Someone in another group thought the idea “Make Atheism Great Again” made no sense. I explained that it seemed appropriate, especially considering how for so long atheism has been associated with Marxism. And typically atheists will be accused of radical leftism and moral turpitude by ignorant presumption.
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I don’t know if conservative Christians will ever grasp the possibility of conservative atheists.
They continually conflate atheism and secularism with “godless” communism.
In their minds, atheism and communism are inseparable, and never the twain shall part!
Every unbeliever has a “hole in their heart” that must be filled with the worship of either God or government!
I’m not too optimistic, but maybe someday the idea will gain traction.
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I’ve encountered that mindset several times, but once my friends get to know me and realize that yes, I am staunchly conservative, even extremely conservative on most issues, and also a staunch atheist, they start to understand. Or at least they seem to.
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Has atheism ever been “Great” that it should become a national movement to make it so again?
Do we want to divide those who are against the Left?
Do we seek to rock the boat?
What is to be gained?
IMO, this is a juvenile movement. The best way to show that one is a conservative, who is ethical without a deity belief is to live it, not shove it in the faces of our fellow citizens. Yes, their beliefs are shoved in our faces, and yes we need to represent, but for practical reasons now is not the time.
Like Billy, those who know me would say that I am a moral, responsible conservative person. I don’t need for them to know that I am an atheist, but if they do…well, they have something to figure out about people. I have had friends deny that I am an atheist, but nobody has ever held my atheism against me and thought that I was an evil person.
It is a stigma, when considered in polling statistics, just as being a conservative woman is a stigma or a white male conservative, or a black male conservative or cis-gendered or a stay-at-home mother…
I say let us not rock the boat we are in together against the Leftist forces that seek to destroy America.
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My meme of the two red pills chosen by politically conservative atheists was not meant to be taken too seriously, especially not as a logo for an atheist conservative movement. Making atheism great again was just the parallel to Make America Great Again, and a not too clever parallel at that.
Realizing this, I made an alternative with red pills showing no captions. But I do think it’s appropriate to distinguish atheist conservatism from either the politically-associated (via Marx) atheism of leftists or the God-associated conservatism of the religious right, who insist that conservatism is necessarily based on ‘the Judeo-Christian’ something or other. There are better ways to state the case for conservatism that could appeal to unreligious people now on the left. Politically conservative atheists get it right in both dimensions.
But Jeanne makes a good point in saying that getting it right in both dimensions should not be something that could alienate us from our religious allies.
I’ve never thought the term New Atheism was very useful or coherent. It was supposed to represent some kind of movement inspired by the books of Harris, Dennett, Dawkins, and Hitchens, with other public intellectuals (including some conservatives) becoming more up front about their unbelief. But atheism is just atheism, the same in the 21st century as it was in the 19th. I didn’t see it as a real movement, but I was appalled by at least one effort to make it that, the so-called Brights, which was supported by Dawkins and Dennett but called “cringe-making” by Hitchens, who got it right.
Here’s a list of the books that ignited the controversy:
This first one is not given due credit, but Hitchens acknowledges it for its importance in his God is not Great…
Doubt: A History, by Jennifer Michael Hecht, 2003 – She says she wanted to call it A History of Atheism, but Harper Collins objected to that title.
followed by…
The End of Faith, 2004 by Sam Harris;
Breaking the Spell, February 2006 by Daniel Dennett;
The God Delusion, October 2006, by Richard Dawkins;
God Is Not Great, 2007 by Christopher Hitchens
I think the Hitchens book is the best of them, and Hitch in his many public appearances was the best advocate for the atheist position.
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“The God Delusion” and “God Is Not Great” are reviewed in the Pages of our website:
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Those guys all got it right on atheism, but tended to lean left politically. Hitchens started leaning more right at the end of his life - he was gone too soon.
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I agree. But it’s interesting that Harris and Dawkins and some other atheists, though leaning left as you say, have come under attack for their criticism of politically correct and woke absurdities coming from the cultural Marxists and their like. That’s closely related to the way the radical left has tried to make atheists another exploitable identity group (‘Atheism-plus’ or ‘Atheism+’). They have noticed that as the demographic percentage of atheists increases, there will be more political diversity within the atheist population, and they don’t like that trend. So they point to what they call a growing number of ‘alt-right’ atheists. But they label as ‘alt-right’ or even ‘far right’ anything that’s not their brand of radical left.
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I’m delighted you liked the Hitchens’ book so much, and also very glad that you saw him moving to the right towards his untimely end. I noticed that trend also, but I don’t think I would have been bold enough in May 2011 to welcome him as a fellow conservative (though I would have loved to). On the other hand, had he remained alive and well until now, I’m convinced he would have become one of the most outspoken critics of today’s totalitarian left. And I’m also pretty sure he would have continued his move to more politically conservative positions. He was always a staunch defender of free thought and free speech, and the constant foe of totalitarianism (Why Orwell Matters).
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Yes, leftists tarnish the reputation of atheism by exploiting it as they do all groups, so it’s no wonder Christians tend to assume all atheists are leftists.
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Damon, I misunderstood the post. It is your meme, not from some other group. Sorry if “juvenile” was too harsh a term. Now, I understand that it was a half-serious meme meant to illicit discussion and not necessarily to broadcast the idea of differentiating between the two atheisms to the public.
I never assumed that the New Atheists were anything much more than the Old Atheists. Brights, yes…cringe-making, but I might have signed on at the time. Little did I know at the time I read them that all those books “sparked controversy” about atheism and atheists. I just thought we didn’t believe in deities and felt that religions were neither good nor necessary.
I did like Hitchens’s work best of all. He was so normal and blunt and dealt with reality always.
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Oh gawd! Alt-right atheists?! Well, how far right are alt-right atheists? Maybe we should own it. The atheism must balance out the alt, don’t you think?
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I agree. But it doesn’t matter so much whether or not we own it (whether we embrace or acknowledge the characterization). That kind of accusation can be ignored – whatever it means – because they’ll mischaracterize us however they can.
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I’m really glad you liked Hitchens best of all. And I didn’t take any offense at your characterization of my meme as juvenile. I almost slipped and wrote ‘infantile’ which might have been more accurate.
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