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March 6, 2014 • 11:28 am
Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
I hope all the accomodatioists and faitheists who peruse this site take a moment to let the full weight of a post like this one sink in. The American South has a tremendously rich and wonderful cultural tradition. If not for poor southerners and their music, the world might never have had jazz, the blues, country or rock ‘n’ roll. But it all gets overshadowed by the celebration of ignorance that is redneck culture and a particularly virulent and mean-spirited brand of religious extremism. If you are an atheist living in the American South, you have to be very careful as to whom you disclose that information because the first amendment guarantee of religious freedom tends to be interpreted a little differently in these parts, as in, “my religion gives me the freedom to harass and oppress people and behaviors I don’t like.” I’ve been out as an atheist since I was sixteen years old. In the intervening twenty years I’ve been discriminated against because of it numerous times. I went from being a starting forward and leading the district in rebounding on my public high school basketball team, to being cut out of the rotation entirely when I refused o partake in a patently illegal pregame prayer and was made to explain why in front of the entire team. Fifteen years later I was terminated on the very last day of my 90 day probationary employment period for new employees despite the fact that I received only positive feedback from the administration and the parents of my students regarding my performance in the classroom. I did, however, foolishly disclose my atheism to another faculty member just days prior to being terminated. If you live in London, New York or San Francisco, you have the luxury of treating atheism as though it is an entirely philosophical enterprise. We, in the bible belt, don’t have that luxury. For us it is a near constant struggle to be who we are and not have our lives ruined because of it. I could go on and on listing examples of public officials abusing the authority of their offices to harass atheists and secular groups (I could do several pages on abuses in Florida alone) but why bother, we’ve all heard dozens of examples discrimination in the past. We’ve been getting our asses kicked by this Ayn Rand Jesus crap for three decades and accomodationism isn’t helping.