Attack of the Antitheists

I read a disturbing article on CNN.com today. I don't want to put a damper on anyone's holiday season, but I think we should all see the direction our world is headed. Here are some quotes:

An atheist sign criticizing Christianity that was erected alongside a Nativity scene was taken from the Legislative Building in Olympia, Washington, on Friday and later found in a ditch.

The sign, which celebrates the winter solstice, has had some residents and Christian organizations calling atheists Scrooges because they said it was attacking the celebration of Jesus Christ's birth. "Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds," the sign from the Freedom From Religion Foundation says in part.

Dan Barker, a former evangelical preacher and co-founder of the group, said it was important for atheists to see their viewpoints validated alongside everyone else's. Barker said the display is especially important given that 25 percent of Washington state residents are unaffiliated with religion or do not believe in God. (A recent survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found 23 percent of Washingtonians said they were unaffiliated with a religion and 7 percent said they didn't believe in God.)

"It's not that we are trying to coerce anyone; in a way our sign is a signal of protest," Barker said. "If there can be a Nativity scene saying that we are all going to hell if we don't bow down to Jesus, we should be at the table to share our views."

He said if anything, it's the Nativity scene that is the intrusion. "Most people think December is for Christians and view our signs as an intrusion, when actually it's the other way around," he said. "People have been celebrating the winter solstice long before Christmas. We see Christianity as the intruder, trying to steal the holiday from all of us humans."

The atheist message was never intended to attack anyone, Barker said. "When people ask us, 'Why are you hateful? Why are you putting up something critical of people's holidays? -- we respond that we kind of feel that the Christian message is the hate message," he said. "On that Nativity scene, there is this threat of internal violence if we don't submit to that master. Hate speech goes both ways."

Now let's be clear. The people in this story are not atheists. They are antitheists. And there is a big difference.

An atheist simply does not believe in God. Atheism is passive, and it is not really a belief system in and of itself. Rather, it is merely the rejection of theism. However, antitheism is active. An antitheist is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as "one opposed to belief in the existence of a God." These people are specifically and purposefully attempting to defeat Christianity and all other forms of theism.

During the heyday of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin was a self-proclaimed militant antitheist. He defined this as "carrying on untiring atheist propaganda and an untiring atheist fight." Likewise, the Freedom From Religion Foundation is an organization based in Wisconsin, which strives to promote the complete separation of church and state, the removal of religion from public life, and to educate the public on matters relating to atheism, agnosticism, and nontheism.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation has succeeded in removing Ten Commandments monuments and crosses from public land, overturning a state Good Friday holiday, and making it illegal to present any religious beliefs as viable or true in public schools. They have also attempted (unsuccessfully) to remove "In God We Trust" from U.S. currency and to remove the phrase "So help me, God" from the oath portion of tax forms. They are currently attempting to put an end to the National Day of Prayer.

Unfortunately, this is where our nation is headed. I believe that within the next 50 years or so, Christianity will become an underground faith. We will no longer be allowed to express our faith in any kind of public forum. We will no longer be allowed to evangelize, because even implying that someone else’s religious beliefs are wrong would be considered hate-speech. The Bible will be banned as offensive literature, since it speaks of sin and damnation. Let's all remember that we are living in a world at war. This war has been raging since Satan fell from Heaven, and right now, we're in the Battle of the Bulge. So this Christmas season, let's make it extra clear to all those around us what it is that we are really celebrating.