Self-Loathing Atheists?

Recently, a blogger for one of our local newspapers wrote a curious article in which he publicly "came out" as an atheist. The first few paragraphs are a perfectly common statement of this fact, and seem to demonstrate a rather balanced and rational attitude toward his own lack of faith in a god. Then, about a third of the way in, something goes sideways. He spends the rest of the article talking about how hard he tries not to tell people he's an atheist because "most other Atheists are total assholes about it". He goes on to accuse the majority of atheists of really being "anti-theists", who are somehow angry at a god they don't believe in, and have in effect joined a "fundamentalist sect" that's trying to destroy anything that is "other".

The article's comments, and the rancorous email debate that was sparked on our local freethought mailing list by one of his followers, were, as you might expect, filled with lots of anger, not at a god, but at someone calling everyone there an angry, asshole, fundamentalist. In fairness to the author, I suspect that his article was worded poorly, and that he didn't actually mean to say that *most* atheists are bad people, but in effect, that's what his article said.

This is hardly the first time we've seen an article or speech like this one. In fact, the attitude seems somewhat common among unbelievers. There is a stalwart cadre who seem to believe that they alone have the proper attitude to be considered "real" atheists, while the vast majority of atheists are really angry closet religionists in thinker's clothing, because they take a different approach in how (or whether) they express themselves publicly. You can often identify them by their use of a capital "A" in the word atheist, as if they were describing an organized religion of some kind that deserves the respect of a proper noun as a title.

Some have suggested that this is a case of self loathing, where the "anti-atheist atheist" is uncomfortable with their own beliefs, so they don't want to be associated with others who are more comfortable and open with them because it pushes their discomfort to the surface. I suspect that in many cases, there's merit in this idea, but I don't think it accounts for the majority.

I think it more likely that in most cases, it comes from the same drive for political correctness that has made a mockery of discourse in so many areas of our society. I suspect that the "anti-atheist atheist" has fallen into the PC trap of abhorring any kind of conflict so much that anyone pointing out what they consider to be flaws in someone else's beliefs or arguments is considered mean, hateful, or intolerant, no matter how calm or rational they might be. In this twisted view, the more solid your argument, the more intolerant you must be. Therefore, since the "anti-atheist atheist" is by definition an atheist, his/her fellow atheists' arguments sound all the more valid, and thereby all the more mean, hateful, or intolerant.

That said, there are certainly mean, hateful, intolerant atheists out there! I'd guess that they are probably at just about the same percentage in the atheist community as in every other community. My father (who for all his faults, was always good for a well timed pithy aphorism), used to say "There's a lot more assholes in this world than there are asses!" It's just human nature. However, deciding to paint *all* atheists with the "asshole" brush because they've met or read about some who are is exactly as bigoted as the over-broad anti-theism these folks accuse their fellow atheists of.