Rahvin writes:
You won't often find an atheist receiving fewer opportunities for employment, for example, or getting paid less than peers. You will find women and racial minorities and sexual orientations and transgendered individuals who have those problems.
That's because being an atheist isn't a visible thing unless you make it visible. Pretty much all atheists I know prefer to keep this belief under wraps.
That the majority of people think we're all going to their imagined "hell" could be considered analogous to widespread acceptance of a slur against a minority...but the fact that we can;t be immediately recognized as Atheists means that it's a generalized oppression, rather than the very specific nastiness that various others have to face.
On what are you basing the claim that we receive more discrimination than any other minority group?
Because discrimination of other minority groups will eventually go away. Ours won't. Here are some steps to rid of discrimination.
Step
(1) Recognize that there's discrimination.
Discrimination against atheists are not recognized by anyone except for us. Nobody sees what's happening to us as discrimination.
(2) Recognize that the discrimination is visible.
Since nobody is willing to recognize that us being unelectable is discrimination, there's no effort to see the discrimination itself. Our discrimination is also very subtle. The only reason the civil rights movement ever succeeded was because the discrimination was so cut and dry that any bonehead could recognize it. You can't say the same about discrimination against atheists.
This is why I brought in Asian males as a comparison. Off the top of your head, how many movies can you think of that has the Asian male character as the hero and also gets the girl? That's an intricate part of our culture. And as long as nobody is willing to give the girl to an Asian hero, they'll always be viewed as somehow less than white males or black males.
Even the black community is feeling the new invisible discrimination. Look up micro-aggressionism. This new invisible form of discrimination won't be so easy to get rid of because it can't be so readily recognized.
(3) There's a will to make things better.
Since nobody is willing to see that certain groups are being discriminated against (atheists, Asian males, etc.) there's no societal will to make things better. Also, this is the one area where we don't expect to find many allies because we're all going to hell anyway, or so they think.
(4) Riot!
Let's admit it. The only reason why we don't say "the n word" is we're afraid of what they'll do to us. Even the gays have had riots in the past. There's never been an Asian race riot. And heck, there's never been any atheist riot. Why would anyone want to make things better for us if they're not afraid of what we might do?
And don't try to deny that you're afraid of what black people might do the next time they see a Rodney King or some news person saying "nigger".
(5) Getting our people elected.
What are the chances you think we'll have an atheist president in our lifetime or the next 5 lifetimes? The blacks, women, catholics, etc. have had their people elected into positions of power. Heck, even the gays have begun to have some success in this area. And yes, I love Barney Frank.
Isn't it sad that all our political opponent has to do to kick us out of a race is point out that we don't believe in that horny man in the clouds?
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In other words, the reason why I think we are the most discriminated against group is it's a subtle discrimination that will never ever go away... ever. It's like a small infection that never gets treated versus, say, a broken leg that got the attention of every doctor in ER. Sure, we'll be able to live with it. But once society has gotten rid of all visible forms of discrimination, discrimination against atheists will still remain.
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