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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: The Philosopher who wrote (40774)	6/18/1999 10:41:00 PM
From: E	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 108807

You continue to decline to tell me whether you should be allowed to prohibit children (or parents or teachers or legislators) who want Mill, Bentham and Hume in the classroom, a list of their precepts posted behind the teacher, from having them there alongside of 'God's' 'Commandments.' Having repeated that observation, I'll answer your question "Is atheism a religion" as best I can, after saying this about the question: I suspect that you, like many 'religious' persons, think that equal freedom of religion applies freedom to believe but not to not believe. I believe your asking me, as though the answer were of significance to you, "Is atheism a religion?" is you conveying your desire that the freedom to practice and proclaim about religion in our country should apply fully to those who believe in a God but only limitedly to those who don't. I believe you reveal that the state of affairs you desire to bring about is this one: You will be able to say what you will about God, on a placard in my child's government supported classroom; but I may not do the same, on a placard in your child's government supported classroom. Christopher, I believe you want to be a fair person, and that you must recognize that this proposal is unfair to me, and, in spirit, unAmerican. But the human capacity for rationalization is so greatthat you have been tempted to resolve the tension between what you know to be American and fair, and your desire to have your beliefs helped, and mine hindered, by fixing on a technicality you think may be useful, even if at a cost, in getting you your way-- the dictionary question, "Is atheism a religion?" That is, you are asking this: "Isn't it only right that my religious views get primacy, since I choose to think freedom of religion doesn't imply freedom not to believe in it?" The thing is, Chris, that sort of technical machinating to obstruct the equal rights of another citizen will only result in counter-machinating. It's not good for our country. Atheists will start saying they worship Minerva, the Goddess of Wisdom; or that their supreme being is the Big Giant Head. And that's distasteful. Instead, why don't you directly answer the question I keep posing in my first paragraph, so it will be clear what you believe about our respective rights as Americans under the Constitution. Chris, I will now answer your question. If 'religion' is a particular system of faith and worship, I am religious. I have faith in certain things. I worship others. I am an atheist. I worship John Stewart Mill and David Hume and a handful of other great human beings and principles. And I have faith. I have faith in the reason of little children, if only I can show them the light of this reason where you show them your dogma-- on a placard, on the wall, behind the teacher, in the public classroom.