Post a Comment On: Internal Monologue

Um, OK, this pisses me off:
But the only way an inmate could qualify for this kinder mutation of prison life was to enter an intensely religious rehabilitation program and satisfy the evangelical Christians running it that he was making acceptable spiritual progress. The program — which grew from a project started in 1997 at a Texas prison with the support of George W. Bush, who was governor at the time — says on its Web site that it seeks “to ‘cure’ prisoners by identifying sin as the root of their problems” and showing inmates “how God can heal them permanently, if they turn from their sinful past.”This seems to be a pretty blatant form of religious discrimination. I'm glad its getting some scrutiny.

There's been some hand-wringing recently about "Evangelical Atheists" and how "strident" and "arrogant" and "intolerant" they are. I think the reason is that people just aren't used to atheists being outspoken. We have gotten so used to Christian evangelism that people are habituated to it. We tune it out. But when the atheists start preaching and asking people to give up their theistic delusions, it comes across as harsh, just because we're not accustomed to it.