Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Muck on June 6, 2009 at 11:12pm

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me as if you are posing this question as if atheism was some type of organized religion. You answered your own question...You are an atheist and you don't hate gays. It's really more of a personal opinion.

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Permalink Reply by Mel on June 6, 2009 at 11:25pm

Thats it exactly Muck!

The atheist position is that there is no god(s).
If somehow that leads you to conclude that homosexuality is cool... well that's weird. If your life experience leads you to conclude homosexuality is cool, then that makes a lot more sense.

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Permalink Reply by Gecko, Seth...brother of Richie! on June 7, 2009 at 12:08am

I agree with Muck, and Mel. But I will add that you more likely to find a lack of homophobia, and people who have experienced more sexual experimentation among atheists than theists. The lack of God guilt, and a tendency toward open minded curiosity I think would make that a statistic probability.

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Permalink Reply by Little Name Atheist on June 7, 2009 at 9:14am

I did the majority of my sexual experimentation when I was a believer, and post Catholicism (I went on to other "beliefs"), I didn't have much (if any) God guilt.

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Permalink Reply by Angie Jackson on June 7, 2009 at 9:32am

Ditto. I had the guilt, but it didn't stop me from sleeping around the youth group.

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Permalink Reply by Little Name Atheist on June 7, 2009 at 3:35pm

By the time I'd become sexually active, I'd actively left Catholicism, and replaced it with some less guilt making belief systems.

My brain is in upside down today.

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Permalink Reply by Billy Deaton on June 7, 2009 at 12:24am

I'd like to add, just for emphasis, that there is no atheist position on anything, except for believing in god. It's a one issue label and that can't be stressed enough.

However, I think as rationalists (which isn't a label all atheists fall under) we should be able to to reason out that all our laws concerning sex depend on the concept of sound consent. I talk about it more here, but basically, if two people are able to give sound consent to each other on a sexual issue then it is not logical or rational reason to deny them permission and access to a legal marriage.

And I hate to overuse this analogy, but it really is exactly the same issue as interracial marriage, exactly the same.

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Permalink Reply by Tedster on June 7, 2009 at 1:11am

My mother who was born before the depression Describes herself as a heathen. and never really has been sympathetic the abrahamic religions, including my fathers Judaism (reformed). I did go to sunday school but I didn't connect to Judaism. I realized that I have been in Judaism since 8. My Dad as it turned out never really had seriously thought that god existed.

My own experienced was that My parents knew a gay couple; whom I found to be more creative and more progressive then my parents, my dad was a Republican, But not really and somebody who felt that axing many of the social programs as it would put people in a terrible position, and was a little more of a civil libertarian. My mother is a fairly conservative Democrat, though she may have dropped the party.

In many ways, my parents treated me strangly when they learned that I am gay. My mother seemed more adverse to me being gay, but I knew that my dad, while not liking me being gay did treat me better.

My parents who became adults at the end of world war two; so my of their social beliefs reflected that more. I think people who weren't theistic didn't have as strong reference to non theist thinkers, though there certainly were some. The fact that they weren't from the rad left, they didn't pay as close to atheist who were mostly communist and anarchist. There were definitely right wing atheist, such as Ayn Rand.

My Dad was reading a lot of Issac Asimov and I don't think Asimov was very secretive of being an atheist.

Atheist in my humble opinion is that we learn from our environments expectations but often will examine the flaws brought about by religion. My mother, has never really examined sexual issues at least in how to discuss anything.

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Permalink Reply by Orson_Zedd on June 7, 2009 at 1:32am

Of course I don't have any reason to discriminate against homosexuals. I do find that, even among atheists, some do not wish to call gay marriage, marriage. I have found that their reasons are purely semantic, however. The same people were not, however, in favor of unequal rights, just a separate but equal policy. Apparently, they just didn't want to redefine words.

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Permalink Reply by Little Name Atheist on June 7, 2009 at 9:41am

"Separate but equal" is never equal.

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Permalink Reply by Фелч Гроган on June 7, 2009 at 1:53am

My personal opinion is why is who you're fucking even relevant enough to be an issue to take a stance on ?

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Permalink Reply by Ralph Dumain on June 7, 2009 at 1:59am

As others have stated, there's no such thing as an atheist position on homosexuality. Furthermore, a lack of historical perspective, or just youth, can distort one's perception of who has held what position on the issue. The reason is that the only opposition to gay rights nowadays comes from religion. This wasn't always so, however. Prior to sometime in the 1970s, secularists and religionists alike held homosexuality to be abnormal--for example, the psychiatric profession. That doesn't mean everyone believed gays should be persecuted or homosexuality outlawed. There was always a live-and-let-live mentality among many, regardless of their personal feelings on the subject. But the very topic was not debatable as a public issue, fostering the stigma of abnormality. I doubt very much that nonbelievers thought much differently from religious believers, except possibly for the need to engage in persecution. I'm guessing that the laws on the books derive from our Puritan past.

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