A lot of tangents grew from my NOI post. NOI brought up for me that I haven’t thought much about black atheists, which I’ll write about some other day. Meanwhile, I sought responses from black atheists, especially those from NOI families.

I have many thoughts on racism that I’d like to discuss and get feedback on, but feel hesitant to do so since I’m afraid that no matter what I write, it’ll be misconstrued as racist and I’ll have to defend myself that it’s not. Ugh. It’s dangerous that anyone who brings up legitimate questions, especially ones that criticize, are accused of being up to no good.

The Nation of Islam itself is maddeningly counter-productive, opposing blacks mixing with Caucasians and blacks’ integration into American society, opposing the civil rights movement (!) because it went hand-in-hand with integration, etc. This may sound more like politics than religion, but remember that it’s grounded in NOI mythology and countering the “white supremacy” of Christianity. Because we all know that Islam has always been just super to blacks (cough).

Robert, whose father was NOI, really lent his experience to the post. He pointed out that while Christians criticize NOI, not many atheists (such as Dawkins) seem to do so. Atheists, especially comedians: please give NOI the good bashing it deserves. The comedy about NOI I’ve seen, with one exception, bashes NOI leaders like Farrakhan, who, while he richly deserves it, ignores the problems of NOI itself. 

Firstly, please check out the Secular Nation podcast in which David Driscoll and I talk about atheist comedians. Comedians, such as yours truly, are very prominent in new atheism. I can’t think of any similar movement when this was the case. Were comedians very relevant when it came to feminism? Civil rights? Gay rights? Not really… but it’s hard to imagine new atheism without names like Bill Maher and Julia Sweeney.

Since I brought it up in the podcast, I’m now very curious about the Nation of Islam. It occurred to me that I haven’t heard any comedians seize on it, the way they have other religions, including mainstream Islam.

Perhaps this is due to the fact that a non-black comedian making fun of NOI would be perceived as racist. I don’t feel like it truly is racist, since it’s only reporting the truth, but I can understand avoiding the whole hornets’ nest. I know I couldn’t get away with making fun of any black institution. (Unless I were really, really funny.) Are there any black comedians out there who make fun of it?

Comedy aside, in all the media I’ve seen about atheism and its (justified) attacks on religion, none of the atheist media criticized NOI– even though they (justifiably) criticize Islam all the time.

This all-American 20th century take on Islam is one of the fastest-growing religions in the US. While I can understand the sentiments that attract blacks to it, I definitely have some problems with it, not the least of which is its anti-Semitic slant (also homophobic and misogynist slants, which are no day at the beach either).  I say this as a Jewish woman, and as someone from West Philadelphia, where it had a large presence. Unlike Scientology or Mormonism, it actually was in my face.

While I don’t know if it is from a reputable source, here is a quote about the NOI mythology.

It is the teaching of Elijah Muhammad that all black men today are a part of this God-race. The black race is thus divine and superior to all other races. Modern day blacks came into existence some 66 trillion years ago when a great explosion ripped the moon from the earth. These people were black and called the tribe of Shabazz. They explored the earth and settled the better places to live, two of which are the Nile Valley and Mecca. Again, neither the Qur’an nor the Bible support such a concept.

W. D. Fard taught that the white man is the result of genetic manipulation by an evil black scientist named “Yakub.” Through a special method of birth control, Yakub bred the black out of his experimental creatures until they were white. This took about 600 years to accomplish. According to the theology of Elijah Muhammad, black really is the symbolic color of good and white symbolic color of evil. His reasoning is that all colors are present in black, and all colors are taken out of white. His conclusion is that the whiter Yakub’s creatures became, the less good there was in them and the more evil there was in them. The final product was so evil, they became devils. Black Muslims call the white man Blue Eyed Devils and blame all of the suffering in the world upon them. The creation of the white man occurred some 6,600+ years ago. Again, this teaching is foreign to both the Qur’an and the Bible.

There is also a rather unique space man mythology associated with the Nation of Islam’s teachings. Elijah Muhammad contended that it had been revealed to him by W. D. Fard, (Allah) that there was a great mother plane (aircraft/spaceship) which is really a small maneuverable planet that orbits as much as forty miles above the earth. Black scientists originally used the mother plane to raise the mountain ranges of the earth by dropping bombs. This great mother plane is equated with the wheel in the vision of Ezekiel. At some time in the future, Allah will bring this mother plane back into the earth’s atmosphere and bomb the cities of the world. The bombs will burrow one mile beneath the cities, and then all explode at a given time. When this happens, the evil that is the unconverted white race will be purged from the world. This aspect of Elijah Muhammad’s doctrine tends to be confusing, because, in the same speech, it starts off being a plane that must return to the atmosphere of the earth every six months of so and ends up being a small self-sustaining world. This doctrine, again, is foreign to both the Bible and the Qur’an.

If any of you are former NOI, or from a family that is NOI but elected not to partake, I’d like to hear from you. For that matter, if you’re black, how do you feel about the Nation of Islam itself?

One more thing: I’m still looking for a place that will pay me to do my act, since this stuff is really hard, so when I do, I want to do more atheist material. If anyone has a hilarious story, please send it to me.

And keep on laughing. It’s a great survival skill.

I just adore Stephen Colbert. Here is one of my favorite clips of his.

nailed–em—fentimans-victorian-lemonade

As always, Colbert is very insightful. Why should we disturb our kids with accurate labeling? All this time, I’ve been living in bliss, ignorant of the fact that there are trace amounts of alcohol in so-called soft drinks like 7 Up. Which parents put in baby bottles to feed their innocent babies. Sure, I was aware that there were trace amounts of cocaine in Coca Cola, but that’s completely different.

As Ned Flanders put it when opposing science, “There are some things we don’t want to know– important things!”

Which brings me to another question:  if ignorance is bliss, why aren’t there more blissful people?

My Facebook friends will remember when I posted about an interesting children’s book about how whales evolved. I love animals in general and have particularly had a fondness for whales and dolphins. While they are beautiful, they are pretty weird animals. Not only that, but their physiology really makes it look like evolution really happened, so I’m guessing whales piss of our creation “scientist” friends.

I still have a question: how did whales evolve to be so large? Their land ancestors were “only” about the size of cows, and now blue whales are the largest animals to ever live on earth. Is it because they had so much to eat they got fat? (Just kidding.) I understand that due to buoyancy they can grow to large sizes, but that doesn’t tell me why it was advantageous for them.

I have heard beautiful whale songs before. They were haunting and it is easy for me to think they were communicative on an almost human level. I was looking at youtube videos for their songs, and while some were beautiful, many were what I suppose wound up on the cutting room floor, because the “songs” sounded more like a big fat guy coughing and burping after a huge French meal. Sorry, whales: you’ve betrayed yourselves as the big fat mammals you are.

Other songs sounded more like monkey shrieks to me. How this “music” came to be thought of as soothing, I don’t know.

Here is one of the videos with nice whale songs.

Hi diddly ho atheisterinos,

I haven’t blogged in a while. I’m feeling, what I might say with as positive a light as possible, less optimistic about the chance of finding an editor or agent for Not My God, which is too bad since I conceived of the idea in the first place because I thought it was interesting and marketable. I’m not saying I’m quitting exactly, but I’d like to change the blog to not just about the personal stories of atheists, but as a showcase for my writing. Keep reading for my rants, raves, questions I don’t know how to research, questions I’m too lazy to research, and, yes, more about atheism.

Meantime, I had so much fun (didn’t we all?) with last year’s Christian Kitsch contest that I’d like to hold another contest of a similar theme. Any ideas? I’m thinking “best desperate explanation for how Noah fit all the animals on the ark” or “things to criticize about Judaism, since it doesn’t give us as much material as Xianity or Islam.” Funny, creative and irritating all at once.

Reply with suggestions, please.

There’s a bitch-ass leak right over my bed
It’s more than raindrops a fallin’ on my head
Moving the bed– don’t like feng shui
Landlord man keeps tellin’ me there’s a roofer on his way

I got the blues
The vernal equinox blues
The bad kind of wet dream
You don’t know my equinox blues

The bulbs are blooming all over town
Except for mine– they’re sleeping in the ground
You know I’m jonesin’ to keep up with the Jones
Ain’t got no tulip that ain’t been postponed

I got the blues
Those vernal equinox blues
Autumnal’s so easy
Can’t deal with those equinox blues

Umbrella’s a joke, turned inside out
Its ribs a breakin’, my heart is breakin’ now
Store gave me a new one, sent me on my way
Broke my heart very next day

I got the blues
The vernal equinox blues
Windproof, my ass–
I just got those equinox blues

No manufacturer label on the umbrella–
musta been Allan Smithee

I wear galoshes, still wet my socks
I’m so blue they should call it “azural equinox.”
Easter bunny don’t visit no Jews
Just got Elijah and he’s drinking my booze

I got the blues
The vernal equinox blues
And where’s my Easter candy?
I can’t beat those equinox blues

Hi Diddly Ho Atheisterinos,

One clarification to a previous post. Rodrigo added to my post about him:

I was not a victim of sexual abuse instead  I consider myself part of a silent majority  of people who were or sadly are still being terrorized with visions of hell to the point of psychological distress. In his book Dawkins’s  (if I recall correctly), talks about a woman who suffered both kinds of abuse as a child now all grown up she  believes that although the sexual trauma was a horrific one, it was one that with time she managed to heal while the fear of an eternal world of punishment  was more difficult to erase from her psyche.  In no way I’m minimizing the horrors of sexual abuse but I’m just pointing out that the belief in hell can be a powerful negative force with extremely damaging consequences and unlike other forms of physical abuse the psychological kind can be sometimes harder for their victims to recognize.

In my search for interviewees for Not My God (the book itself, not just this blog), I went for a diverse crowd, including a diverse group of ages. Kids/teenagers are particularly valuable. Yes, they are the future, all right, but growing up in the information age provides them with an enormous cohort effect. I’ve mentioned that they are more fortunate than I was in that I was all alone as a young atheist, whereas the internet gave the younger generation all that they needed to connect with other atheists, young and older alike. Thank Darwin times have changed. Obviously, coming of age during New Atheism is important.

“Younger adults are the least religious out there,” says Christian Smith, professor of sociology and director of the Center for the Study of Religion and Society at the University of Notre Dame, in the On Point podcast Religion, Morality and Youth. Dr. Smith
interviewed young people in a longitudinal study and published the results in Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers. This is very relevant to Not My God.

Greg Epstein of Harvard was also a guest on the podcast, having just released his book Good Without God: What a Billion Nonreligious People Do Believe, which I haven’t yet read, but is certainly on my list.

Many of the comments on the podcast seemed to be in favor of religion in providing guidance and hope. Some weren’t, though. Bearing in mind the podcast was about Humanism and not specifically atheism, here is one listener’s experience that I found unique:

“I grew up in a non-practicing Christian household. My grandmother, who was a Sunday school teacher, taught me Freud’s teachings, to understand the reasons behind people’s actions and to read religious texts before choosing what to practice and to apply those teachings to everyday life.

By the age of 10 I had read the Bible, Koran, and the Torah as well as Rumi, Marcus Aurielis Meditations and several other religious texts.

At the age of 11 I chose to become a practicing Voodoian, at age 16 a practicing Goddess Worshiper under the Hindu religions and then I became a Zen Buddhist at the age of 18. Needless to say I am an extremely spiritual person but a warrior against Organized Religion and Religious Dogma.

I am a Humanist. I speak only the truth, I try to do good without God and find those like Richard Dawkins’s arguments interesting. One does not have to be an atheist to believe in reason and one does not have to be religious to be spiritual.”

Off-topic: why do we often say, “That’s for history to decide”? Why is the opinion/assessment of people in the future more important than ours? Are they better than us? Don’t let future history boss you around!

OK, enough stand-up.

Not My God functions as an illustration of how atheists are hated in the United States. Depending on where you are in the rest of the world, being an atheist can be no big deal or will get you executed, but here in the States many people find atheism distasteful. To call someone an atheist is, or at least was, almost on par with calling someone “pedophile.” Now that I think about it, at least pedophiles can repent and go to heaven in the eyes of Christians, so atheists must be even worse.

I found this column from the University of Oklahoma, Anti-Atheist Prejudice Widespread in America.

I couldn’t help but smirk when the author said that atheists “are more disliked than any other major religious group, with the exception of Scientologists.”

The author, who is an atheist, discusses whether atheists are negative people, whether they hate religion, if they worship Dawkins and other stereotypes. After debunking these (and I’m not sure I agree with him about the hating religion part, nor does he apparently, since he says he dislikes religion), he goes on to say,

“However, it does bother me when unwarranted stereotyping is used as a justification for intolerance toward atheists.

“It bothers me that coming out as an atheist would be suicide for politicians in most parts of the country.

“It bothers me that my sister was mocked and harassed in high school for her own lack of belief.

“It bothers me that, throughout America, people are being intimidated into silence about the very simple and unthreatening fact that they don’t believe in a god.”

I didn’t read all the comments to the article, as there were many, but one struck me. It was addressed to the author:

“Zac,

Throughout your article you make your views on religion very clear. You actually state that you view religion with “disgust” and “irritation”. Wow, those are some strong words for someone complaining about how badly they are treated by people of faith. You say that people of faith are delusional. You sugar-coat this by graciously indicating that while you are disgusted and irritated by the delusions of the faithful, you actually don’t want to do them any harm. Wow, you’re a swell guy!

“You then sit back and whine about how bad atheists have it.

“Let me get this straight, you call the beliefs of other people disgusting, irritating delusions, and yet you are so traumatized that people of religious faith have a similar feeling toward you? Talk about a double-standard.

“Zac, not only are you a hypocrite and a whiner, you are just as much an intolerant, narrow-minded bigot as the most vociferous, creationist bible-thumper in small town Oklahoma.

“By the way, beliefs sometimes have costs. Personally, I couldn’t care less if you have no god, or if you worship Zeus. However, in case your mom didn’t tell you when she was getting you ready on your first day of kindergarten, not all the kids are going to like you. I know you find this difficult, because you very clearly adore yourself. However, there are people in life who are going to be mean to you. Get over it.”

Both authors bring up very good points and it’s hard to reconcile this. Obviously, I am on the side of the author of the article and not the poster who was putting down atheism, but I admit it’s hard to argue. I will say, though, that disliking (or at least being suspicious of) religion is one thing: hating religious people is another, and I don’t hate religious people. Only the annoying ones.

There are people who, for no good reason, hate atheists, and in a sense, we’re hating them back. Obviously, none of this provides evidence for the existence of god either way, but in terms of a “culture war,” what are we looking at here? If I admit that religion can, and does, irritate, disgust, and anger me, depending on what it’s doing, does that make me a bigot? If I make fun of religion, like in my Christian Kitcsh contest, is that hate speech? Further, are atheists ergo deserving of contempt and persecution, in the sense that theists think we’re all a bunch of intolerant blowhards?

Incidentally, yes, I am intolerant: I’m intolerant of impeding science, of imposing “intelligent design” in our schools, of throwing away the future of the planet since the apocalypse is coming soon anyway, of harassing people and telling them they are going to hell for all eternity if they don’t worship your faith, of letting criminals off the hook because they do worship your faith, of censorship, of abstinence-only sex education that makes kids get pregnant and get STDs, of killing abortion providers… and this is all just the stuff Christians do! (Just to make this clear: I don’t mean every Christian.)

So, yes, I’m intolerant. In this particular case, proud of it.

Not My God focuses on the difficulty of being an atheist in America, so the stories on the site illustrate how people feel isolated or are persecuted. I look forward to the day when being an atheist is too commonplace to warrant these experiences.

Often, atheism is compared to being gay; our “coming out” movement certainly seems analogous. (Hmm, what was our Stonewall?) One big difference that I see is that the number of atheists, from what I hear, is growing, and in large numbers, whereas the number of gay people is probably stationary.

At any rate, Not My God is about the personal experiences of atheists. While I have not spoken with Hemant Mehta, so I don’t know if I can really call this a personal story, it does illustrate the persecution I’m talking about, and is so analogous to the persecution of gay teachers that it is nearly interchangeable. Later, I’ll go look to what the gay atheists have to say about this.

For those of you who haven’t heard, Mehta, a high school teacher, is in trouble with the Christian Right.

His article on the Friendly Atheist

Long story short, a Christian group is campaigning to fire Mehta so that he won’t be a bad influence on their children. The Illinois Family Institute has adopted the exact same stance on (you guessed it) gays. Once the IFI found out that Mehta was an atheist blogger when he criticized their anti-gay practices, he joined their victims at the stake. (Funny, that.) Not only is Mehta spreading the “gospel” of atheism, but of homosexuality, too! I wonder what would have happened if Mehta agreed with the IFI’s homophobia, but they discovered he was an atheist, anyway.

If a high school teacher is gay (or other sexual minority), should she keep it secret for the sake of not offending the students’ parents? What about an atheist teacher?

For what it’s worth, I’m not likening the persecution of atheists to, for example, the history of racism in the U.S. They are completely different struggles and, at least from an historical perspective, being black was/is much, much worse (in the sense of persecution) than being an atheist in the U.S. Besides, one doesn’t get to choose to be black or not, but to be an atheist is a choice, at least for the most part.

On the flip side, I can’t imagine trying to get a teacher fired for being black in the contemporary U.S., and according to polls, Americans would much rather vote for a black candidate than an atheist candidate if all else were equal, by a wide margin.

Because I’m a Caucasian, I’ll never fully understand what it’s like to be a victim of racism. I do, however, know what it’s like to be a victim of sexism. Plus, I’m Jewish, and I know that there are many people in the world (the Islamic world, mostly) that want the Jewish people off the map– I do not mean hurt, subjugated, enslaved, or conquered: I mean annihilated. That includes yours truly.

I’m not comparing atheism to these things. It’s a completely different kind of movement.

Just a couple of other small things about me and this blog I want to clear up:

I don’t hate religious people. Yeah, yeah, I have many religious friends of many faiths.

I don’t think all religious people are on the side of extremists and fundamentalists. Many religious people are very cool and don’t want creationism taught in the schools, are OK with atheists, etc.

I’m an atheist and a Jew because I’m ethnically Jewish and nothing can change that.

Yes, I am very concerned with Islam, as I think a large number (no, I don’t know how many, but let’s let the incidents speak for themselves) are extremists and dangerous, but I do not think *every* Muslim feels this way and I know many do criticize their violent co-religionists. It would be very silly of me to say that all Muslims, every last one, were dangerous.

While I do not “respect” religion, neither do I stand in front of churches with a megaphone shouting, “You’re all stupid!” I don’t attack; I counter-attack.

I am a stand-up comedian and often use humor on the site. Yes, this is a serious site and I talk about some pretty serious things: child abuse, isolation, depression, violence, etc. My use of humor may confuse people, but I feel that it is a survival skill and a darn good one, and there are times when I need to get away from the “gloom and doom” that makes up a lot of the material. A sense of humor is a wonderful thing. Also, I think humor can have a lot of insight, so it is an excellent way to make a point.