deconversion

This topic has been addressed in many places, including our own de-conversion blog. I just wanted to offer my very quick two cents on the issue.

I have no clue who coined the term "militant atheist" but you know it has to be someone on the most fundamentalist side of the Christian evangelical movement, or should I say the "militant Christians"? No, I do not condone stooping to their level of propaganda, but I find it interesting that mainstream Christians, Muslims, atheists, or anyone has never referred to an evangelical Christian as anything close to "militant" prior to this coined term. It wouldn't even come to our mind. We may call them pushy and arrogant, but militant? What has happened here is the conflation of evangelicalism with the violent fanaticism that Christians themselves are embarrassed about within their own ranks.

And yet the term survives. But why is it that there is no difference between your average evangelical Christian and your average "militant atheist" when it comes to their passion and actions about their belief system, yet the atheistic stigma floats throughout the media and public consciousness without so much of a second thought?

When I hear the term 'militant atheist' i tend to think of what I call 'antitheists'. Those are the atheists who want to fight against religion; to get people out of it; to see it as only bad. They'd also be the ones how might picket some religious functions or gatherings. For the most part though I can't say that I'm aware of any atheist group that take up bats, swords, guns, etc and goes after theists. (I would give the old Soviet regime the name of militant atheists in the fullest sense of the word though.)

I think it's akin to the popular Christian idea that "atheism is just another religion." They want to make us just like them, because then we are easier to deal with. We can talk about fundie evangelicals. They can talk about militant atheists. If we're just another religion, we must have our own brand of extremists. I also think it plays into their keen persecution complex. Many really would like to think that there are atheist terrorists just lying in wait, ready to burst into a church and open fire. At my Christian school (I think while I was in junior high) we were shown a video depicting the not-so-distant future, when atheists have taken over. Christians are rounded up by police and locked in prision for reading the bible and praying to Jesus. Then Christian children are forced to watch as their parents are shot right in front of them for refusing to deny God.

Why the media follows suit is another question. Sensationalism would be my guess.