The Thinking Mother today referenced an op ed in the Wall Street Journal. I actually had some problems with the op-ed she referenced. Although it did make some good points, it seemed, ironically, to have a strange anti-muslim agenda. The Thinking Mother’s commentary, however, echoed precisely some of the sentiments that I have with regards to religion, or to the lack thereof. She said:

This is something that has been on my mind lately, I have felt and recognized that there are some atheists out there (including some I know personally) who lump all believers of any religion into one pile and dismiss the lot as nuts. But worse, some give those believers no respect at all, that is, they treat them with no dignity, and it seems to me that if they are truly humanists, you’d think they do that at least: treat all humans with respect and dignity, even if their opinions on religion differ. We have seen many examples in the media of American Atheists who show no respect for Christians. And also, it appears that maybe those types of atheists are actually elitists in disguise, thinking themselves higher on the intellectual scale and even more enlightened than those who believe in a higher power of any kind, while at the same time, some declare a hatred for elitists.

People are so complex, aren’t they?

Amen to that! I’m one of the least “religious” people I know, but it still bothers me when religious people are treated with contempt. I’m not talking here about poking gentle fun at, or disagreeing with religious people, nor am I talking about pointing out hypocracies or inconsistancies. (The Colbert Report and The Daily Show are favorite TV shows in our house, after all, in part because they point out inconsistancies across the political and religious spectrum.) I’m referring, instead, to instances where religious people are treated with contempt, as stupid people not worthy of the dignity that normal human beings enjoy, due to the fact that they are religious.

Living in the Bible Belt, most of the people I know (and am related to, for that matter) are deeply religious. As an basically agnostic Unitarian Universalist, I now disagree with my conventionally religious neighbors on most matters regarding theology, and yet I know from personal, first-hand experience just how they can believe the things that they do. I know that if I had had their experiences, I would believe those things, too. Some atheists regard religion as an unmitigated disaster, but I have seen the good that it can do, the community and sense of belonging that it can bring about, the generosity that it can inspire, and the hope it sometimes provides to the otherwise hopeless.

Sure, religions also can rule by fear, inspire division and violence, and justify oppression. There is much about some religions that I despise from the depths of my being. Religious people, however, are just people after all; people like you and me, with jobs and families and hopes and dreams. They are doing what makes sense to them, based on what their own life experiences have told them is true. I may think they are wrong, but I try to respect the sincerity of their perspective, when I can. (I am human, and far from perfect in this regard, don’t get me wrong!) I just keep thinking that if atheists really wanted to convince religious thinkers to abandon their convictions, then the most logical approach would be to try to build an environment in which these convictions no longer make sense to them, where they can get all the support, inspiration, and validation that they need without religion. Until and unless this were to come about, (and of course I find it highly unlikely) it is only reasonable that conventional, and even fundamentalist, religion will continue to thrive.

I can’t help but think that if atheists, agnostics, or religious liberals want to expand the use of reason over (sometimes destructive) faith, then they would do well to pour their energies into arguing against the specific practices and actions that they oppose, and to leave the use of contempt to their opponents.

If one of atheism’s biggest beefs with religious movements is their tendency to divide us against each other, shouldn’t atheism try to minimize those divisions instead of deepening them?

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