Hatred of good and evil (I)

Atheism is obviously not the most favoured ideology in the world. It is about in the least-appreciated religious options, somewhere below cults like Scientology or Jehovah's Witnesses. The word "atheism" is associated with immorality and lawlessness, and the thought of an atheist president, at least in the United States, is unbelievable. When people who scam millions and practice occult rituals and hypnotize others are more liked than you, the situation of your ideology (or lack therefore) is superlatively pitiful.

Certainly atheism is one of the most adopted "religious positions" in the world, if only by virtue of being the default. It is fourth in number of adherents behind Christianity, Islam and Hinduism. Why then is it so hated ? This is no doubt a phenomenon similar to the hatred of successful people. We naturally hate people who are not burdened with the same flaws as we are, or who are successful. The cult mentality exploits this to the hilt, by dividing people between the "saved" and the "unsaved".

In religion's happier days, only a person of one's denomination was "saved" : in this day and age, theism in general is "salvation". This is perhaps an improvement, but not for us as the focus of ire tightens around atheism. Nothing is more ironic and funny than seeing Christians, Muslims and other religious ayatollahs unite in blind faith against the lone, poor rationalist, without the inkling of idea that their religions are completely incompatible.

One may think that this backslide of religious intolerence may eventually end in general acceptance of everyone. Perhaps this is true in some way of more tolerent religious people, in that they accept that anyone may be "saved" if they live a good life. However, such a mindset taken literally would make religion completely useless, since specific types of salvation are dependant on such a dichotomy. If it's good feelings or spiritual fulfillment you want, you don't need Christianity or Islam. You need Christianity to go to Heaven, not to feel good.

From the point of view of the religious, atheism is terrifying. It has a visceral, almost sexual connotation, much like how homophobes hate homosexuals : the atheist ideology emasculates the god-concept, or more exactly emasculates the power of the comfort that the god-concept brings. But perhaps this is not precise : some atheistic religions are not as villified, but some are.

One may suppose that the traditional hatred of Satanism and Wicca, for example, comes from trying to bump off the competition. No meme complex could survive if it didn't have a way to keep out competing complexes. Atheism is not hated because it is evil, but because it is good, or more exactly because it is a threat to traditional belief systems. Much like a mindless brute that kills people because "they are in the way", the intellectual brutes which we call theologians and holy men villify ideas just because "they are in the way", without regard to reality or good sense. Ironically, one can draw parallels with how they describe morality without a god, a state where supposedly one has no reason not to kill and go evil - yet this kind of wild and brutal swinging about is exactly the religious attitude towards other ideologies.

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