Mailbag: Politically Correct Atheism
Subject: Christianity and Violence
I wonder why you never brought up "Judiasm and Violence"? or "Secularism and Violence"?... Hitler and the Nazis were certainly more like Pagans than Catholics or Protestants... and certainly Communism (an officially Atheist philosophy ) has killed far more than even facism ever did.... Many intellectual Jews supported Stalinism, and many were making apologies for the Soviet Union years after the bloody purges of the 1930s or the starvings of the peasant farmers.... Seems like another example of hitting the "politcally incorrect" rather than being intellectually honest.. Jews (can't touch them), Christians (let's bash 'em)...
I don't know why, but every so often I get email from someone who is obviously antisemitic and really doesn't like the fact that I criticize Christianity. I can tell that they aren't secular antisemites but actually Christian antisemites - otherwise, they wouldn't care what other religions I critiqued. Robert here doesn't approve of the fact that I have outlined some of Christianity's violent history and wishes that I would spend more time on the violent history of Jews or of atheism.
There are just two problems with that. First, any critiques I make of the Bible are, implicitly, also critiques of Judaism - at least historically, if not necessarily and always in a contemporary sense. Second, atheism itself isn't a philosophy that can drive ideologies; hence, it can't be held responsible for any of the violence Robert cites. The fact that violent people were atheists is as incidental to their actions as their disbelief in elves or fairies. No such disbeliefs can provide a motivation for anything - good or evil.
None of this, of course, really mattes to Christian antisemites like Robert. They are so wrapped up in their own fears and hatreds that little things like facts and logic become irrelevant. Any little idea that might seem to serve their prejudices is latched on to and held tight for dear life; any idea which might undermine their prejudices is explained away or simply ignored. You can't really reason with haters and bigots like Robert.
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Comments
Sir, assuming that this response to a rather reasonable point is not satire, you are completely out of line. You do not know that this man is an anti-semite, nor would anything in his response lead to that conclusion. He is simply calling you out for the tendency (common among athiests) to attack Christianity and give other religions a free pass. Additionally, your claim that atheism is somehow philosphically incapable of being responsible for violence is specious at best and disingenuous at worst. Please, do not lob bombs like “antisemetic”, “racist”, or “homophobe” around, as so many are wont to do, in an attempt to win an argument outright, unless you have real reason to think these labels are appropriate.