Bumble Bee Tuna

Well if you read SL&S you'll see my brother and I have been exchanging emails with regards to his beliefs. I would like to back up a statement I made that "it's been said that atheists are the last group in this country that it's still ok in society to discriminate against". What I'm looking for is instances of discrimination where nobody seemed to fuss much about it aside from atheists. What comes to my mind is the HW Bush quote about how we're not citizens. But I'm looking for a little more than that.

-B

simian

Ummm, need you look any further than the "one nation, under god"? We would not accept "one nation, under white people" or "one nation,under men" or any other exclusive wording, but this one is fine. "In god we trust". The very fact that to be openly described as atheist is to be assumed to be immoral.

Take a look at what happened in KS in 1999. Anybody who stood up for the fact that evolution is fact (and we have a theory to explain the fact) was immediatly and automatically labeled as an atheist by the "Christian" crowd - even if the person standing up was clergy.

Simian

callmejay

I believe there are laws in various US states that make it illegal for an atheist to hold public office, but I can't find any evidence right now.

SanDiegoAtheist

How about the "No atheists in foxholes" line that always gets tossed about at times of war (and even when we're not).

The fact that nobody but us atheists ever seems to note not only that the line is patently false, but that it implies we're either cowards or intellectually dishonest with ourselves until we come face to face with mortality says a lot.

The fact that nobody even seems to THINK that it's insulting is even worse.

Think about it - if someone said "there are no x's in foxholes" where x was any other group, it'd be taken immediately as an insult, and understood to be such. We're so beyond the pale that nobody even thinks that its an insult to us (or they don't care, either way)

Cheers,

The San Diego Atheist

kkholiday

Try not to be offended guys. I just found these forums about a month ago, and I'm learning so much about atheism, myself and my own personal beliefs. I would say before I met "my first atheist" I wouldn't have seen the insult in the "foxhole statement" either. I think that most Christians just really don't understand atheists at all, and most of the time they aren't trying to be insulting.

lisarea

Members of the city council in Charleston, SC recently staged a walkout when an atheist delivered the invocation. Compare this to another meeting, where a Muslim delivered the invocation, two Christians walked out, and then apologized publically. (Too lazy to look for a cite, sorry.)

I think this is covered here, and they should have more examples as well:

Secular Coalition for America website

pariah

some of the shits not even fair...

at my high school kids can wear xtian, one says JESUS on the front

but when my friend wears the same shirt except it says SATAN he is forced to change clothes...:banghead:

lisarea

I understand what you're saying, but the insult is implicit. If people say that kind of thing, they can't reasonably expect atheists not to be offended. If people are going to just walk around just spouting random, mindless sentiments like that, I think it's almost the duty of the more reasoned among us to point it out.

Personally, I wouldn't lose sleep over it or anything, but I wouldn't just let it slide, either.

Toto

There are such laws, but all have been (or would be) declared unconstitutional under Torcaso v. Watkins, 367 U.S. 488 (1961).

Herb Silverman, the atheist who addressed his city council and had the Christians walk out, became a notary public just to test the law in South Carolina. Story here , opinion here .

LogicMage

You need look no further than the texas state constitution.