If you’ve ever wondered why the atheist movement in the United States has failed to get any ground, here’s your answer: people who accuse the Dawkins and Harris types of being overly militant. Now I will agree that Sam Harris is a little further in that direction than I’d like in the sense of he wants to eradicate the religious whereas I’d like to convert them, this article just brings the problem of organization to the forefront.

Among the millions of Americans who don’t believe God exists, there’s a split between people such as Greg Epstein, who holds the partially endowed post of humanist chaplain at Harvard University, and so-called “New Atheists.”

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Epstein calls them “atheist fundamentalists.” He sees them as rigid in their dogma, and as intolerant as some of the faith leaders with whom atheists share the most obvious differences.

This infuriates me. I’m not exactly sure how one could be called a non-fundamentalist atheist. That would seem to imply an atheist who isn’t rigid in his dogma. Meaning he isn’t very convinced that there is no god, which I believe would mean he’s not an atheist at all but rather an agnostic. You can’t really be an atheist and be wishy washy about the whole concept. Obviously you can’t prove there’s no god, but on the same token unless there’s adequate proof of one we atheists will continue to believe there isn’t. But I digress.

But Epstein worries the attacks on religion by the New Atheists will keep converts away.

“The philosophy of the future is not going to be one that tries to erase its enemies,” he said. “The future is going to be people coming together from what motivates them.”

I agree, and hence my problem. People seem to want atheists to ignore extremely fundamental differences in belief that harbor massive ramifications if left unchecked simply because common goals exist. That seems extremely patronizing, as though we’re all saying “I know you’re too stupid to come to my side, but you’re helpful so I’ll let you keep holding onto your little fantasies.”

Call me an optimist, but I really do believe that most people can handle a godless world. Furthermore, I don’t believe that we can just impress them with our actions and assume that they’ll come around on their own volition, we’re simply going to have to go to them and convince them. I don’t understand why being vocal about one’s beliefs is “militant”.

Militant to me is marching with signs and invading churches to throw pamphlets around. I’m not a fan of that and the closest we have to that is Brian Flemming, who certainly does nothing quite that bad. If I’m a militant for refusing to coddle those who I believe have the ability to be converted, then dammit I’ll wear that with a badge of pride.