The Atheist Blogger

Firstly let me explain the title. I am not having a go at Jodie Foster’s acting talents, she is one of my favourite actors and I have utmost respect for her as an actress. What I am having a go at is her views on atheism and religion. It seems that there are two distinct groups in atheism these days, the people who are “all out” atheists and continually argue against the irrationality of religion and belief, and those who are almost apologising for their atheism.

Jodie Foster is one of those in the latter group. She freely admits to being an atheist, but in doing so, always relates herself back to organised religion in some way, so it seems less of a “controversial” issue.

I don’t follow any kind of traditional religion, but I have great respect for all religions. I spend a lot of time studying divine texts, whether it’s Eastern religion or Western religion. I only have questions so far and no answers. [1]

The usage of the word “but” is probably the most conclusive evidence in this quote. She describes herself as an atheist (rather, one who doesn’t follow a religion), and then tries to cover up for the fact by showing her “respect” for religion in general. Many would argue it’s a minor piece of evidence, but how would the quote look if she had said “and” instead of the “but”, or some other passive conjunction? Instead of some kind of apology for being an atheist, the statement becomes one where the emphasis is not so greatly strained on the religious side.

Perhaps I’m being slightly too analytical, but it leads me onto the type of atheist I think we need more of: Penn Jillette.

Penn Jillette is the speaking half of the comedy magician duo “Penn & Teller”, and although Teller is equally as open and “loud” about his atheism, it is Penn who always does the talking. He has debunked Christianity on his television show “Bullshit!”, joined the “Blasphemy Challenge” started by the Rational Response Squad, and has a license plate on his car that reads “DOG ON” (”NO GOD” backwards so people looking in their rear-view mirrors will know the truth).

It is people like him that are opening atheism up to the world. People might complain that this isn’t doing atheism any good on the whole, and that continually arguing against faith is just making people hate atheists even more, but I don’t believe that is true. The only reason atheism is more widely accepted these days is because people like Jillette have come out and publicly admitted their atheism, and have ridiculed religion and exposed it for the lying money grabbing scam it truly is.

In the U.K, the leader of the Liberal Democrats party is an atheist, but he has publicly stated that

he had “enormous respect for people who have religious faith”, that his wife is Catholic and that his children are being brought up Catholic.

Notice again, the frank apology for his beliefs, which I guess is in order to gain votes from the religious majority in the country. I would have hoped that in secular England, a politician wouldn’t have to sink this low to gain votes, but then again politicians have sunken lower. I would never wish my children to be brought up Catholic. I would wish them to be brought up knowing all the facts, and for them to be able to make a rational decision by themselves. If they work out there is no God, I’ll support them, and if they belief that there is more to the universe than science and want to join an organised religion, I’ll support that too, but for goodness sake let the children decide!

Here’s hoping that the world produces more aggressive atheists. We’ll need them to combat the growing number of aggressive anti-secular, anti-atheist believers who want nothing more but complete religious control over the world.

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• Christianity Doesn’t Work As Advertised
• A Conversion To Atheism