‘Ask an Atheist’ Unfairly Targets Christianity, Spurs More Hatred

I know for a fact you don’t know whether or not God exists, which makes me wonder why you are going out of your way to prove something you have no absolute knowledge of. There are a lot of people in this world that piss me off, including that one religious-nut imposing their ideas to people on the street. But you are no better than that one religious-nut when you are putting the same amount of effort expressing how people of religion can’t live life logically. You insist that people of religion endure life by blindly following their faith. I have a question to all UCSB atheist columnists. Every time you write an article and discredit religion, why do you always limit yourself to Christianity and God? Why can’t you go all out and refute all religions and deities? I don’t think it is fair to the Christian population. I would honestly give you atheist columnists credit if you were actually atheist. How can you claim to be atheist when your arguments are centered on monotheism when you should argue against polytheistic religions, such as Hinduism?

To my knowledge, atheism is the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. So an atheist would reject the latter statement, correct? You are not living up to your name and I am truly disappointed. You would think that as fervent and active as you are toward Christianity (in the Daily Nexus) that you would hold the same standing towards all religions. Living in a tolerant country is a privilege; a privilege many people wish they had. I feel like living in such a tolerant country would come with respect for your fellow man; more importantly in our case, fellow collegiate. I feel at our institution, an equal respect and understanding should be shared among all students. You however, appear to be the outlier. Now I am not here to instill my values in you or to try to convert you, because that is intrusive and disrespectful. I am here to tell you as a fellow student that we (students) are here to share and discuss knowledge and ideas, no matter how controversial, so that we can learn with and from each other. We are not here to attack one another. I realize the irony in this statement but my intentions are not to attack. I am however, criticizing the atheist staff of the Daily Nexus.

You can’t let an individual represent a population as a whole. This goes for any group. I feel this is one of the main follies of Christians, and all other groups, whether they are monotheistic, polytheistic, theistic or atheist. Most groups adopt the same structure as the political spectrum; they range from conservative to radical. When you look at someone that lies in the middle of the spectrum it is almost impossible to discern what they are. However, when you look at someone on the extreme side of the spectrum, such as the radicals, it is very easy to point out where they stand. Unfortunately, radical Christians, or evangelicals, misrepresent most Christians because they are easy to spot. These radicals are always gaining media coverage or are on the street disturbing the public and thrusting their ideals onto people. The majority of the Christian population is not like this. They tend to be more reserved like most other social groups that lie in the middle of the aforementioned adopted political spectrum. The same goes for atheists and all other social, political, economic and religious groups. I am sure not all Muslims are billionaires and suicide bombers, just like I am sure that not all Jews are greedy. I thought we moved passed these stereotypes and radicals. I am set back by these articles that derive the basis of an argument from a stereotype or exaggeration.

Basically, stop worrying about religion. If you don’t believe in it, what’s the point in arguing about it through our newspaper? You don’t have to publicize your disagreement with religion. All we are creating is more hate toward each other, which is ironic because most atheists claim religion has started every war. Well, aren’t you starting this one?

Nic Grantham is a third-year sociology major.