How Should We Treat Others?

Lately I have been troubled by the “us vs. them” mentality between groups of people. Particularly where religion is concerned. As an atheist, I find that it is quite common to find other atheists who think of theists as the “other.” This is not very shocking: it is hard to comprehend somebody who has a completely different world view from ones self. But it is nonetheless problematic. Atheists want to be accepted in mainstream society. We want to be trusted and treated as equals. This is more of an issue in the United States than it is in Canada, but even here there have been studies that show that people mistrust those with no religious beliefs. Atheists debate about how best to create acceptance within society. Some believe that we must be loud and proud and get noticed in order to be accepted. I agree with this: if the people who mistrust atheists get to know an atheist then they will likely realize that atheists as a group aren’t untrustworthy. However, the way that some atheists go about getting attention is easily taken as an attack by theists. I don’t disagree that debating theism is a worthy pursuit, but I do disagree with doing so in a tone that suggests that we are out to get all the religious people. I believe that this problem is created when we confuse the institution of religion with religious people. We claim to be attacking the institution (which I believe is something worthy of attacking) but we condescend the theists that we are talking to. We use an “I clearly know more than you” tone that attacks the person and confuses them with the institution. This is problematic because the people tend not to be the problem. I can’t help but think that going out of our way to befriend religious people and get ourselves known in our communities is a far superior way to gain equality. Unfortunately, many people disagree with me. They believe that we need to be louder and get in more peoples faces. We need more debates. We need more Dawkins’ and more Dillahunty’s. Do we really need to continue to isolate ourselves? Do we really want to create this sense of otherness?