The Invisible Minority

With the election of an African-American president, a women as a vice-presidential candidates, and another almost achieving the presidential candidacy, it would seem as though bigotry and prejudice were on the wane However, it is not dead by a long shot. In California a referendum against gay marriage was passed. Since 9/11 and the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, Moslems (and even Hindus) have suffered from bigotry. Bigots against many groups still exist.

Nonetheless, there are minority groups that suffer extreme prejudice that are not usually mentioned even by the so-called enlightened press except in a derogatory way. What groups am I talking about? Atheists, agnostics, the simply non-religious and pagans. In what ways are we non-believers in an almighty god discriminated against? Well let's take the sentence I have just written, by convention, the word "god" since it refers to the god of Christians and Jews is usually capitalized as though their god was somehow better or more important than other gods. If I would have referred to a pagan or Hindu god, it would not be capitalized.

One of the big ways that we non-believers are put upon is that we, as a group, are not allowed to be elected to public office. Oh, there is no law that states specifically that an avowed atheist or agnostic cannot run. But in every election, there is a litmus test. "Does the candidate believe in God?" is a question that is always asked. If the answer is no, the candidate has no chance in hell of being elected. In this last election, Senator Dole aired a TV ad that accused her opponent, Hagan, of taking "godless money" at a Boston fund raiser and linked her to an atheist group called the Godless Americans political action committee. The ad ended with a picture of Hagan and a woman's voice over saying, "There is no God." Hagan,who is an elder in her Presbyterian church and a former Sunday school teacher, responded with a lawsuit and her own ad, declaring, "I believe in God." The critics of the ad panned it because it was untruthful, not that calling someone an atheist was not derogatory. In fact Hagan is suing Dole as though she had said something really nasty.

What about TV? How many atheists, agnostics, and pagans have you heard being interviewed or otherwise allowed to state their views? Not many. Yet religious leaders such as televangelists, Catholic bishops, and the pope are given a lot of air time. Several cable channels are devoted to religion propaganda, but none devoted to the secular viewpoint. In dramatic shows, when a bad person becomes good, it is because he or she has a religious awakening. If a person loses his or her faith in religion, that person becomes despondent and unhappy and confused until they get their faith back.

It is axiomatic that religious people are good, kind and happy, while the non-religious are evil, cruel and unhappy. Really?! I am an atheist and consider myself good, kind and happy. There is nothing missing from my life as the religious propagandists claim.

The truth is that for all their prattling about love your neighbor, it is the fanatically, and some not so fanatical, religious that preach hate against other religions, gays and other groups. Many wars past and present, including the current ones in the Mideast, have been sparked by religion. In the middle ages, people were tortured and burned at the stake for having dissenting opinion with regard to the prevailing religion.

"One nation under god" is in the pledge of allegiance to the United States. "In god we trust" is on the money we use. Before it was banned, children were required to pray in a public school. Religious groups are working hard to reinstate this. In some public schools, unscientific philosophies such as "creationism" are taught as science.

How about taxation without representation? Priests, ministers, owners of religious property and so forth do not pay taxes, while the non-religious have to take up the slack. Since an atheist is not likely to be elected to public office, this is not about to change any time soon.

Yet there are very few groups working to end this bigotry and discrimination of the non-religious and pagans. We are truly an invisible minority.