, but whether for God or nation, both or neither, we shall be
fighting for our lives for decades to come.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Religion, Secularism, & America
Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
Middle East -- Arabs, Arab States,
& Their Middle Eastern Neighbors
War & Peace in the Real World
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
Counterterrorism & U.S. National Security
U.S. National Security Strategy
Alan Caruba is a veteran business and science writer, a Public Relations Counselor, and Founder of the National Anxiety Center, a
clearinghouse for information about media-driven scare campaigns. Caruba writes a weekly commentary, "Warning Signs," posted
on the Internet website of the National Anxiety Center, which is located at
www.anxietycenter.com.
Caruba’s new book, Right Answers: Separating Fact from Fantasy, has been published by Merril Press.
© Alan Caruba 2006
Published with Permission of Alan Caruba
ACaruba@AOL.Com
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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