CNN's Hero of the Year: The Oklahoma Atheist

Religion can result in awkward situations for nonbelievers.  If asked, I suspect that most Americans would say religion is a personal choice, but in too many instances, "none" is a choice they wouldn’t accept.  I've never been religious, and in most circumstances, I'm comfortable acknowledging this, but there are instances, around certain family members for example, when I convince myself that it's best just passively to pretend that I'm a Christian because telling the truth wouldn't accomplish anything productive.  Afterwards, of course, I berate myself for not politely stating that I don't share their religious beliefs, consequences be damned.  But religious beliefs are so deeply held by many Americans that it's often perceived as an affront when one professes not to share them.  Two basic reactions result: horror and a desire to save the misguided atheist's soul.  Acceptance that it's just one legitimate choice among many, not a cause for horror or pity, is much rarer.  I wonder, however, how religious Americans responded when an Oklahoma woman who lost her home to a tornado told CNN's Wolf Blitzer that she's an atheist.

 

Most people in her situation, myself included, would probably take the easy way out and just pretend that they had thanked the Lord.  This woman, however, admitted on national television that she did not  because she's an atheist.  I applaud her not only for her courage in owning what is still a very unpopular position in American, but in the way she did it.  When Blitzer asked if she had thanked the Lord for saving her, she giggled nervously and said she's an atheist and then, rather than launching into an anti-religious tirade, which most in her position would have been tempted to do, she added that she didn't blame people for thanking God.  I hope that if there was any horror or pity among religious Americans watching the broadcast these were reactions to what the woman endured from the natural disaster and not to her lack of religious beliefs.

 

What I can say with confidence is that she's a much better ambassador for atheists than most nonbelievers who have publicly expressed their views about religion.  She was non-threatening.  She was not speaking as a polemical academic or an evolutionary biologist trying to convince Christians of the illogic of their beliefs.  She was speaking as a wife, a mother, and an American who had lost her home.  It's normal people like this woman who will make atheism acceptable, not writers like Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins with their reasoned critiques of religion.  One reason commonly cited for the rapidly growing acceptance of homosexuality among a majority of Americans is increased exposure to homosexuals in their daily lives:  their friends, neighbors, co-workers, and family members.  I'm not attempting to equate the situation of atheist Americans--who are living with the consequences of a choice--with the civil rights struggle faced by gay Americans--who are persecuted for their biological differences--but I do believe that what has made homosexuality more acceptable for Americans can work in the same way for atheists.

This exposure, however, must be the right kind of exposure.  It must come from people like the Oklahoma atheist--outing myself as an atheist to my extended family would be counterproductive because they already think I'm a bit odd.  I'm hoping that the Oklahoma atheist's courage will inspire other Americans to profess their atheism in non-threatening ways.  She has my vote for CNN's hero of the year.