WTF, Benedict XVI!?

See, he got me all worked up after all! Well, maybe not quite, I still don’t think I could get motivated to go demonstrate against him. I’ll tell you what bugs me though.

Stuff like: The Pope assured Jewish and Muslim leaders today that the Vatican would pursue “engagement and dialogue” with other faiths, and indicated that he saw them as allies in his fight against atheism and secularism. [Times, full article behind paywall tho] Or: There is a direct connection between aggressive atheism and Nazi tyranny. I only have to look at those aggressive atheists on TV to know this is self-evident. [some blog] Original Pope speech making the Nazi link is here.

You see, I don’t normally think that I am at war against Christians or other believers in a deity. If they don’t insist on impressing their worldview onto me, and influencing my life with their morals, then I am quite happy to let them be. Luckily I live in a country where the remnant Christian influence on my life and that of my loved ones is fairly small, and shrinking. Mostly my outrage against Christians is fueled by stuff I read online, and I can easily avoid that if I so wish.

HOWEVER, and here’s what pisses me off. If you start waging war against my camp, you may just get me riled up enough to fight back. Of course each side thinks it has the moral high ground in this battle, but with all due respect we have the better objective arguments. We do have the disadvantage of, still, being in a minority (despite how you are trying to make it look), and “fighting” against something irrational which is not easily won over by objective argumentation. But how dare you equate Atheism and Secularism with Nazism. How dare you even in any way suggest that Atheism is a source of Evil.

Many on Twitter have already dug up Hitler quotes to dispel oft trotted out myth that “Nazis were Atheists.” And must we really remind you of all the terror, bloodshed and cruelty perpetrated in the name of your God, and those of others? Sure, we fight with words, some of us get loud and heated, mostly because it is the best way to get heard (and sometimes, I admit, because the stupidity of so many can be exasperating). But you’ll be hard-pressed to find Atheists who kill and maim in the name of their convictions, or even just try to control others’ lives the way you lot do.

Let me quote this statement from the British Humanist Association: “The notion that it is non-religious people in the UK today who want to force their views on others, coming from a man whose organisation exerts itself internationally to impose its narrow and exclusive form of morality and undermine the human rights of women, children, gay people and many others, is surreal.” [link] Too fucking right!

I know you’re feeling cornered because your venerated institution is losing more and more of its followers in the wake of child abuse scandals, general stubbornness and anachronicity, and hopefully also the education of more and more people. But don’t go and fucking attack the other side in this vicious, bigoted way. You may just get some of us less vociferous atheists worked up enough to come out of the woodwork and start waging war. Because there is still a lot of work to be done in order to eradicate Evil from the world, and getting rid of Atheists isn’t part of it!