Supporting Atheists

[rug]

July 23, 2014
Posted by Jack Vance at 5:11 AM

Following the Four Things We Can Do To Make More Atheists post, I elaborated on the ideas of criticizing religious belief and promoting atheism. In this post, I'll expand on the idea of supporting other atheists. I think this may be the most obvious of the four things. At least, I hope it is. If we are going to ask people living in religiously oppressive environments to walk away from the religious beliefs their culture pushes and embrace atheism, we must be ready to provide support to those who do.

Tangible and Informational Support

I noted previously that we need to figure out how to provide tangible support (e.g., housing, financial assistance). I was thinking here primarily about teens who are kicked out of their family homes for disclosing their atheism. But this could also include adults who lose their jobs due to atheism or even those who lose a partner on whom they were financially dependent. Atheism remains a risky proposition for many, and it makes sense to give some thought to how we might provide this sort of support effectively.

Providing tangible support almost requires us to do something we are not very good at doing: organizing and collaborating. Individuals can certainly donate time, money, and effort, but there are very few of us who can afford to provide much of this type of support on our own. One example of where individuals without a great deal of money can make a real difference is Reddit's AtheistHavens. I suspect there are others of which I am unaware. Still, I imagine that we may eventually want to put systems in place to facilitate the provision of tangible support on a larger scale.

Most of the other forms of support are things we can provide without incurring significant expenses, making them more viable for individuals to consider. Informational support is often overlooked but can be important. Consider helping an atheist in need access and decipher complex but vital information (e.g., how to open one's first bank account, find someone who can legally marry them in a religion-free environment, file for divorce, complain about a church-state violation). The types of information we can provide and to which we can direct people in need are virtually unlimited.

http://www.atheistrev.com/2014/07/supporting-atheists.html#ixzz38OUwsVG8

[JNelson6563]

1. This is excellent.

I was fired from a job a year ago because I am an atheist. The terminology used was "you're not a good fit" because the truth would've caused them legal problems. Besides, good Christians don't want to look bad. I had been there a year and could knock out the work like crazy but I didn't go to their church or go along with their fundy views so I was out.

I was lucky to get a much better job within 2 weeks but I am sure there are plenty of others not so lucky after being shown the same Christian love I was. There should be resources for them.

Julie

[cbayer]

2. As he points out, in order to this you really need organizations,

which some even here seem strongly opposed to.

But I think we will see more organizations that can provide the kinds of things he is talking about and more.

It's what people who identify with each and face some lack of understanding from the rest of the world generally do, right?