No one likes being lied about.

One of the most frustrating things about being an atheist is reading and hearing the religious, either through ignorance or maliciousness, contend that atheists can’t be loving, caring, compassionate people simply because they don’t accept the claims of this religion or that religion. Don’t believe me? Here’s what theists want their children to believe…

No doubt it makes the religious feel all smug and self-righteous to envision atheists as grumpy, mean old bastards.

Unfortunately, there’s no meat on those bones.

I wonder if theists ever question why so many people that describe themselves as humanists are also atheists? I wonder if theists have actually asked an atheist why they are atheistic, and actually listened to their answer?

The majority of atheists I know, have heard and have read about reached the conclusion that religions are detremental to peace and harmony among humans because they care about their fellow man. Atheists, unlike theists, know that all people are equal. We are all humans, all members of the same species. We don’t place ourselves above the rest of humanity. We don’t claim a special relationship with a fictional god. We don’t exclude those who don’t live like us, think like us, dress like us or believe like us. Atheists aren’t trying to make every American live like an atheist, we want all people to be free to live as they wish, think as they wish and believe as they wish without interference from the government or any other single group within society. We don’t strive to create an atheistic society, while the Falwell’s in America publicly confess they intend to see our secular country become a theocracy. We don’t claim special knowledge of absolute truth.

We are atheists because we care about people. We suffer when others suffer. We feel their pain because they are like us, we are all humans. We hate to see children and innocents die in wars fought for no better reason than a disagreement over whose imaginary friend is superior. We suffer with those who die for want of medicine and aid withheld because some religious leader doesn’t think his god approves of providing it. We fear for our planet as populations grow without restraint because a virgin pontiff doesn’t condone condoms. Our hearts go out to our gay brothers and sisters who are oppressed and harmed simply because some people say their god doesn’t approve of them.

Atheists and humanists hold the moral high ground when it comes to compassion and true love for all humanity. It’s pretentious and false for the religious to try and claim the same degree of concern. They only care that everyone shares their fantasy. They don’t especially care if you’re hungry, ill or without hope. Just accept their beliefs and their god will care for you, or if he fails to do so, claim that your condition is their god’s will for you. Sure they offer charity, but that comes with a big string attached. If you refuse to buy into their belief system, their charity will become condemnation. They want to believe you’ll suffer for all eternity to having the gall to refuse the “love” of their god. Charity will be the furthest thing from their minds.

Theists attempt to claim that atheists provide no charity, that we don’t have our own Salvation Army (think about that name for a moment), our own ministries to the homeless, that atheists don’t contribute to causes that help others. What they fail to take into account is that we have no “god” in whose name we perform our acts of charity. We have no organization to show the world how concerned we are. Our acts, our donations are done individually. We give what we can where we can, without the showy “we’re doing god’s will” self-promotion. We don’t love in the name of a god, we love in the name of humanity. Our goal is not to get everyone into our club so we can collect their tithe every week. Our goal is the good of humanity, peace on Earth, a brotherhood of man.

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