Just Atheists

by Jaime

I recently posted about free will on my personal blog which is more of a place for me to post my random thoughts and cool things I come across throughout the day. But, I also thought it was an appropriate topic for a conversation here.

I believe that free will does not exist. That’s not to say that we don’t make decisions. But based on the appearance, at least, that we live in a cause and effect universe, I believe it follows that our actions are an effect of a particular cause. The lack of free will is not the same thing as predestiny, however. I’m not saying that all of our actions are planned out from the beginning, just that the actions we take are based on the information our brains have at that time. A recent article from ScienceNOW Daily News talks about a study done that shows from brain imaging that brain patterns showed a decision before the subject is conscious of the decision. You can read the article here.

by Jaime

The Iowa City community has been hit pretty hard today by the news of the death of an entire family. The father of the family had been recently charged with embezzling money from a local bank where he had worked and, allegedly, killed his wife and four kids at home and then himself by crashing his van into a cement pillar on the interstate this morning.

I have been reading the news updates with sadness and have started thinking more and more about how people turn to religion to help explain tragedy. One of the articles written today talked about how the entire family was very involved in their church and had been to Easter services just yesterday. I fail to see how their church activities have anything to do with the events that happened today except that they are being used to explain how much of a disconnect people feel between this particular man, who they imply must have been a good person because he went to church, and the news of today.

Instead of taking the facts as they are and seriously considering what might have led this man to this terrible end, the media turns only to describing his character as they see it superficially through his religion rather than having a serious discussion about mental health. I wonder how things might be portrayed differently if the family had not been church-going. I wonder if religion would be left out of the discussion or if the person committing the crime would have been characterized in terms of his atheism. Would it make it easier for people to justify what they see as God’s inaction to save an innocent family if the family had not been religious? I am sad to say that I think it would make a difference in how the story would be told.

by Jaime

Not too long ago, I participated in a cultural competency training. Wait, don’t roll your eyes, this one was actually good! It wasn’t about pointing out that racism (and sexism, etc.) exists and that we are all bad people because of it. Instead, the philosophy was that we are all on a path toward cultural competency and that some may have made it a little further along the journey, but we all always have more to learn. The activities really did get me thinking about how we perceive those around us and, one in particular, inspired this post.

All participants, about 25 in total, lined up on one side of the room. The leader read a characteristic or a short identifying statement that might define some of the participants. Those who identified with the statement were to walk a short distance across the room and face those who did not identify with the statement. No one could talk during the exercise, the two groups were to maintain eye contact, and the idea was to think about how we felt about standing in either opposing group.

As soon as I heard the rules, I was immediately and uncharacteristically anxious about having to walk across the room and tell a room full of strangers that I am an atheist. As I had no way of knowing whether or not that would actually be named identifier, I had to question myself on such a bizarre reaction. I consider myself to be a fairly outspoken atheist and certainly not afraid to talk about the things that I believe, or don’t believe in this case. In fact, earlier that same night I had had a conversation with another participant where I had volunteered that I am an atheist. And yet, I found myself shivering (to be fair, the room was cold) at the prospect of outing myself to this group. When the statement finally came, it was not exactly as I had anticipated: “Cross the room if you identify with a religion other than Christianity.” I don’t identify with a religion other than Christianity, but I also don’t identify with Christianity. So, largely because I had made such a big deal about it in my own head, I crossed the room. I found out later that at least one person chose not to cross the room because of the fact that he or she didn’t identify with any religion and so didn’t feel justified as I did. I don’t know how many others may have felt the same way. I do know that, in a group of about 25, two of us crossed the room.

Once I was there, it didn’t feel weird at all. I am an atheist and I am not ashamed to say so. Why had I been so worried and then had no problem crossing the room when the call came? I thought about this for a long time and finally decided that it is because I was worrying about identifying myself as part of a group that is typically distrusted and even despised to a group of mostly strangers. When I am able to talk to another individual or a small group, the typical case for me when speaking about my beliefs, I usually feel that I can also convince those people that I am a good person and hopefully make them reconsider their ideas that all atheists are nasty and just out to destroy religion. But, when I have to identify myself without being able to make a case for myself, I have no control whatsoever of what those people staring back at me might be thinking about me. And yet, when the group leader named the thing that I had feared, I certainly didn’t consider it an option to stand still.

I wonder how many times similar things happen to us in situations that are not as obvious as this one. How often do others simply assume we are Christians because we are nice people and do the right thing? I have certainly been in situations where someone has alluded to our “shared” Christianity and yet I have not been willing to derail the conversation in order to set them straight. If, on the other hand, someone would have asked me if I was a Christian, rather than assuming so, I would absolutely tell them I am not. Perhaps in order to make atheists look like the normal, good people that most of us are, we need to start being more outspoken about where we stand. Perhaps we need to cross the room and stare down the other side a little more often and not worry about whether or not they know us well enough to not judge us. The more people we talk to about our ethical, non-religious lives, the more people will realize that we don’t need a god to live a good life.