because they are atheists, they are actively against god. if they were indifferent, they would be apatheists.
I'm an atheist and I am not against any god. I don't believe in gods.
I am also not against Santa for the same reason.
What I am against is a religion trying to impose its values in my life and the lives of others who don't welcome it.
Christians frequently express concern about Muslims becoming more influential in American culture and eventually imposing sharia law on them. American atheists are more concerned about the American church doing the equivalent, and won't be comfortable until it has shrunken in size and influence to the level of all other religions in America. At that point, you probably won't be hearing from us again.
But until then, Christianity represents exactly that threat to non-Christians. The Christians will rescind the right to abortion and same sex marriage if given the chance, and they just got a little closer by voting for the man that would put just that kind of person on the Supreme Court to impose the Christian equivalent of sharia law on Americans, something Muslims don't have the ability to do.
Why do you suppose that we don't preach atheism to the Druids? Obviously, because we really don't mind them being Druids and believing whatever Druids believe holding those beliefs as long as their numbers are too small to affect people outside of their religions. We don't benefit by them becoming atheists.
What does the Celtic goddess
Brigid think about abortion and same sex marriage? Yeah, me neither, and that's how it should be. Someday, I hope that the same will be said about Jesus.
Second, I also object to the church teaching that atheists are immoral and enemies of a good god. It demeans us and marginalizes us. The Christian church has successfully demonized atheists.
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The findings of this most recent survey support the argument that atheists are persistent cultural outsiders in the United States because they are perceived to have rejected cultural values and practices understood as essential to private morality, civic virtue, and national identity. Moreover, any refusal to embrace a religious identity of any type is troubling for a large portion of Americans. Forty percent of Americans view the non-religious--atheist, agnostic, no-religion, and spiritual-but-not-religious--as problematic, even though 33 percent of the survey respondents identify with those categories."
You just contributed to that a tiny bit by identifying us not just as unbelievers, but enemies of a good god.
And third, I also oppose the teaching that faith is a virtue. Critical thinking is a virtue. Faith is a subversion of reason. Faith based thinking is what is responsible for American Christians voting so badly, and for climate science denial, both of which have impact on unbelievers. Christianity gets to children before they have developed critical thinking skills because it understands that it won't have much success if it approaches those that have learned to evaluate claims and arguments critically and skeptically, and teaches them that doubt, the sine qua non of skepticism, is a fault, and that blind acceptance of doctrine is virtuous - habits of thought that keep the collection plate full and help the church remain substantial enough to affect law, policy, and societal values such as who is a good person and who is not, but which lead to the other detrimental outcomes just mentioned.
Aren't these all good reasons for preferring an irreligious society and working to promote that goal?
