BOOO! - There's Atheists in America!!

With Halloween approaching, I recently was looking for a good scare.  So I visited the Fox News Opinions Forum and took a tour of this virtual house of Horrors -through distorted perceptions about Obama, shocking revelations of perceived libeal bias in every aspect of our culture, and past all of the monsters of blatant racism and chauvinism.  However, nothing had the columnists and commentors more scared than a recent study conducted by Pew Research that showed Christianity is on the decline in America.

                According to the data, the number of Ameicans who claim no religious affiliation, or “nones” as they are now referred to, has jumped from 15% in 2007 to roughly 20% in only five years.  That means one out of every five American citizens do not claim to participate in any religion.  Not surprisingly, nearly half of those 20% are under thirty, and will most likely not take up a religion as they age, indicating that the number of non-believers will only increase.  To many members of the GOP, this is scarier than any Halloween costume or scary movie.

                While a study about the rise of secularism may not seem like a major national issue, columnist Fulton Waterloo believes it to be the beginning of the end for thiscountry.  Though he claims to be a moderate, the column struggles to appear non-bias by bad-mouthing liberals for three paragraphs and then devoting two sentences to lightly criticizing conservatives.  He even finds a way to cram in a tangent ranting against Obama and his “liberal morality”.  The article is preaching to the coir, as it is intended for an audience already terrified of young people and their progressive sense of morality, so the author does not have to rely much on presenting facts as much as fear-mongering and please to emotion.

                This article is perfect late-October reading, because the tone of this essay can be summed up as “scared.”  Mr. Waterloo is terrified of the future America he envisions: an atheist president banning the practice of Christianity, and an outright moral collapse of citizenry.  He even feels that these “nones” are almost one big conspiracy, following a contrived set of tenets of their own creation.  He states, “However, upon closer inspection, the "nones" do believe in a system of their own manufacturing: gay unions are of equal merit to traditional marriage; the humanity of the unborn child is not recognized”.  He feels secularism is a religion of its own, with a crazy set of beliefs  its devotees fervently adhere to, and their system poses a threat to the rest of the country.

                However, what frightens Mr. Waterloo most about these “nones” is their perceived lack of compassion – a trait he shockingly compares to the conservatives.  He feels that the only reason people do nice things for others is because a Higher Power tells them to, and without a set of religious values commanding people to behave with compassion, people will simply selfishly resort to doing whatever they want and completely disregarding those less fortunate to them.  In keeping with his thesis statement that the nones represent the worst traits of both parties, Waterloo equates this lack of concern for the impoverished and downtrodden to the Right’s characteristic disregard for the lower classes.

                Like most fears, Mr. Waterloo’s none-ophobia stems from a lack of understanding.  Non-believers are not striving to take over the country and enforce their secular ways on those with belief.  Despite representing 20% of the population, there are still no atheist members of the Supreme Court, only one atheist member of Congress, and an atheist president still seems unlikely in the near future.  The nones are still a minority, and they have no intention of taking over, they simply wish to co-exist with the rest of the population.  But to some, like Mr. Waterloo, anyone in this free nation who subscribes to a belief system different than their own poses a threat.  And that is really scary.