From Scott Bixbys An Atheists Obituary Reveals Everything Wrong With How America Talks About Atheism: ...journalist Moni Basu described Youngs final days in heartbreaking detail: bedridden, taking more than 30 different pills a day, barely able to speak. She also decided that the right way to honor a man who dedicated — and sacrificed — his life for his beliefs was to dismiss them entirely in his own obituary: Young was a self-avowed atheist, but somehow I could feel him smiling down at his friends, glad that they were remembering him as a nice guy. When the conclusion of an obituary is a casual brushing off of the deceaseds most closely held convictions, youre doing it wrong. Imagine if a similar approach had been taken to a Christian soldier: He was a lifelong Southern Baptist, but somehow I could see him in the arms of 72 dark-eyed virgins. Or a Jewish soldier: She had been a cantor in her synagogue, but somehow I could see her reincarnated as a nearby oak tree.… ...I simply said I could feel him smiling down on me. Thats on me, not about what he believed. I said he was a self-avowed atheist, Basu told Mic. Indeed, Basus platitudes come from a good place — although George Carlin might disagree — but they reinforce the delegitimization of atheism and ignore the deeply held principles of a man whose beliefs were all he had left. Basus offhanded insult is a classic example of a microaggression, an exchange where someone from a position of social privilege or dominance says or does something without malice that still manages to alienate or insult members of marginalized groups.
Posted on: Sun, 16 Nov 2014 20:02:34 +0000
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