One way in which I am inferior to many Christians (not snarky)

This recent Jerry Coyne post really struck me: if was about the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s ad in the New York Times which encouraged nominal and liberal Catholics to leave the church.

I don’t object to anything the ad says (it is factual) but what struck me as odd was that this was a direct request to get people (a subset of Catholics) to leave a church. Yes, I know; this was not an “atheist ad” per se. But atheist ads I’ve seen are usually one of two types:

1. If you are already an atheist, you aren’t alone.
2. If you are a believer: “hey, we atheists aren’t bad people”.

This was one of the few ads that said “leave that religion” (there was also “you know that they are all scams” series of ads)

The latter…for some reason, don’t sit quite so well with me (though there is nothing wrong with them…at least that I can see).

But for some reason, I don’t like proselytizing.

Part of it is a “leave people alone” ethic. That is good.

But I have to admit that there is something else going on.
Many Christians WANT their churches to grow. That is smart; a bigger church means more power, both economically and politically.
And no, I don’t belong to a church.

But, and it pains me to say this: there is a sense of “pride” I have in being an atheist; it is a sort of “I am too smart for that gibberish pride”. Yes, I am aware that scientists (and mathematicians) are more atheistic than the population at large (FAR more so) and this is especially true at the most elite levels.

But, if everyone became atheistic….well…whereas the belief in certain superstitions would drop, they would not go away; the average IQ of an atheist would regress to the mean IQ of the nation. That is the law of large numbers…and that would take the “being special” part of being an atheist away.

Bottom line: the Christian says “join us…WELCOME”.
I say: uh…”what is your degree in….where is your vita?” before I lay out the welcome mat.

That is NOT flattering toward me. And no, my vita isn’t impressive at all; (and I should get off of this blog and do some work if I want to change that!)

Note: I know that all (or even most) atheists are not like me in this regard, and that is a good thing. Hopefully I won’t be this way much longer, but change starts with the admission that there is a problem.

Now I need to get off of the internet and do something useful with my time (Spring break just stated and I have revisions to make on a paper.)

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