{"id":11231,"date":"2007-10-17T15:14:06","date_gmt":"2007-10-17T22:14:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2007\/10\/17\/atheist-anger.html"},"modified":"2007-10-17T15:14:06","modified_gmt":"2007-10-17T22:14:06","slug":"atheist_anger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/10\/17\/atheist_anger.html","title":{"rendered":"Atheist Anger"},"content":{"rendered":"

Via both SEB<\/a> and DOF<\/a>, a pointer to an excellent blog post by Greta Christina on Atheists and Anger<\/a> — why it exists, why it’s justified, and why it’s actually a positive thing.  It’s powerful, it’s profound, it;s one of the best things I’ve seen on the topic in a long time.<\/p>\n

And I get angry about a lot of what she writes about, too. Because a lot of what she writes about doesn’t affect just atheists, or just non-Christians, but everyone <\/em>in our society.  Anyone who reads that litany and doesn’t find something — a lot of somethings — to be angry about is likely a part of the problem, not the potential solution.<\/p>\n

She even sounds a cautionary note about  that anger.<\/p>\n

I’ll acknowledge that anger is a difficult tool in a social movement. A dangerous one even. It can make people act rashly; it can make it harder to think clearly; it can make people treat potential allies as enemies. In the worst-case scenario, it can even lead to violence. Anger is valid, it’s valuable, it’s necessary… but it can also misfire, and badly.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I understand that anger.  I understand why atheists would feel a particular anger — though, in reality, I think there’s just one beat she’s missing here.  Because, as I said, the things she’s angry about are things a lot of folks should be and are angry about, abuses and oppressions that affect a lot of people beyond the atheist community.   By making it an anger of <\/em>Atheists against <\/em>Theists, there’s a lot of those “potential allies” out there that are being shut out of the picture — like Blacks turning down help from Whites who support civil rights, or, maybe turning down help from Hispanics or Asians.<\/p>\n

There’s room and opportunity for a discussion about atheism\/theism.  But, actually, that misses the point of many of the problems described.  Tarring theists as the equivalent of “white devils” is counter-productive, even in the short run.<\/p>\n

Still, it’s a blog post worth reading.  I strongly recommend it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Via both SEB and DOF, a pointer to an excellent blog post by Greta Christina on Atheists and Anger — why it exists, why it’s justified, and why it’s actually…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[27,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-religion","category-zt-pc"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13504,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/11\/26\/how_to_talk_with_an_athei.html","url_meta":{"origin":11231,"position":0},"title":"How to talk with an atheist — or anyone else","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 26-Nov-08 7:05pm","format":false,"excerpt":"DOF offers his well-considered (as usual) thoughts on the subject, noting that atheists are lacking anything in common except the title: To some extent, most of us are constrained in...","rel":"","context":"In "Religion"","block_context":{"text":"Religion","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":133728,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/06\/25\/and-theyll-know-we-are-christians-by-our-love-3.html","url_meta":{"origin":11231,"position":1},"title":""And they'll know we are Christians by our love"","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 25-Jun-17 10:34am","format":false,"excerpt":"What's striking in the lady's diatribes against those \"communist atheists\" wanting to erect a Clarence Darrow statue at the courthouse where the Scopes Monkey Trial was held (to go with the William Jennings Bryan statue erected a few years back) is less the constant veiled threats of violence than the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16693,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2010\/02\/07\/its-podcastic.html","url_meta":{"origin":11231,"position":2},"title":"It’s podcastic!","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 7-Feb-10 11:55pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Les and I did the inaugural SEB Podcast this evening.\u00a0 What I'd thought would be about half an hour ran nearly three times that length, but it was just plain ol' good fun, akin to sitting back with a couple of beers and shooting the breeze on everything from \"Avatar\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging & Internet"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging & Internet","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14955,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/06\/04\/the-capacity-for-violence.html","url_meta":{"origin":11231,"position":3},"title":"The capacity for violence","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 4-Jun-09 1:33pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Alonzo Fyfe writes: When I was young, I was active in the Libertarian Party. 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