A friend recently sent me a link to a Newsweek Rabbi wondering 'why atheists are so angry'. Angry? Goddammit, we are not angry! He also included his complete response- which is too long and untimely to make the mailcall at newsweek, so I'll give him his 15 minutes with my massive readship here.

Why are many atheists angry? Good question. I hope my answer may shed some light. But first, I would request in a future column you ask why so many Christians seem so threatened by those who insist there might not be a god, or who insist on the removal of godly superstition from government, or the equal elevation of their faith (such as the Wiccan wife of a fallen soldier)? Christians make up the majority of our country, yet they act as if they are still being crucified by the Romans. It is you and I, the agnostic, the Jew, the Muslim, who are justified in feeling threatened in our daily affairs; who are regularly being told we are going to hell, by people knocking on our doors and blaring from our radios.

I, for one, would have 'under God' out of the pledge. It offends me, because I know precisely whose God they are referring to. It might be yours and theirs, but we both know it isn't Krishna, or the aliens of the Scientologists, or the Earth of the Pagans. The most basic religious freedom is freedom from religion, and I will do my utmost to keep church and state separate, and make sure godless Americans have a seat at the table when national policy is made. I give credit to moderate Christians and the majority of Jews who do not seek to impose their faith on others, or merge church with state. But I, for one, am not angry, but rather extremely annoyed to be immersed in a society of sleepwalkers, who smugly believe in an invisible man simply because they want to- it satisfies their psychological needs- not because of any rational evidence. This mass suspension of rationality, combined with an attitude that such beliefs are beyond criticism because to critique a religion offends people- leads to a climate where religious extremists can advance their agenda under a cloak of selective historical legitimacy and behind a shield of sacred-cow civility. In the history of our nation, from slavery to the extermination of Indians to the invasion of the Phillipines, each time we assured ourselves that we were fulfilling God’s will. In each war, our solders invoke him like a bunch of Sunday football players. Do they really imagine God favors one team over another? Confidence in divine sanction is deadly and dangerous because it allows no doubt and silences doubters. Your faith may not have lent itself to such travesties since the time of David; but faith in general, and the peculiar Christian faith in this nation, certainly do.

Why are you a Jew? Likely because you were born into a Jewish family. If you had been born in India, odds are you would be Hindu; in Thailand, likely a Buddhist. Very few people consciously choose their faith. Atheists are among the few who do, and they do so by careful, demanding, critical analysis. I am an agnostic with atheist leanings- I do not believe the origins of the universe are knowable or comprehensible to the human mind (to wit, the best evidence in physics we have on the subject is scarcely comprehensible to most), but I seriously doubt the existence of a divine consciousness, as there is no evidence for it. Perhaps the angry atheists who write to you are simply very irritated, agitated to the point that they boil over. If Christmas ran all year, wouldn't you too become a bit weary of every one wishing you a Merry one? Is it not annoying for people to assume you are Christian, or do you wear distinguishing headgear to fend them off? I do my best to hear with gracious ears when someone ways "God Bless you." To them, it is the nicest thing that they can say, and they are sincerely wishing me the best. But day in, day out, on the TV, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus...especially in the recent political climate, with intolerant, crusading creationists infiltrating school boards and the Federal government, my kind and yours are truly threatened. And this threat rests on a foundation of seemingly harmless faith.

I am sorry if asserting, publicly and not quietly, that there is no God offends some. They might examine their own childhoods for the trauma or brainwashing that drives them to embrace a supernatural entity. You confess to viewing the atheists with pity; and I will confess to viewing the Jews in particular with some considerable puzzlement. How any all-powerful and compassionate God could allow individuals under his watch to suffer the Holocaust is completely beyond me. No theory of free will or 'testing our faith' justifies such a God. The only God that could exist in this world of suffering is that of the Theist scientists, who kicked off the Big Bang and watches from an impersonal distance. The prayer-answering, activist, control-freak, miracle-performing God makes no sense at all. Either this God is all-powerful but fickle, inactive of late, sadistic or lazy; or It is all-loving but powerless to interfere. Invoking 'God works in mysterious ways' or 'God has a plan' are the weakest excuses for these inconsistencies imaginable. Bush has a plan for Iraq, too; do you buy that one? If there is a God, his record of rescuing people is extremely spotty. Or do you believe He will save you if you pray hard enough? Rwanda bet? Shall I praise God for the tsunami, imagine it came to destroy Muslims, or just blame it on the invisible boogie-man, Satan? Do I sound angry? I'm not; my sarcasm just illustrates my incredulity with the faithful masses, aptly characterized in the Bible as sheep. The Bible is also right about the wrath of a scorned woman; these truths, however, do not make the entire book true; one may find gems even in a landfill. To say this may sound malicious or angry, but I am afraid such assertions are a necessary smelling salt under the noses of those who may never have questioned their particular tome of myths.

If there is one reason I am angry, it is that the faithful have made Athesist a dirty word; by associating it with Communism, and assuming that without God no morality is possible, we and the Pagans have been tarred with the same brush wielded against Satanists, assumed to be not only without any good qualities but in active promotion of something evil. It is a disservice to athesits, agnostics, secular humanists, and naturalists to assume that we live without hope or mortality simply because we don't call on an imaginary being to provide it. I grant that some atheists are obsessed with criticism; they are defined by what they don't believe, and not what they do believe, which leads them to express themselves in negative terms. They are skeptics by nature, bah-humbuggers. I do not define myself this way. I do not have a lack of faith- rather, I have the presence of rationality, an overriding belief in rationality, in science and the observable, measurable, testable universe, which those of faith leap over like so many tooth fairies. And I am not without hope. Many of us who are godless find hope within ourselves for the same reason religious people look to the heavens- we all need it. Altruism is a natural consequence of being an intelligent social animal; we are aware of our species existence and have the unique opportunity to plan for its welfare. I admire my neighbors whose faiths drive them to do good works; if the Easter Bunny or a little green man told you to go out and hlep others, power to you, keep on doing it. I, for one, don't need an old book from some cave to tell me to do right and give to others. I simply believe that each person must find the strength to deal with life and to create paradise-like conditions here on earth- or people must help each other to do so. Nontheists do not waste on time praying for a spirit to rescue us, or hoping for a nicer place after we die. We want social justice, we want environmental preservation, we want and end to war, we want quality education and health care, here and now. Perhaps we would be more effectively organized if we got together every week, and more motivated if we meditated on our ideas and sang some songs. This individualism is a weakness of our faith- it keeps us atomized and prevents us from organizing for greater social good. The Brights, in particular, are seeking to remedy this inaction and the negative reputation nontheists have garnered under the Athesist banner.

Bottom line, the young scientist in your article who wants to 'get something done’ personifies the infidel I am and the sort I know- a bit impatient, but very ambitious, and very often driven to help others in life precisely because this short and sometimes brutish life is the only shot we have. That, my friend, is the perspective of eternity- from ashes to ashes, from dust to dust. Amen.