I'm told I'm an atheist. I thought I was an agnostic, but kos user Gong, who's a professional philosopher and should know, tells me that my brand of agnosticism is indistinguishable from atheism. For political purposes, he's certainly right, and I really don't want to write a long diary that attracts long woolgathering philosophical comments. I'm also a hard-edged rationalist and in no way "spiritiual."
In most civilized countries, being an atheist really isn't an issue. Religion doesn't actually come up in public discourse in most of Europe, Canada and Australia, and in most of North Asia most people don't care and it's not a major topic of discussion anyway. You do tend to attract a few god-botherers who really want to save your soul, but steering clear of these folks ain't difficult.
In the U.S., however, professing a belief in God -- even if done only amorphously, "spiritually" or in annoyingly new aged fashion -- is considered a prerequisite for full participation in public life. Things aren't as bad as in Pakistan or Saudi Arabia where professing disbelief in God can get you sentenced to death by a court, but you're not really a full citizen either.
It's even gotten to the point in the U.S. where people not on the right are writing essays telingl non-believers they need to keep their mouths shut -- or i guess make an outward show of orthodoxy -- in order to avoid tainting the right with the stain of atheism that might make it radioactive to the religious crazies who we're apparently hoping to attract now. Apparently an accusation of being "atheist-lover" is the current day equivalent of being accused of being a "Jew-lover" from the pre-WW II era. If only those damn atheists would be so damn non-believing than the religious right wouldn't hate them so much.
Personally, I don't think attempting to mollify and placate the religious is going to work (and it's pretty weasely). I think it's time atheists started to come "out" more. People might realize that they KNOW some atheists, and were not all a bunch of nihilists, which is what many religious people think we are. In fact, as we don't believe in afterlife, it puts a premium on making sure this life is as pleasant as possible - if it's all we get, it had better be. While there are some narcissists who only care that life is pleasant for them (not all of whom are atheists), there are many publicly spirited nonbelievers who want to try to make life better for all of humankind.
This is of course a dangerous strategy -- I honestly can foresee atheist beatings. And I have real distinct reservations about building an identity around atheism; how does one identify with an absence? But I really don't see a way of restoring political discourse to a balanced position in the U.S. without squeezing at least some of the God out of it, and this may be one way of moving that along.
I was going to go on for longer, but I think I wil end this diary here and let other people put in their thoughts. I'm going to bed shortly, so I may not be around to react to everyones' comments as I normally do, at least not for some hours.