Oh, Yes, She Did!

My heart sister NP has an announcement:

I knew she could!

Raise a glass her way, my darlings.  It's one hell of an accomplishment!

"How to Talk to an Atheist" Coming to an In-Box Near You!

At least, it is if you requested a copy. If you did, and it's not there, email me at dhunterauthor at yahoo dot com so I can rectify the situation. My powers of organization, they sucketh mightily, so I may have missed a few folks.

If you didn't request a copy and regret not getting a chance to join the demolition, let me know. The more Wise Readers, the merrier.

With all that said and done, I'm going to Discworld. Catch you later.

Progress Report: We've Crossed the Line

50,243

Woozle was right.

We're not done yet. There's some cleaning up to do - atheist bios to add, a bibliography and list of resources to complete - but for the most part, this is the finished first draft. It never would have happened without your help, input and encouragement.

Copies will be going out in a few days to those of you who requested one (it's not too late - if you've decided you want an advanced peek, email me at dhunterauthor at yahoo dot com). Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to tear the damned thing apart. Help me improve the arguments, clean up the messy bits, cut the repetition, and kick this into shape. The goal is to make this catch a publisher's eye, so that we'll have one more tome on the shelves to swell out our paltry little atheism section. Either that, or bookstores will stick it smack in the middle of Christianity, which will be just as satisfying.

Nothing really outstanding emerged from tonight's writing - it was a matter of filling in the holes - but I'll give you this bit from the beginning, where I'm showing folks we can get along before I start smacking them with the common mistakes Christians make in conversation with us:

WHAT WE CAN DO TOGETHER

Atheists and Christians have already started talking. Not just that, they've started doing. In the past, we worked together on projects like abolishing slavery, advocating civil rights, and earning women the right to vote. We're working together today on all sorts of issues. There are plenty of areas where religious belief doesn't matter so much as shared ideals.

I want to highlight a few of the efforts and organizations out there that specifically and explicitally foster cooperation between believers and non-believers alike. We're not only united around shared ideals, we're united around the idea that we each bring unique strengths to our efforts to enrich and improve the world.

Many of us are also united in our desire to protect religious freedom. The following examples should give you an idea of what we can accomplish when we come together.

I go on to cite Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, Talk to Action, the National Center for Science Education, a foodbank project between freethinkers and a Christian group, and a talk given by the Friendly Atheist at the Interfaith Youth Core Conference. It's a pretty good range of examples, I think.

Thank you all again for making this book not only a possibility, but a very likely success. You guys are teh awesome.

Best of luck to the rest of you who are in the final stretch of NaNoMadNess today. Once again, I find myself wishing we had a real cantina so I could be there with the drinkage for you after you've crossed the finish line.

You can do this. I don't have faith in gods, but I have faith in you.

Progress Report: All-out Dash to the Finish

48,149

Remind me to tell you later what happened when my supervisor found out the subject of the book I'm writing. Too tired to discuss it now.

I've been all over this book, from beginning to end, adding a bit here and a chunk there. Here's one inspired by you lot, which I hope will meet your approval:

CONFUSION #13: IT'S FREEDOM OF RELIGION, NOT FREEDOM FROM RELIGION

This is one of those canards that American Christians trot out when they want to justify denying atheists their freedom of conscience. They think it denies atheists any rights at all. There's a reason why this is such an uphill battle.

Since so many Americans don't even know what's in the Bill of Rights, let's have a look at the First Amendment together. It's important to know what it says, because it protects some of our most cherished freedoms:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Whole books have been written on exactly what freedoms these little sentences cover. We'll just take on the ones pertaining to our discussion here.

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion..." This means that our government can't declare one single religion as official, or favor one religion over another. If the majority of Congress voted to make, say, Hinduism the official religion of the United States, that law would be struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. The same thing would happen if Congress attempted to pass a law establishing any one sect of Christianity, or even a generic interpretation of Christianity, as America's religion. And, for the purposes of the courts, I'm pretty sure atheism would be treated as a "religion." Our Founders wrote the Establishment Clause this way because they didn't think belief - or lack of it - is something that can be legislated. Our government must remain officially agnostic and wholly secular in order to protect the next bit of the Bill of Rights.

"...or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..." You are free to be a practicing Christian. With a few extremely narrow exceptions, the government cannot outlaw your church attendance, your worship services, or your beliefs. When religious beliefs conflict with the law, the government has to be careful about prohibiting your religious practices. If you, for instance, decided to follow the Old Testament's order to stone unruly children to death, the government can and would step in to protect your children, because society's interests in keeping those children safe, healthy and alive override your belief that disobedient children must die. But the government can't willy-nilly proclaim that your religion as a whole is illegal, and you have no right to practice it.

On the flip side, and emerging naturally from that, the government also can't compel you to go to church. It can't force you to worship. That's where atheists come in: we may not be a religion by definition, but we can't be forced by the government to believe in any religion, either. In that sense, yes, the Constitution does indeed provide for our freedom from religion. But that's not all.

"...or abridging the freedom of speech..." This covers all speech. My speech, and yours. I can talk about atheism. You can talk about Christianity. It has nothing to do with religion: speech is protected whether it's religious, debunking religion, political, artistic, or just plain boring.

"...or of the press..." You can publish a Christian newspaper, and I can publish an atheist newspaper, and both are equally protected. Freedom of the press, of course, has extended beyond the printing press, but you get the idea.

"...or the right of the people to peaceably assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." This is certainly not limited only to religious people. Atheists are just as free to assemble and petition as any believer.

What all of this taken together adds up to is a freedom not spelled out by name, but one that the courts have recognized as the logical conclusion from the freedoms enumerated and what our Founders said about freedom: we have freedom of association. While there are some limits on that right, as there are with any right, there is no exclusion for the non-religious. Atheists are just as free to associate with one another and exercise their rights as are debate clubs, hobbyists, political activists, and church groups.

The Constitution also prohibits a religious test for office. Here's Article Six:

The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.

No religious test means that Congress can't establish the requirement that someone have a religion in order to serve their country in office. All an atheist has to do is affirm his or her commitment to support the Constitution.

All of this adds up to a clear intent by our Founders to establish freedom of conscience. Nothing supports the notion that citizens of this country are forced to have faith. And that's a good thing indeed, because I doubt many of you would like the result if government had the power to choose your faith for you.

Long. Yeah. But it's one of those hard-to-explain-in-a-soundbite subjects.

I also attacked belief in chairs. Steve, Howard and Woozle will be pleased.

Fellow NaNo sufferers: we have all day. We're going to make it across the finish line. Even though we may feel like we're going to die of a heart-attack two feet away from the tapes...

Going to bed for a few hours now. argharghargh.

Progress Report: Oops

43,101

I was supposed to be much further along tonight, but I made the mistake of deciding to go back and bung in the list of famous atheists, with little thumbnail bios. Sounds simple, right?

No.

Not when you have to sort through some rather extensive lists, which you whittle down by well-known names, further contemplating whether that name is well-known because Christians already know and despise that atheist, and then trying to phrase the bio so that you're not plagiarizing Wikipedia... I should've given it a miss and waited to add it in the revision stage.

Heh heh heh whoops.

And I'm not even close to done with it. Ah, well.

I spent the last bit of the night revising Rule #9. I didn't hit on the Constitutional question - I might do that elsewhere in the book, but it really doesn't belong here - but I did find your suggestions useful, and I hope this works:

9. Absolutely under any circumstances never ever bring up that old "atheism is a religion too" chestnut. Atheism is a philosophical stance, a way of thinking about the world that is profoundly irreligious, or simply a lack of belief in anything supernatural. In the immortal words of my friend Howard, "Atheism is a religion the way bald is a hair color." Atheism is different from religion in many ways, but perhaps the most important is this: if empirical proof of God were presented to us and verified by science, we'd become immediate theists, just as you would become a "unicornist" if unicorns were discovered living in some remote forest. You may find it impossible to comprehend a life without religion and thus think of atheism as a religion, but your thinking it doesn't make it so, no more than if I were to call your Christianity a form of atheism because I can't comprehend a life with religion. Besides, people who say things like "atheism is a religion, too" are just trying to discredit atheists, and showing that they have no good argument in the process. You don't want to look ridiculous, so don't make that mistake.

I can already think of a few minor changes to words that would make that clearer, but damn it, I'm tired.

As for the famous atheists, I have a lot of names, including of all people Allan Pinkerton of Pinkerton Agency fame. Whod'a thunkit? I'm thinking of sticking Ron Reagan in there just to twist a few conservative noses. The fact that the son of their hero is a ballet dancer and a liberal has got to kill them - the fact that he's an atheist, too, is just the insult to injury.

Yes, I'm an evil atheist. Why do you ask?

I'm also a very tired atheist. And I have got nearly 7,000 words to go. Argh.

If anyone has a good argument as to why theology isn't philosophy, and knows of groups where atheists and Christians are working together in harmony to stop fuckwits from destroying the world, now is the time to say so. I could surely use your help.

Progress Report: Nearly There

42,031

Yepper. Less than 8,000 to go, and only 1/2 day of work standing between me and a completed book.

I could probably even sneak out for Thanksgiving, but not if I want those last 8,000 words to be more than useless babble. The bits that are left require research. So home I stay, and fajitas I eat. Mmmm, fajitas.

For my fellow NaNo sufferers, who may be staring down the barrel of a seemingly-impossible deficit right now, I think that the encouragement from the Life After Faith appendix is appropriate:

Caucasian mountaineers had a proverb: "Heroism is endurance for one moment more." What you're going through may seem like it's unendurable, but if you keep your focus on getting through for just one more minute, you'll get through. It's how people end up becoming heroes, and it's how people end up with a reputation for being courageous. They're not doing anything particularly remarkable. They're just getting through for one moment more.

Survive enough of those moments, and you'll find you've made it through. Even the worst times end. One thing I've learned in my life is that if I endure the bad times long enough, something good is waiting for me. Something changes. And it was worth holding on for.

Elie Wiesel, who survived the Holocaust and went on to become an eloquent advocate for human rights, knew more about despair than most of us ever will. "We have to go into the despair and go beyond it," he said, "by working and doing for somebody else, by using it for something else." If you're feeling despair, probably the last thing you feel like doing is embracing it, but simply fighting it is exhausting. I've followed Elie's advice, and found that by embracing my moments of despair in order to channel them into something else, using them as the driving force to help other people, has taken away their power to hurt me. When pain or despair are used to do something positive, when they become useful, they're much easier to handle. They become almost welcome, and then one day, without my really noticing, they're gone.

The Japanese have a wonderful proverb: "Fall seven times, stand up eight." It goes perfectly with Confucius's wise words: "Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but rising every time we fall." It's hard, when we're knocked flat by the agony of losing most of the things and the people who defined our lives up until now, to believe that we can ever rise again. But we can. If you look, there will even be a hand extended to help you back up just when you least expected one.

Finally, I'd like to share some excellent advice from St. Francis of Assisi. "Start by doing what is necessary, then do what is possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible." Look. Just because I'm an atheist doesn't mean I can't quote a religious man who made a great deal of sense. And he's right: by not trying to do it all at once, by taking things step-by-step, you'll find yourself doing things you never thought possible.

Three days, my darlings. It can be done. And if you have to cheat, get drunk, and go on a 10,000 word stream-of-consciousness ramble that's only remotely related to the book, well, so be it. Quantity over quality this time round. Don't worry if it doesn't really fit.

That's what revision's for.

Progress Report: Yep. A Train

39,299

Definitely a train. That's got to be what that light at the end of the tunnel was, because I feel like I've been hit by one.

I did a desultory bit of work tonight revising The Rules for the purposes of this book. I'm stuck on #9. My brain resembles tapioca far too much to coherently rewrite that one, so I'm punting it to you lot. Some of you weren't around when The Rules were first created, so here's your chance to weigh in.

Here's the original #9:

9. Absolutely under any circumstances never ever bring up that old "atheism is a religion too" chestnut. That's one of the dumbest things you could possibly say. Absence of belief is not a religion. We don't have "faith" in the non-existence of God. That's just one of those whiny, snivelly things religious people do to try to win arguments, and all it does is make you look like a total fuckwit. If you're here to earn any respect at all, do not shoot yourself in both legs by that snooty "atheism is religion" crap. And if you even begin to start with the "but you're really agnostics" bullshit, I shall give you such a smack.

One of the original commenters pointed out that this rule might fly straight over the heads of those who can't imagine life without belief. So how do we manage to make this comprehensible?

I am taking my sorry self to bed. At least tomorrow is the last day I have to drag myself from it before late afternoon, so you're likely to see a much more cheerful Dana come Thanksgiving. No worries, eh?

Sympathies to my fellow sufferers. I imagine we're all feeling rather wretched just about now, but remember, my darlings: 'tis almost done, and we will have that wonderful warm glow of success very soon.

Progress Report: A Little Something Extra

38,036

Skipping ahead again, and adding a new section. Right now, it's an appendix, but I might make it a chapter proper. I'm talking about life after faith, because of this.

Appendix II: Life After Faith

In memorium Jesse Kilgore


I wrote this book for stalwart Christians who are perplexed by atheists and needed a guide to getting along. But you may have picked it up for a very different reason: you might be wanting to know how to talk to atheists because you rather suspect you're becoming one. You're trapped between two worlds right now. You can't talk to Christians, because they don't understand your growing doubt. You're having a hard time talking to atheists, both because you've been taught that atheists are nothing more than a bunch of murdering, evil plagues on society, and because you don't yet have the vocabulary. You have no idea how to reach out to us, where to find us, or what to do once you've caught our attention.

You don't even know if you want to talk to an atheist, because you're in the midst of losing the most precious thing in your life right now. You may even feel as though your life is ending. You face the loss of family, friends and the God who's guided you throughout your life. It's terrifying. It's agonizing. It's not something you want to face, but you can't get rid of your doubts. You have no idea what's waiting for you if you take that fateful step and renounce your faith.

You probably feel more alone than you ever have in your life.

You don't have to go through this alone. Talk to us. We'll stand by you.

Some of us had an easy time of it, sauntering along the path from belief to disbelief, stopping to smell the flowers on the way, and enduring no more than some good-natured ribbing from our friends and family. We didn't have to face being ostracized from our communities. We weren't big on the church-going to begin with, so finding things to do on a Sunday morning was never a problem. But even those of us who had a primrose path to the godless life understand that other people got to walk barefoot on nothing but thorns and rocks the whole way. We know it can be desperately hard, and while we may not always know what you're going through or the right thing to say, we'll do our best to help you through.

That's what this appendix is here to do. I'll be pointing you toward alternatives and resources. I'll try to ease some of your fears. I'll do my best to guide you through, whether you end up contentedly Christian again or gloriously godless. The important thing isn't winning you for one side or the other: it's ensuring that you live as happy and as productive a life as you can.

I'm writing this for people like Jesse Kilgore, who lost his faith and took his life. I don't want to see others end up thinking that there's no life after faith. You need to know that there most certainly is.

Figured this needed to be there. And we need to remember that there may be some folk reaching out to us who don't know how to be an atheist, but need our sympathy and our help. Whether they go back to being Christian or make the transition to total godlessness or find a comfortable spot in between, I hope we can be there for them.

Which I will be. After NaNo, and I've had a chance to sleep for about ten years...

Progress Report: Mwah

35,433

Mwah. That's all I've really got to say.

Here's the end of the chapter on science:

BUT THERE'S MORE TO LIFE THAN SCIENCE, I HEAR YOU CRY

Myself, I'm not so sure that's true anymore.

I used to subscribe to the idea that science explained the how while religion explained the why, but science is getting closer to why all the time. Religion used to have the monopoly on morality, for instance - the big question, why are we moral? Well, science has an answer for that, now: reciprocal altruism. Did you know that chimpanzees display a moral sense? It's because being moral is the only way to get along in a group. We evolved a moral sense because those individuals who didn't get along with others, couldn't be trusted, and were such selfish little bastards that nobody would share with them anymore didn't survive long enough to produce a lot of offspring.

Science will one day explain why I love mythology and allegory, but don't believe in gods at all, whereas you believe one book contains the literal truth of God and all others are useless bunkum. I have no doubt of that. Science has a proven track record of explaining things that people swore it never could, so there's nothing I put past it now - except proving that Bob the Invisible Unicorn lives under my bed. Still, science is closing in on the reasons I why might believe such a thing, even if my Bob hypothesis is one of those that science can't do a damned thing with.

A lot of people think that science is a cold, clinical thing. Nothing to do with art, imagination, or mystery. It solves mysteries, it takes all of the intrigue out of life. It's sad that people think that, because it's not strictly true.

Science is gorgeous. I do a weekly feature on my blog called Sunday Sensational Science, and I'm never short of material. I can always find something sensational, awe-inspiring, or intriguing. There are still plenty of mysteries to be solved, and once we solve one, another pops up - we'll probably never run out of mystery. And the thing you discover is that the mysteries get more interesting as you go along.

More and more art is being inspired by science. Just recently, an opera called Doctor Atomic finished a successful Broadway run. It's all about a physicist, J. Robert Oppenheimer, and the creation of the atomic bomb. The music is just fantastic. Another one, The Origin, came out in time for Darwin's two hundreth birthday, and was inspired by The Origin of Species. Both of them have all of the passion, humanity, and drama you could ever want. It's not just God or mystery that inspires great music.

Science has been the driving force behind great works of art in painting, sculpture, literature, philosophy, and theatre. Science not only informs, but entertains, invigorates, intrigues, and impassions.

One of the most beautiful books I have ever read was The Dancing Wu Li Masters, which tells the story of quantum physics mixed in with a bit of Eastern philosophy. You can indeed merge the sacred and the scientific. Ask Ken Miller, who recently wrote Finding Darwin's God. Science itself isn't religious, and the scientific method doesn't allow religion to dictate the answers science gives, but that doesn't mean that you, yourself, can't let science become part of your religious experience. Listen. If you believe God created the world, and science shows us just how incredible that world is, how can you not stand in awe when the true scope of that creation is revealed by science?

I'm not the person to help you reconcile science and your religion, but I hope I've at least encouraged you to try.

Don't yell at me for not trying to convert them to atheism here, or taking the purist view that science and religion can't coexist. This book is not a manual for conversion, and that goes both ways. If they're not going to throw off religion and become dyed-in-the-wool atheists, I'd at least like them to see science as something other than the enemy of their religion.

Right, then. I must go collapse. I feel like the walking dead.

Progress Report: Shoot Me Now

33,429

I really shouldn't have punked off the week of the election. Argh. Ah, well, we're closing in, and as long as I live off of frozen dinners and energy drinks, we'll get there.

Have a snippet from ye olde chapter on science:

A SCIENCE PRIMER

There are lots of groups out there now who are attempting to prove that the Bible is scientifically accurate. You may have run across some of them: The Discovery Institute and Answers in Genesis are the two that come immediately to my mind. They claim to be doing science, they have people with "Dr." in front of their names working for them, and they publish "scientific" papers, but what they do isn't science. That's why if you cite them as authorites, atheists will scoff.

Here's a good rule of thumb to remember: just because someone's calling themselves a scientist and using sciency-sounding words doesn't mean they're actually doing science. A lot of us get snookered because we don't really know what science is, we just know we're supposed to be impressed by it. That's why companies get away with selling "ionized" water as a super-strong cleaning solution. So this chapter really serves two purposes: it will help you avoid the common misunderstandings between believers and atheists when science comes up, and you'll be able to debunk late-night infomercials for fun and profit.

Let me give you a crash course in what science is. We'll start with a definition, and what could be more appropriate for a simple course than to take that definition from ScienceMadeSimple.com:

The word science comes from the Latin "scientia," meaning knowledge...

Science refers to a system of acquiring knowledge. This system uses observation and experimentation to describe and explain natural phenomena. The term science also refers to the organized body of knowledge people have gained using that system.

That's how simple science is. Of course, it's a little more complicated in the execution, but it's not really hard to grasp the basics.

No, but it's fucking hard to explain them. Argh argh argh. But I think it's coming together all right - you'll be the judges of that when the thing's complete and you can get your very own draft copy to rip to shreds.

I'm in the no-sleep stage of NaNo. It's only going to get worse as the week goes on, alas. So if I start to speak in incoherent sentences, please don't think my brain's done a Bush - it's just the sleep deprivation, and things'll improve once December 1st rolls round.

Progress Report: Ouch the Reprise

30,353

I'm cheating. I slapped a Preface onto this thing, because I'm not sure I've got enough left to make 50,000 without it, and I wasn't sure where things were going next. When in doubt, add useless bits as filler - you can always cut them later, and the mere act of writing something can shake loose some useful bits.

After I got done playing with the Preface, I decided we needed a chapter in there discussing science. Science, after all, is damned important, and a lot of Christians get their asses kicked when they debate science with atheists. So in it goes.

For your excerpt today, I'm going to give you a bit from the potentially useless Preface, because the science stuff isn't really ready for public consumption yet:

I know people who refuse to listen to good ideas simply because they came from cultures they don't agree with. Let me give you an example:

I used to work at a bookstore. One day, a woman and her son came in. He ran wild through the store, knocking things off shelves, getting in other customers' way, and refused to listen to her attempts to rein him in. I don't usually comment on a person's parenting, but she was fuming by the time she brought her purchases to the counter. She apologized for her son's behavior. "I don't know what to do with him."

"He seems like he's got a lot of energy that needs to be channeled into something," I said. "You might want to get him in to a martial arts class."

She gave me a look torn between horror and hope. "I've thought about that, but I don't want him learning their religion."

I had to bite back on a sarcastic retort. Instead, I explained that martial arts classes don't teach religion, just a philosophy of physical and mental discipline that has nothing to do with gods.

Too many people have that habit of refusing things that would make their lives better just because it comes from the "wrong" source. And the world suffers because of it. In American politics, I see conservatives refusing to listen to ideas because they're "liberal" - a ridiculous habit liberals sometimes repay in kind. Science gets thrown out by some because it doesn't agree with their faith. It's even getting hard to admit that you see anything good in Muslim culture now, because we're at war with them.

It's ridiculous. It's cutting your nose off to spite your face, and I for one am sick of it. The world can't afford this self-righteous, exclusionary thinking.

We need change. We need to get over a past in which we fortified ourselves in opposing camps and fight it out to the bitter end. We've survived it up until now, but the world is facing problems that are going to kill us if we don't start working together.

And stuff. But I truly do believe that.

Anyway. Wrists are crackling, stomach is growling, and I need a few hours' sleep before we try to hit ten thousand words for the weekend. Good luck, fellow NaNo sufferers, who are probably feeling as gritty as I am by now.

Progress Report: Down the Mountain

26,486

Good thing we're past the halfway point, considering there's only nine days left, eh?

I think I've mostly finished with the confusions. The only one I haven't really deconstructed is "Theology is Philosophy," which I need to scare up some resources for. If any of you have thoughts on that, now would be an excellent time to share them. Theology, of course, is a subset of philosophy, but the point I'm trying to get across here is that it's still religious, and therefore not likely to overwhelm an atheist with its rigor and validity.

I promised you my treatise on nihilism, and thee shall have it:

CONFUSION #6: ATHEISM IS NIHILISM

What I just said before should be more than enough to prove otherwise, but just in case, let's talk about that.

First, let's have a definition. I'll filch it from the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy:

Nihilism is the belief that all values are baseless and that nothing can be known or communicated. It is often associated with extreme pessimism and a radical skepticism that condemns existence. A true nihilist would believe in nothing, have no loyalties, and no purpose other than, perhaps, an impulse to destroy.

Sounds pretty awful, doesn't it? We think so, too.

Some atheists can be nihilistic, but atheism itself isn't nihilism: it's just non-belief in supernatural stuff. We don't believe in gods, fairies, ghosts, gremlins, or anything else that is, by definition, not part of the natural world. But that lack of belief doesn't lead automatically to nihilism at all.

Let's break this down piece by piece.

"All values are baseless." Of course they're not. Your values might be based on the Bible, and mine on science and humanistic philosophy, but both of us have values that are based very firmly on their respective foundations. Ask an atheist what they base their values on, and they'll be happy to tell you. At length, most likely, to the point where you may regret asking. What you're not likely to hear is a glum, "all values are baseless."

"Nothing can be known or communicated." You know what? If we believed that, we atheists wouldn't have the appreciation for science and argument that we do. Of course things can be known - just because we don't claim to know with absolute certainty doesn't mean we think nothing can be known. As far as communicating what we know, we have strong tools for that: experiment, logic, reason, and demonstration. So there's another tenent of nihilism atheists have gone and chucked right out the window.

"Extreme pessimism." I don't know that many pessimistic atheists, myself, and I know a lot of atheists. We get cantankerous at times, yes, but we're a pretty optimistic bunch. We think we can make a difference. We work to improve the world, and enjoy it. Maybe there's a wee touch of pessimism when it comes to human kind's infatuation with religion, but a drop of pessimism does not a nihilist make.

"A radical skepticism that condemns existence." Skeptics we are. Incorrigible skeptics. Radical? I wouldn't go quite that far. The majority of us are what I'd call "healthy skeptics." We doubt things that aren't backed up by good, solid evidence, but we don't go overboard with the skepticism. And unless you run into a really depressed atheist, you aren't likely to find many who take skepticism to such extremes that they condemn existence.

"Believe in nothing." We believe in plenty of things. We believe human beings are good enough and smart enough to make the world a little better. We believe in the scientific method. Most of us believe in good food, good friends, and a good beer. Just because we don't believe in gods, and just because we don't believe blindly, doesn't mean we don't believe a single thing.

"Have no loyalties." We've got the usual run. We're loyal to friends, family, organizations, ideas, all sorts of things. I'm loyal to my cat - probably to a fault, considering how homicidal she is. An atheist without loyalties is a remarkably rare creature. If you find one, let me know.

"An impulse to destroy." The atheists I've talked to want to build. They want to build understanding, knowledge, a better world. They may want to destroy superstition's ability to harm in bulk, and they may have an impulse to destroy diseases, poverty, and really stupid ideas, but as far as an overall impulse to destroy indiscriminately - yeah, no. Look, we live here too. As the Tick once said, "You can't destroy Earth! It's where I keep all my stuff!"

I think one thing's missing from this definition: nihilists have utterly no sense of humor. You've probably noticed by now that this atheist has one. So do the rest of us.

That, I have to admit, was fun to write.

From here on out, we're going to be headed into more positive shores. I'll be exploring how we can engage in a constructive dialogue, and explore some of the very positive things that have come about when atheists and believers work side-by-side. I'm thinking about Americans United for the Separation of Church and State as a prime example. What I want to show is that, just as people of different faiths have learned how to respect and appreciate each other, and thus work toward a better world, believers and non-believers can do the same thing.

End on a high note, so to speak. Which is why I'll be headed into town this afternoon to partake in some very excellent Beaujolais. Nothing's likely to make me feel happier with the world than some lovely red wine. If Happy Hour's late, it's because I'm busy getting happy.

In answer to a question from yesterday, I related the bit with the missal in the Welsh story because, quite simply, it's part of the Welsh story. It's what the old woman had with her. I'm not going to cut a religious artifact out of the tale just because I'm an atheist.

I like to think that she would, indeed, have used it as a primitive version of the Smack-o-Matic if the demon hadn't had the good sense to clear out when she blew out that candle and stared it down.

Coherent sentences. Becoming difficult. Must. Stop. Writing....

Progress Report: Holy Shit, Look at the Time!

24,505

I love my job for one reason: we have a health clinic. I took advantage of same today because one of my tonsils insisted on catching the latest ick and my glands are swelling to the size of kumquats, which doesn't sound like much until you look in the mirror and realize that, compared to the size of the average human neck, that's huge. In the interests of not having things explode and thus derail NaNoMadNess, I decided it was time for drugs.

This does have something to do with NaNo. I'm getting there.

So, after handing me the blessed antibiotics, John the medical guy asks me, "What are you doing for Thanksgiving?" I told him about NaNo. His eyes got larger than my glands. He stared at me for a moment, repeated, "Fifty thousand words?" and then reached for a calculator and a calendar. Hilarity ensued as he calculated what I have to pull out in order to make the deadline: 2,500 words per day from now to the bitter end.

I don't think he really believed me when I told him I've crossed the finish line when I was running further behind before. Seriously. Ten thousand word weekends aren't impossible. Keep that in mind, all of you who are running behind and starting to panic. We've got two weekends left, and we're going to do this thing.

Even with glands the size of kumquats.

Tonight, I had an entirely too delightful time, and have thus nearly reached the peak o' the mountain. If I didn't have to go to bed in order to survive work tomorrow, I probably wouldn't. Here's one of my favorite bits from tonight:

CONFUSION #5: BUT THERE'S NO PURPOSE WITHOUT GOD!

Of course there is. You're just not in a position to see it.

We're going to spend some time on this one, because it seems to be such a sticking point for many Christians. I know people who have deep doubts, who are on the verge of giving up the faith that's making them miserable, but won't because they believe that without God, there's no meaning or purpose in life. Evolution without an Executive Director terrifies them. The idea that we're all accidents of fate, that there's no ultimate reason for our existence, is appalling to them. They can't handle it. They don't understand how we can.

Both they and the deeply religious constantly demand us to answer the question: "But without God, how can life have any purpose? How can you make sense of anything that happens?"

Let's begin with a parable.

There's an old Welsh tale of a house haunted by an evil spirit, so dire that no one could even approach the place. A wise old woman heard of it and decided something needed to be done. She took a candle and her misal and went to spend the night.

Surrounded by darkness, sitting in a pool of light, she eventally came face-to-face with the demon. Cool old eyes gazed steadfastly into burning, hateful ones.

"Woman, your faith is in that candle flame," it sneered.

"Demon, you lie," the old woman said, and calmly put the candle out, plunging them both into utter darkness lit only by those raging red eyes. She never flinched. Defeated, the demon vanished, and has not returned to this day.

You say to me that the only purpose in life is in that candle flame. I've blown it out, yet purpose remains. That's why I've told you this story.

(No, I don't think you're a demon. It's just an awesome story, and other than the fact that you're not a demon, it illustrates my point very well.)

When I blew out the candle flame, it was dark, at first. But I looked up, and there was a night sky blazing with stars. Everywhere I look, there's purpose. Meaning shines out from everything. Where does it come from, if it doesn't come from God?

From us.

From there, I'm ashamed to admit, I babbled like a brook. But hey, right now we're after quantity rather than quality. One thing that will absolutely stay, though, is that old Welsh story. I've always loved that story, and I'm pleased it fits so well here. Or so I like to think.

I also hit the nihilist myth, which if you really want me to, I'll post as a special bonus over the weekend. It's snarky goodness, if I do say so myself.

Time just flew by tonight, but now it's time for me to fly. As always, thoughts, snark and suggestions in comments, should the mood strike you.

Progress Report: Want Sleep

22,247

Trying to debunk Christian confusions about atheists without sounding like a list of "thou shalt nots" is rather harder than it sounds. But we're giving it ye olde college try:

CONFUSION #1: ATHEISTS DESERVE PITY

Whether an atheist has given up their faith or never had it to begin with, a common reaction from believers is pity. You feel that we've lost something vital, and you feel sad for us. You feel so sad for us, in fact, that you constantly pester us about being sad.

"Aren't you lonely without God?" "Doesn't it make you sad to think that there's no life after death?" "How awful it must be not to believe in anything." Those are some common variations on the theme. Every time we're a little blue, you take the opportunity to remind us that if we believed in God, we'd have someone to pray to for relief.

And it seems to really flummox you when we refuse your pity. You mean well, but your pity isn't necessary, and it's really annoying.

I try not to pity you. I could pester you right back with questions just as valid. "Isn't it horrible to believe that your loving God's going to torture your heathen friends for all eternity?" "Doesn't it make you sad to think God's punishing you with ill health/natural disaster/financial hardship?" "It must be exhausting to try to reconcile all those contradictions in the Bible."

Irritiated yet? I thought as much. Look, if you're happy being a Christian, and I'm happy being an atheist, let's just try to be happy we're happy. Let's put the pity in a box and leave it gathering dust on a shelf.

We can certainly explore those questions. For instance, the big one, eternal life. It makes you happy. Knowing death is the end makes me happy, oddly enough. We could talk about the reasons why we feel that way. We could discuss why God makes you less lonely, while the idea of having a god underfoot all the time leaves me cold. But if we go spelunking through each other's philosophies, pity isn't going to be of any use.

I've also hit upon CONFUSION #2: ATHEISTS ARE EVIL... BUT YOU'RE AN ATHEIST, AND YOU'RE NICE! and CONFUSION #3: YOU'RE NOT REALLY AN ATHEIST! If you all have some confusions you'd like me to cover, now would be an ideal time to say so.

The cat is snoring. I want to emulate my cat. Therefore, I am going to bed.

We are now officially at the "NaNo is kicking my ass" stage, but it's still fun. Hope all my fellow sufferers are, too!

Progress Report: Top o' the Mountain's In Sight

20,659

I'll be hitting the halfway point in the next two days, and then from there it's a nice, easy downhill saunter. Or so I hope. Like most writers, I get my best momentum going when the deadline looms. When I get momentum at all, that is...

We've gots plenty o' momentum with this. I'm starting to have fun.

Tonight, I finished up with the quick tour of silly fallacies (for False Authority, see here and here, o' ye of little faith. I chose the False Authority fallacy rather than the broader Argument from Authority for a reason - the damned authority's false to begin with). Ahem. Anyway, yes, finished that bit, and what we're going to do is bung in a print of Raphael's The School of Athens in conclusion:

Plato points at the sky, saying we must look to the world of ideas. Aristotle points to the ground, saying we must look to the natural world. They never stopped arguing about it, either. If you take nothing else away from this section, let it be this: those who point at the sky may have beautiful logic and exquisite reasoning, but they're always going to have a rough time of it with those who have the logic and the reasoning and the undeniable tangible stuff to point to.

And yes, my darlings, it comes right after the Courtier's Reply (which I hope I shall get PZ's gracious permission to filch). Happy, aren't you?

Just in case you didn't have enough to read, let me give you the start of Chapter Seven: How Can You Live Without God? and Other Christian Confusions:

Atheists have a hard time getting Christians to understand how we can be perfectly happy without God. It's just not something you're equipped to understand. For you, God is the ultimate Everything. All happiness, all moral authority, all purpose in life, all the world and its meaning come from God, and you can't imagine things any other way. When you do try to imagine it, you get a cold, lost, empty feeling. You're horrified. And you think that's how we must experience life.

One of my favorite stories along the lines of Christians just not comprehending what it means to be an atheist is this one, from Dan Barker's wonderful book Godless. Dan Barker was an evangelical preacher and songwriter who became an atheist while searching for God's truth. He sent a letter out to friends, family and associates explaining his deconversion, which met with mixed reactions from outright horror to amiable understanding. One of the preachers he had known just couldn't get his head wrapped around the idea. He asked a person who knew Dan, "But isn't Dan afraid of going to Hell?"

I admit, I laughed. I couldn't help it. I know that question arose from genuine concern, but it came from a complete lack of understanding of what being an atheist means. No atheist is afraid of going to Hell. We don't believe in Hell. It's very, very difficult to be afraid of something you don't even believe exists.

To get an idea of how this question sounds to an atheist, let's say you've just told me you don't believe in Santa Claus. And I ask, "But aren't you afraid Santa Claus won't bring you any presents?" You'd laugh, wouldn't you? You'd be touched that I cared enough about you to worry on your behalf, but a little annoyed by the fact that I wasn't understanding that you couldn't possibly worry about Santa Claus denying you toys since Santa doesn't exist.

Now imagine a whole army of Santa believers descending on you to threaten, cajole, plead, weep, argue, explain, and engage in no little twisting of your arm to get you to change your mind, and you'll have some idea what it's like to be an atheist surrounded by a passel of well-meaning Christians.

In this chapter, we're going to go through some of the more emotional pleadings, the refusal to believe an atheist is really an atheist, atheism is eeevvviiiillll, and other such irritations we deal with. If things along that line come to mind, chuck 'em into comments and they shall find their way into the book.

And with that, I'm off for food, sleep and kitty cuddling, not necessarily in that order.

Progress Report: Look, It May Not be Much, but It's Progress

18,830

Less than a thousand words, yes, I know. With Aunty Flow here and a ton of ridiculous nonsense to take the Smack-o-Matic to, we're lucky it's over three hundred, all right?

You may be wondering, "But Dana, where did that lovely peacemaking attitude go?"

It's still here. It's just that you can't make peace by letting the awful stuff slide. There's limits. Even Roger Clyne has a song that punches religious frothers in the gut, all right? "God Gave me a Gun." Go look up the lyrics: you'll be amazed at how brutal a Peacemaker can be. Tolerating intolerance was never in the job description.

So I'm still within tradition, damn it. Besides, it's that time o' the month, and Happy's been bludgeoned into insensibility by Grumpy and left down a mineshaft.

With that in mind, savage my pathetic prose. Here are a few of the silly Christian tactics I'm ripping in Chapter Six, just under Fatwah Envy and The Hitler and Stalin Hustle:

Bible, Prove Thyself. Here's a chance to have some fun. If you really want to get up an atheist's nose, proclaim the Bible is literally true and then "prove" that claim by quoting the Bible. It's one of the best ways to get an atheist to breathe fire without hardly trying.

What it won't do is prove your point.

You're rolling two logical fallacies into one: the fallacy of circular reasoning and the false authority fallacy. Circular reasoning attempts to prove a statement by rephrasing the statement in stronger terms, which proves nothing at all. The statement is in dispute - so when you try to use that statement to prove itself, you're doing nothing to resolve the dispute. We're disputing the fact that the Bible is literally true: therefore, the Bible can't be used to prove its own truth. And you may see it as an authoritative source, the very word of God, but we don't. That makes it impossible to use the Bible's authority to prove the Bible.

But Christians try this, over and over and over again. They repeat themselves, as if we're just being dense and will eventually "get it." It proves only one thing: not that the Bible is literally true, but that the person claiming it has so little evidence they can't even come up with a valid argument for their claim. Using this "logic" is the fastest way to show us you're someone we can't take seriously.

The Straw Man. Here's another way to really get up an atheist's nose: build yourself a man of straw and knock him down. Let me show you how this works:

You say, "God created heaven and earth."

I say, "It's ridiculous to believe that some magic man knocked all of this mess out in six twenty-four hour days."

Do you see the straw man? You may not be a Young Earth Creationist - you may have just merely meant to say that you believe God got everything started with the Big Bang and is responsible for evolution, but I've set you up as a Biblical literalist who's dead easy to blow apart. Christians do this to atheists all the time, creating some hypothetical unbeliever who's much easier to defeat than a living, breathing, freethinking atheist. Real people are lot more nuanced than a straw man, so don't think you've won by destroying one.

Ad hominem attacks. That means "argument against the man," and it does just that: attacks the person with the idea rather than the idea itself. "Atheists are evil, immoral people because Christopher Hitchens is a jerk" would be an ad hominem attack. All it proves is that Christopher Hitchens is an atheist you don't like. It says nothing about atheists or atheism in general.

Let me put it to you this way. I'm not going to say, "Fred is a bad man. Fred is a Christian. Therefore, Christianity is bad." If I want to prove that Christianity is bad, I'm going to have to come up with a lot more than Fred. I wouldn't expect you to take me seriously if Fred was the only reason I could give for Christianity being bad. So don't expect me to take you seriously if Christopher Hitchens's status as a legendary jerk is the best evidence you can muster that atheism in general is awful and we should all believe in God. Trust me, I've got plenty of atheists I can throw at you to defeat that one, just like you've got plenty of saintly Christians to trump my Fred.

I'm sure I've fucked up something somewhere. Feel free to be brutal.

And if you've thought of any more annoying arguments Christians make when they're debating with us, please get them into comments. Thankee kindly, my darlings.

I thought I heard a footstep... Ono, it's Sleepy! No, Sleepy, don't do it, not in the face AAARRRGGGHHH!!!

*thump*

Progress Report: Sweetness and Light and All That Rot

18,191

I admit it. I skipped. I wasn't in the mood for listing off all those silly things Christians do to try to put one over on atheists, so I'm moving ahead to another new chapter: Reaching Each Other. It was in part inspired by the concert tonight, and in part by my best friend.

It's basic premise comes from what my friend said last night: that after reading my excerpts, he'd thought to himself, "I can never talk to Dana about Christianity again!" He told me he hadn't realized just how different our beliefs are until now - then caught himself, and we both had a good laugh over the fact that that's true, since I don't believe at all, but definition. This chapter is meant to show that since we're humans, yes, we do share common experiences. It's just that Christians interpret those experiences as coming from God while we don't.

I'll spare you some of the detail, since I already gushed about the spiritual feelings I have at Peacemakers concerts, and just give you this bit:

That long anecdote is to show you that yes, atheists have deeply spiritual experiences. Things can be sacred and still be secular, strangely enough.

The feeling of awe, almost euphoria, that you might experience witnessing a particularly gorgeous sunset: we feel it, too. We just don't see anything supernatural.

The absence of any supernatural explanation doesn't make the world any less wonderful for us. If anything, it's more wonderful. I'm amazed by physics and cosmology. I'm humbled by our tiny place in this enormous universe. I'm grateful that I live in an age that knows just how vast it all is, how complex, and yet has a remarkable understanding of it. The thrill you feel at the words, "Let there be light," I feel when I see the equation e=mc2.

These feelings of awe, wonder, and ecstasy aren't limited to the religious alone. All humans can experience them. And that means yes, I can understand you when you tell me about your spiritual feelings. The only thing difficult for me to comprehend is why you can't feel them without God. That part, I just have to take your word for.

Since I once shared your faith, I do try to remember what it was like when I saw God all around me, but those memories are fading, and that feeling was never so pervasive as the delight I take in science and humanism. We'll just have to be satisfied with the fact that we can both have spiritual experiences, which means we can stand side-by-side at sunset reduced to awe-stricken grins.

This may all sound pollyannaish, but considering I'll have just spent upwards of three chapters being rather merciless about God, religion, the irritating things Christians do, and why it would be best if they just gave the whole proselytizing thing a miss, we're ready at this point for Pollyanna. I'm hoping to bring them to a point where they can accept that our lack of belief in the supernatural doesn't make us impoverished Vulcans who don't have a single human thing in common with them. And I'd really like to take away the monopoly religion has on all things numinous.

I don't know about you, but it's really irritating for me to have to explain, ad nauseum, that I can feel all that awe and wonder and no it still doesn't make me believe in one single supernatural thing.

I think we'll hit on that old chestnut of "but explaining it takes away the mystery!" too. Anyone else here think things are just as amazing even when we know exactly how they work? Think Dawkins's "Unweaving the Rainbow."

And with that, time for me to collapse. Sunday Science is coming up....

Progress Report

16,108

I've added a new chapter: When Atheists and Christians Collide. When Christians get into a scuffle with atheists, they've got so many tattered trump cards they try to play that I figured I'd make a spirited attempt to list them out and let everybody know it's been done, debunked, and please come up with something new.

So far, I've got Fatwah Envy and The Hitler and Stalin Hustle. I probably don't have to explain those, but just in case... Fatwah Envy is that charming habit they have of whining, "You'd never say that about Islam because you're afraid they'll kill you!" Of course, that ignores all the times we've turned Islam over our knees and given it a sound spanking. The Hitler and Stalin Hustle is that great favorite wherein they say that Hitler and Stalin were atheists who killed millions, so therefore atheism is eeevvviiiiillll. Yadda yadda blah blah whatthefuckever.

I'm going to hit several others, which I haven't named yet: that terribly annoying "you can't say anything against Christianity until you've read all the theologians," using the Bible to prove the Bible, straw man arguments and ad hominem attacks, that sort o' thing. If you've noticed particularly annoying Christian arguments against us, as I'm sure you have, please do mention them in comments.

None of that particular section is ready for public consumption, but of course you shall have your excerpt. Here's an early part of that chapter, before I get into the silly things Christians do to try to win arguments with us:

BUT WHY CAN'T YOU BE LESS OFFENSIVE?

I wish we could be. Unfortunately, we're always going to offend somebody. There mere fact of our existence is intolerable to some religious people. They refuse to engage in any kind of constructive discussion with us, because they believe we're the epitome of evil. There's nothing we can do that won't offend people like that.

There's also the "give an inch, take a mile" problem.

I've seen far too many discussions in which the slightest concession on the part of an atheist is pounced on by believers as evidence that atheists are wrong and they are right. You may have found yourself doing this, if you've ever talked to an atheist before. Many believers are so desperate to convert us to their faith that they'll misconstrue any conciliatory thing we say.

If we say that the commandment "Thou shalt not kill" is a good one that all people would do well to try to follow, a Christian will too often take this as evidence that Christianity is morally superior to all other faiths, that the Ten Commandments should be displayed in every classroom and courtroom in the land, and that the atheist has just lost the argument. They don't hear us saying that prohibitions on killing have been part of every human society in some form. They believe that if the commandment were taken away, if it's not a religious prohibition, people will kill indiscriminately, when that's just not true.

When we say that people of all faiths and lack thereof should be treated with respect, too many Christians use that to demand respect from us for their beliefs while showing absolutely none for ours.

I could fill the rest of this book, and several volumes more, with examples, but those should suffice. We atheists often have to be forceful to the point of offense so that our views are manifestly clear.

Sometimes, we even have to get downright rude, like you might have to with a used-car salesman who won't hear a word you say. Rudeness, while not pretty, does have its place. It can shock people into silence long enough sometimes to get them to listen to you.

We're going to end up shouting at each other. It's inevitable. It's what we do when we've stopped shouting that's important. If we end up laughing at each other's outrageous antics and start building a better understanding together in the wake of them, that will be a wonderful thing.

I'm sure I'm going to be able to say that better when I revise it, but I just want to get across the point that religion is so automatically accepted as a positive good that we can't really be polite and conciliatory when we're fighting its abuses and assumptions. Any improvements you could suggest would be lovely.

And with that, the cat is informing me it's bedtime. Tonight's the Peacemaker's concert, so if things go a bit quiet round here, you'll know the reason why. I've been working me arse off. Time to play before the final push to 50,000.

Or so I tell myself. Really, it's because the Peacemakers are the closest thing I have to a religion, and I wouldn't miss them for worlds.

Progress Report: Ooouuuucccchhhh

14,046

In less than two hours, I've written nearly two thousand words, and my fingers are swollen, my eyes gritty, and my stomach wondering just when it'll get some of that food it was promised. I love nights like this.

This is how I NaNo: screw the daily word count, it's a trickle here, trickle there, the occasional spurt, and then, come next week or so, there will be the "Oshit, I'm thirty thousand words behind!" moment and then will come the mad run to the finish.

All of you glumly looking at your paltry little word count about now, remember that. It's amazing how galvanizing a looming deadline can be. Your pride will be your prod. You'll get this done.

Now that we've had the pep talk, here's a bite o' the fruit of tonight's labors:

WHY CAN'T ATHEISTS JUST IGNORE RELIGION SINCE THEY DON'T LIKE IT?

I sincerely wish we could.

I wish we could just celebrate the beauty of faith together: even though we don't share faith, we share appreciation of the beautiful things it's inspired. Some of my favorite works of art have Christian and other religious themes. Some of my favorite music was written for churches and for God. One of my favorite buildings in the world is the Haiga Sophia, which used to be a Christian church and is now a mosque. There are religious poems that bring me to the verge of tears.

Religious stories have inspired me, and I've used elements of them as themes in my own stories - one of my characters is very deeply influenced by the Norse god Odin, for instance. I've got favorite verses from the Bible, the Qu'ran, Buddhist sutras, and the Tao Te Ching, among others. I'm a sucker for mythology, and I think that these religious stories teach us a lot about what it means to be human.

You're about to pounce on that to say that I must be secretly religious, or long for God. That's one of the reasons I can't celebrate the beauty of religion as much as I'd like: religious people use it to prove the superiority of religion or the weakness of my atheism when it does no such thing.

I love these things not because they're religious, but because they're human. Humans created them. Human imagination inspired them, even when they believed they were inspired by God.

And those beautiful things been tainted by those who insist on literal truth and dogmatic purity.

Religion is considered sacred, not subject to the same critical examination that other human ideas are. That's a dangerous thing, especially since religious belief is used to justify so much harm.

We atheists can't ignore religion and let you go on about your worship for a simple reason: your religion impacts us. It threatens us, and it often harms us. We can't live quietly in a world full of religion because religion won't let us.

Deeply devout Christians believe they have a mandate from God to tell me what I can do with my body. They believe they should be able to control my reproductive choices. Not only do they believe their morality dictates whether I can or cannot have an abortion if such becomes necessary, but they believe they have the right to deny me access to birth control. They believe they can tell me whom I can and cannot marry. They believe I must believe the way they do in matters of sexuality, and if I disagree, they believe they have the right to force my compliance. They are trying to get laws passed that will limit my access to birth control, abortion, and marriage. Religion threatens me as a woman, and it is a real and immediate threat.

Deeply devout Christians believe God has told them all they ever need to know about science. They are actively trying to introduce creationism into science class under a number of guises - Intelligent Design and "teach the controversy" are great favorites just now, and when those are defeated, they'll come up with other euphemisms. I have no children, and I graduated from school a long time ago, so you might think this isn't my battle to fight. But it is. All of modern medicine is based on the proven theory of evolution. Without a thorough understanding of evolution, students can't go on to become medical researchers who will find breakthrough cures for the diseases that will destroy my mind and body. And it's not just that. Science underpins everything in our lives: the energy that powers my appliances, the computer I'm writing on, the phone I call my mother with, and endless other examples. If Americans allow religion to water down science, we will no longer be on the cutting edge of science. Our economy and quality of life will suffer the consequences. Religion threatens me as a beneficiary of science, and it is a real and immediate threat.

Deeply devout Christians believe they know what is morally pleasing to God. They believe God tells them what music is appropriate to listen to, what books are appropriate to read, movies to watch, and themes to explore in art. They launch crusades to censor things they find morally offensive. They constantly try to craft legislation that will defeat the First Amendment in order that things offensive to them cannot be created. Religion threatens me as an artist, and it is a real and immediate threat.

Deeply devout Christians believe that Armageddon will happen in their lifetime. Some of them are so eager for this that they want to push up God's timetable. They destabilize the Middle East because a stable Middle East is contrary to what they believe their prophecies say must happen in order for Christ to return. They support Israel blindly because it's part of their prophecies, and reject policies that would truly be in Israel's best interests. They risk starting a nuclear war, they do not care about the suffering of millions, and they encourage dangerous foreign policies that threaten to plunge the world into war because they believe they, the chosen ones, will survive. Religion threatens my life, and it is a real and immediate threat.

How can I ignore these threats? How can I agree to live and let live when religion threatens my very survival?

This is the reason I fight to keep church and state separated, why I debunk fundamentalist beliefs, why I'm often relentless in criticizing the churches. This is why I insist that religion not be held sacrosanct, but be subjected to scrutiny, reason, and criticism. I can't possibly respect religion when it doesn't respect me. I can't ignore it when it refuses to pay me the same courtesy.

No atheist can.

To be perfectly honest, neither can you. If Christianity triumphed and imposed its unfettered will on this country, there's no guarantee it would be your particular flavor of Christianity that got to do the imposing. Be glad me and my fellow freethinkers, along with our strict separationist religious allies, are fighting so hard to protect you.

All right. Maybe that was a tad more than a bite. I hope it was tasty, even though it's raw and a bit green. Shine the light of your critique upon the remains so that it may ripen, etc. flowery language etc., and I'm going to bed before I die.

Thank you again for your insights, my darlings. Make me do you proud.

Progress Report

11,534

And might I say there would have been a lot more if the cat hadn't had a deliberate accident in my bed, necessitating a long clean-up. If it ain't one damned thing, it's another.

This is why many writers wish they could live in a vault, alone, with pre-prepared meals and a plentiful supply of their favorite beverage when it comes time to do something ridiculous like NaNo.

Anyway. Did get some writing done tonight, and put today's news to good use:

HOW ATHEISTS VIEW RELIGION

There are entire books written that deconstruct religion from an atheist's point of view, so if you want more than this brief sketch, I encourage you to pick up Richard Dawkins's The God Delusion, Christopher Hitchens's God is Not Great, or Sam Harris's Letter to a Christian Nation. That last book mentioned is very short, but it's brutally honest, and it's written directly to you. It might be the best place to start.

I'm afraid we don't have a very flattering view of religion to offer. In fact, it can seem very much like we hate it, and in some respects, we do. Religion is used to justify a lot of evil.

Consider the news I saw just today. Children in a Mormon enclave of Idaho chanting "assassinate Obama!" on the bus ride home. The Catholic and Mormon churches spending over a decade and tens of millions of dollars to battle same-sex marriage. A soldier discharged from the Army for assaulting a Jewish soldier who complained of religious harassment. This kind of news is depressingly common.

Religion has been used to justify slavery, torture, and wholesale slaughter. Good Christians have spent centuries killing each other over theological disagreements. Religious strife tears communities and nations apart. Religious intolerance condones and encourages bigotry, prejudice, and racism.

"But that's not Christianity," you'd say to me if we were sitting here together. "That's not what God wants."

The problem with that statement is, you're wrong. Hatred, violence and repression might not be part of your particular flavor of Christianity, but it's enshrined in the Bible right alongside Jesus's admonitions to minister to the poor and do unto others as you would have done to yourself. There's really no way to separate the good parts from the bad, because the entire book is supposed to be the divine word of God.

Religion encourages its followers to shut down their critical thought and just believe. You're taught to have faith. That may seem like a good thing to you, but to us, it's terribly dangerous. When people are taught that questioning divine revelation is wrong, they lose their capacity to question their leaders when they're told that God doesn't want gays to marry, or Obama is the antichrist, or the end of the world is coming within a few years. All of these things have been said by respected Christian leaders. All of these things have been taken seriously by their followers. Christians have been led to believe some truly awful things. They believe those awful things are God's word.

Religious fanaticism sends young men and women out into crowded plazas with bombs strapped to their bodies. It sends otherwise decent people to the polls to deny their fellow citizens the right to marry. It justifies bombing abortion clinics and causes believers to celebrate the murders of doctors. It causes parents to fight against the science standards our schools need if they are to educate a future generation of cutting-edge American scientists.

The good that religion does is a paltry thing indeed compared to the bad.

And what is most horrible to us is that religious people claim that these terrible things are moral. They truly believe that they are doing God's will when they put a stop to stem cell research, or forbid birth control, or cause their children to suffer unbearable guilt over their awakening sexual urges.

Atheists do hate religion. We have excellent reasons for doing so.

We view religion as a dangerous threat to humanity. Even the mild, caring, loving forms of it contain seeds that can grow into fanaticism. We believe this is because religion teaches you to rely on faith, not evidence or reason. Some churches like to pride themselves on their rationality, but it's a sham rationality. There's nothing rational about believing that God has ordered you to follow moral laws that do nothing but create misery and conflict.

You say that religious people have done a lot of good because of their religion. We say that some religious people have done good in spite of it.

You say that a person must believe in God to be moral. We say that believing in God makes you less moral.

And so on. We fundamentally disagree on these points. We always will. Atheists just can't see religion the way that you do.

It's one of the reasons we're atheists.

This little bit will need some severe buffing and polishing later on, with perhaps more concrete examples, and of course footnotes since paper pages don't have hyperlinks, but as far as a skeleton on which to hang a brief explanation as to why we dislike religion so, it's a start.

Apropos of nothing, and going back to the categories, how do you all like the term "fire-breathing atheists" rather than "militant atheists"? Myself, I like it. It seems like something to aspire to.