The days of laissez-faire atheism are over, and young, thoughtful, student atheists are in a tricky position. They are forced to stand up for their beliefs
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- guardian.co.uk, Thursday 19 February 2009 12.00 GMT
"There is no God" proclaimed a Leeds student banner … "but Allah" added some prankster. It made me laugh, and the event might have remained merely funny if it weren't part of a nasty campaign of vandalism and abuse against atheist and secular student societies. The president of Leeds University Atheist Society complained to the Student Union after their banners and posters were repeatedly stolen or defaced and members received verbal abuse and threats, but received no help or support. They launched a Facebook free speech debate on "I'll mock Mohammed if I want to"; an admittedly provocative title but just the sort of thing students should be debating when some Muslims seem to think they have a right to rid the world of anything that offends them. The mocking Muhammad debate was met with death threats.
For goodness sake – is there something wrong with this? Surely not. It expresses a worthwhile opinion – that atheism is important in challenging religious oppression – and it lists topics for talks that many students might like to attend, including "religious repression of sexuality" and "the maltreatment of women by religion". Of course devout believers might be offended at the image of their precious religious symbol being thrown in a dustbin – but tough. It's only a dustbin. The symbols are not burnt, or crushed by tanks, or even defaced, and there's no suggestion of harm to the people who believe in them.
So it is truly scary to learn that this mild advertisement for some lectures caused the stir it did. The Union revoked the Society's award and took away the £100. The poster was banned from the campus on the grounds that it was "in breach of its commitment to equal opportunities". After a fuss in local papers, and a poll which showed that more than three quarters of people opposed the ban, the award was reinstated – but without the £100.
If challenging religion, claiming that atheism is important, or wanting to throw out the trash of religious fundamentalism, is in breach of equal opportunities then either I don't understand the words "equal" and "opportunities" or this principle is being grossly abused.
All this leads me to wonder about the future for student atheists. Most of my life I have enjoyed what you might call laissez-faire atheism – just not believing in God, thinking that people who do are daft, and leaving them to it. It seemed that ignoring religion was much the best way of letting it fade quietly away.
Sadly I think the days of laissez-faire atheism are over, and young, thoughtful, student atheists are in a tricky position. Christianity and Islam seem ever more at odds with each other. Islamic groups claim to have the right not be offended. Some even demand to have their repulsively repressive and unfair Sharia laws respected here. So we need students who care about freedom of speech, freedom of thought, intellectual honesty, open inquiry, or sexual equality to speak up.
But what is going to happen when they get clobbered? Few unbelievers are natural extremists or looking for a fight, but now they are being forced, by events occurring all over the world, to stand up for their unbelief. And if the events at Warwick and Leeds are anything to go by they are going to suffer abuse, threats and even harm. Will they – should they – fight back, or should they turn the other cheek? It's one thing to be brave because you believe that one day God will send you to heaven, and rather different to suffer because you don't believe in any God.
The Warwick Atheists were doing rather well. They won the "Best New Society" award and £100 prize money for "excelling in all categories" including charity and inter-faith work. They arranged an evening of student talks and put up posters to advertise it saying "The importance of Atheism", and adorned with a graphic of someone throwing a bunch of religious symbols (cross, star of David, yin-yang and more) into a dustbin. Underneath were the words "It's time to take out the trash".
For goodness sake – is there something wrong with this? Surely not. It expresses a worthwhile opinion – that atheism is important in challenging religious oppression – and it lists topics for talks that many students might like to attend, including "religious repression of sexuality" and "the maltreatment of women by religion". Of course devout believers might be offended at the image of their precious religious symbol being thrown in a dustbin – but tough. It's only a dustbin. The symbols are not burnt, or crushed by tanks, or even defaced, and there's no suggestion of harm to the people who believe in them.
So it is truly scary to learn that this mild advertisement for some lectures caused the stir it did. The Union revoked the Society's award and took away the £100. The poster was banned from the campus on the grounds that it was "in breach of its commitment to equal opportunities". After a fuss in local papers, and a poll which showed that more than three quarters of people opposed the ban, the award was reinstated – but without the £100.
If challenging religion, claiming that atheism is important, or wanting to throw out the trash of religious fundamentalism, is in breach of equal opportunities then either I don't understand the words "equal" and "opportunities" or this principle is being grossly abused.
All this leads me to wonder about the future for student atheists. Most of my life I have enjoyed what you might call laissez-faire atheism – just not believing in God, thinking that people who do are daft, and leaving them to it. It seemed that ignoring religion was much the best way of letting it fade quietly away.
Sadly I think the days of laissez-faire atheism are over, and young, thoughtful, student atheists are in a tricky position. Christianity and Islam seem ever more at odds with each other. Islamic groups claim to have the right not be offended. Some even demand to have their repulsively repressive and unfair Sharia laws respected here. So we need students who care about freedom of speech, freedom of thought, intellectual honesty, open inquiry, or sexual equality to speak up.
But what is going to happen when they get clobbered? Few unbelievers are natural extremists or looking for a fight, but now they are being forced, by events occurring all over the world, to stand up for their unbelief. And if the events at Warwick and Leeds are anything to go by they are going to suffer abuse, threats and even harm. Will they – should they – fight back, or should they turn the other cheek? It's one thing to be brave because you believe that one day God will send you to heaven, and rather different to suffer because you don't believe in any God.
And the last thing we need is another warring faction in the rotten war of ideas caused by religious differences.
Today sees the launch of the National Federation of Atheist, Humanist and Secular Student Societies . I wish them well. We need people who don't believe in God to show that you can be moral and good without religion, and to criticise the worse excesses of religious repression and dogma. I hope they won't suffer more abuse but if they do I trust that their natural moral principles, not derived from any God or from any ancient book, will help them behave better than their God-fearing persecutors.
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