Saturday 4 December 2010

Why Do Atheists Care What Other People Believe?

The title of this post is a quote from an article by Kelly McParland on nationalpost.com.

He refers to the atheist bus campaign in Canada and wonders
Why do atheists care what other people believe?

Well, Kelly, atheists care what other people believe when it affects us. And when it affects other people too.

We care what other people believe when creationists attempt to impose their religious beliefs into science education.

We care what other people believe when religious organisations are given special treatment (tax breaks, exemptions from non-discrimination laws for example) for no other reason that they are religious.

We care what other people believe when supposed faith healers dupe innocent believers out of their money and steer them away from appropriate medical treatment, often treatment which could make their life much more comfortable and even save it.

We care what other people believe when the religious attempt to ban things of which they do not approve or that they consider an insult to their beliefs.

We care what other people believe when innocent children are harmed or even die because of their parent's beliefs.

We care what other people believe when the requirement of empirical evidence is substituted by belief.

And we care about all this without fearing an all-powerful Big Brother bully figure who will punish us if we don't act like good little creations and reward us if we do nice stuff.

That is why we care what other people believe.

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