A Bad Hair Day

I have been occasionally following some of the fundies mainstream media chums comments about calling Atheists a cult or a new form of fuindementalism. It becomes clear that confrontation is all they seek. Their only point of reference.

In a life  framed in cultism, and I still view even 'mainstream' religions as cults, it seems to be all about examining other peoples viewpoint whilst never ever having any introspection about ones own belief system. Of course at this stage we could presume they avoid this as a serious examination of their own credulousness and lack of reality would cause severe difficulties.

For whom? Well another of my hobby horses is the fact I view religion as never having had a legitimacy outside it's use as a tool of political emasculation and oppression and as the christian church is at the moment doing all it can in the USA to erode the seperation of church and state it won't be long before they claim that Atheists are political enemies.

America is the only country set up outside the rule of the church and they do not like it. I mean they really do not like it.

Opinions on the site are so wide ranging that we are reasonably secure from their accusations. However I feel we will be shooting ourselves in the foot if we continue to allow questions about the veracity of the bible and like the question posted 'are you sure there's no god'. When we tie these sorts of meanderings attached to the latest ideas on a mantra and a symbol it gives the politicians using the bible a simple target for the imbecile fundy cannon fodder to understand.

Surely our strength as Atheists is the variance of belief systems and the rationality of our discussions even when we disagreee. This gives us not only broadranging and stimulating posts but makes us difficult to pin down.

 We give them a focal point such as a mantra or a symbol all we need is any irrational action by anyone just claiming to be an Atheist and they are going to jump all over it. Or give them the point of a ceremony. Lets say we use a hairdrier to dry off baptismal water. Fuck me I don't think the fundies could have come up with something so puerile and pointless.

So now anybody who does not believe is a lunatic with a funny symbol chasing down the road screaming Darwin is great trying to dry the hair of newly baptised/christened infants.

How do we ever get them to examine their crazy beliefs when we are making it easy for them to typecast us?

It enables them to construct the only construct they have which is discord and confrontation the christian fundies see muslims as fundamentalists without examining the fact that they are fundamentalists and all fundamentalism is bad news. This of course works vice a versa.

To sum up, we will be contributing to the breakdown of rational argument if we give them funny symbols or the cult of personality to ridicule as this is how they escape self critique how they are able to commit vile acts by merely pointing out that they aren't as weird as the other loonies.

We can't let that happen. Can we?

Views: 5

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Susan Stanko on July 18, 2010 at 9:33pm
Fuck me I don't think the fundies could have come up with something so puerile and pointless.

So, atheists are not allowed to make fun of religious ceremonies?
Permalink Reply by david hartley on July 19, 2010 at 7:54am
By all means but I feel that this sort of parody does not satisfy that criteria. I don't feel it was sharp or funny enough therefore they are able to turn it against non-theists.
I ended up a little disappointed at the tone of the post myself it's a tad cranky, however against the rules of the site, the post about god's existence, arguing about when, how and who wrote the bible could be construed as the theists setting the non-theist agenda and merely copying their ceremonies smacks of a lack of imagination. We appear to be concerning ourselves with their concerns, there's no such thing as bad publicity especially when you can turn it round on those creating the fuss.
In their mind it now becomes that we simply do not understand the mystique or 'mysticism' of the ceremony and it comforts them in their 'greater' knowledge and understandings. It smacks of homage almost but the danger is it sets us up for parody ourselves.
For anything that smacks of ceremony, symbolism or cult of personality leaves the door open for them, the triumvirate are based on the same OT and follow therefore the same notion of god. That only leaves the ritual and social practices of the individual parts of mono-theism to argue about amongst themselves, if non-theists have no rituals and a variance of social practices it makes it very difficult for them to criticise us as they have no intellectual frame of reference. So giving them ceremonies, symbols, mantras or a personality cult takes the discussion down to their level.
I haven't forgotten it was parody but do the real fundamentalists understand that?
Especially when their information and opinions are formed by a very corrupt media who have jumped all over this. The notion of transference is debated but in this case has at least credence. The opinion forming part of the mainstream media can make non-theists look even more ridiculous than the theists and help with transference.
So now I've had a ramble back to your original point, yes of course religion is ripe for humour it's just that in this case I felt it played into their hands a straight reversal of the ceremony is more ape than jape.
Permalink Reply by Susan Stanko on July 19, 2010 at 10:40am
The true fundamentalists wouldn't see anything humorous about their religion regardless of how it was done.
Permalink Reply by david hartley on July 19, 2010 at 12:28pm
Yes, totally agree and in a way that's my point. There's better ways of holding them to ridicule without giving them opportunity to turn it around to their advantage. Dara O'Brien, Lewis Black and of course the late George Carlin to name but three all do it brilliantly. So I do have a sense of humour =D
Permalink Reply by qıƃ ɟ ǝıɔɐɹʇ on July 20, 2010 at 12:23am
Would someone please point me to an example of what this thread is talking about? Funny symbols? Hair dryers? Huh?
Permalink Reply by david hartley on July 20, 2010 at 1:49am
If you look at the Friendly Atheist site they have been running a thread over a bunch of Atheists hair drying their hair as a way of de-baptising themselves and the media jumped all over it and I was just trying to tie it together with Atheists seeking a symbol as well as earlier threads on here almost reaching for a cult of personality with Darwin et al. I am not the first to point out the dangers in such things. I was just trying to tie the thing together with the report that 'nightline' in America has jumped all over the ceremonial side of such a parody as well as threads on here seeking an international atheist symbol. Could be wrong but it does'nt seem quite right and as I said it seems like we are in danger of allowing the theists to set the agenda.

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