Governor Hostile Towards Atheist

http://www.examiner.com/x-19674-Tampa-Humanism--Freethought-Examiner~y2010m3d8-Florida-Atheists-angry-with-Governor-Crist

I’m surprised by the actions of Governor Crist but, in some ways I’m also surprised at the atheists who are shocked that a U.S politician would act in a hostile manner towards an atheist.

“The alleged incident involved a member of the Atheists of Florida, Mr. M__ who was at the Pizzeria that night. He waited his turn to speak to the governor and then asked him if he actually thought that sending a prayer letter to Jerusalem would help prevent hurricanes from hitting Florida. Back in August 2009, Governor Crist went on record as taking credit for preventing any major hurricanes from hitting Florida during his term because he apparently regularly sends prayer requests to the Western Wall asking God to spare Florida.

The exact nature of the confrontation that resulted from this question being asked is unconfirmed. According to the Atheists of Florida, Governor Crist responded to the question about his views on the ability of prayers to avert hurricanes by saying, “Who is more powerful then God?” Mr. M___ did not think this was a good answer and continued his line of questioning. During this exchange one of Crist’s campaign staffers put a Crist for Senate sticker on Mr. M___ . When Mr. M___ told Crist he was an atheist, he alleges that Crist got angry, tore off the Crist for Senate sticker and turned away while ‘screaming,’ “I feel sorry for you.”

Mr. M’s question was perfectly reasonable though he shouldn’t have expected a rational answer from someone who believes that prayer has the power to do anything. I do need to disagree however, with a statement made by the President of the Atheists of Florida. “…is very symbolic of the intolerance and bigotry that we, as a constitutionally protected religious minority, are made to tolerate daily not only in politics, but on business and social fronts.” I do agree that atheists face a level of intolerance that is quite unacceptable. However, we are not a religion atheism is the rejection of belief and as such should also be a rejection of the dogma that goes along with religion. The brilliance of this worldview is that there are no rules about praying, what you eat, or any other silly practices. Calling atheism a religion risks open the floodgates to accusations of atheist fundamentalism.