Posthuman Blues

Apparently I'm subscribed to the Universist newsletter; I got an email instructing me to blog this news item. So here you go:

Atheists claim discrimination

"'My first thought was that this is a potential red flag -- this group could be disruptive if they met,' says Anderson. 'Also, the sheer number could be disruptive, regardless of whether they are courteous and good patrons or not.'"

Quite honestly, I don't give a damn about the Universists' plight. They harbor a justified disdain for religion but naively play by religion's rules, forming silly little groups and holding ineffectual meetings where, I assume, they can prattle about being persecuted. Fuck 'em.

It's true, incidentally, that atheists and agnostics -- indeed, "free-thinkers" of any type -- are discriminated against. But I have no sympathy for individuals who congeal into activist groups that pretend to speak on behalf of the faithless among us; in fact, I have great difficulty differentiating such granfalloons* from the God-loving organizations they enjoy complaining about.

If we're to exterminate religion, it will only be because we're wise enough to ignore it.

*By the way, there's a restaurant called The Granfalloon down the street from me. Someone who knows me superficially might assume I'd like it, since its name is taken from a novel by Kurt Vonnegut, one of my favorite authors. But you go inside and it's just the same goddamned thing you see everywhere else: young, yuppie-ish types with their identical girlfriends drinking heavily and watching sports on TV and thinking they're incredibly with it despite probably never having read anything by Kurt Vonnegut.