Say it loud, say it proud: there is no God

This NYT article about the rise of atheist groups is kind of nauseating, and I can't tell if the source of it is the subject matter or simply the way it happens to be depicted in the article. Basically, though, what you get is an unseemly mix of snide condescension (the "Pastafarians", a reference to the Flying Spaghetti Monster, or folks with "I work for a non-prophet" t-shirts) with whiny victimization talk (atheists are "coming out of the closet"...sheesh).

The thing is, atheists do have a legitimate reason to group up and defend themselves: as the article says, they remain a minority that is regularly ostracized and denied political power:

Despite changing attitudes, polls continue to show that atheists are ranked lower than any other minority or religious group when Americans are asked whether they would vote for or approve of their child marrying a member of that group.

But I feel like you can't simultaneously vie for acceptance into the mainstream while also holding onto a sneering attitude towards the very people you are seeking acceptance from. For example, from what I understand of the gay movement, there was the initial pose where mainstream culture was rejected and ridiculed, and you had stuff like John Waters movies and the gay pride parade--but then the pose changed as gays sought real mainstream acceptance, and you had stuff like uber-normal looking 50 year old lesbian couples on TV telling us to vote No on Prop 8. I think both phases are just fine, but that it would have been obviously silly and counterproductive for the acceptance-seeking gay marriage movement to present itself to the rest of America as something out of a John Waters movie. I think when atheists simultaneously seek acceptance and call themselves things like Pastafarians, they are comitting this kind of error.

Now, I think there's a good chance that, in fact, there are different kinds of atheists, some of whom are acceptance-seeking and others who retain more of a sardonic outsider pose, and that the article is sort of lumping them together into one big thing.

In any case, though, it is interesting to see how these sorts of things progress: how a minority recognizes itself as such, consolidates (in the process creating its own subculture and shared stories), and then pushes back against the society that shunned it.