We won the war, now what?
That seems to be the issue with atheism on the internet these days. Years ago, religion was either dominate or immune to criticism on much of the internet.
Those days are now long gone, and in most popular areas of the internet, religion has no pass and criticism is instant and blunt.
It was the hard work of atheists that made this happen. We had an enemy, and we united to fight this enemy on all fronts, and the good news is we won.
That just leaves the question, so what now?
We are like an empire that just defeated the largest rival in town, which you think would be good for atheism as a group, but instead, it just removed the one thing that kept atheists united.
Without a “Them” to fight, what does that mean for “Us”?
In my recent studying of Roman history, it seems clear that once Rome defeated Carthage, the internal power struggles in Rome became much more of an issue, and civil war was a constant threat. Yet, before the fall of Carthage, the Roman Empire was quite united.
It seems that in the face of a threat, people are much more willing to put aside small differences and join in common cause against the common enemy, but once the enemy is defeated, the willingness to put aside small differences is greatly reduced.
Without a common threat to keep atheists united, we are left with a power vacuum.
So we see the birth of Atheism+, as an attempt to create a new enemy. Instead of fighting religious injustice, they fight social injustice, and it seems to baffle the follows of Atheism+ why everyone doesn't jump on the band wagon.
We also see the rise of the unaligned atheists, better known as the slime pit by its detractors.
The unaligned atheists seem to have no desire to move atheism beyond the simple fight against religious injustice, and they reject all attempts to turn atheism into Atheism+.
So when people like PZ Myers and Rebecca Watson proclaim that atheism alone isn’t enough and we need Atheism+ (which they just happen to be unofficial, de facto leaders of), the unaligned atheists reject that and claim that PZ and Rebecca are trying to co-opt the atheism movement for their own pet projects.
This then gives rise to Thunderf00t and Justin Vacula who stand in opposition to Atheist+ and the unaligned flock to their banner. We see yet again, that in the face of a threat, people put aside small differences to join in common cause against the enemy.
And just like that, atheists have a new enemy, each other.
We can fall back into old habits and just cross out the word religion and replace it with the slime pit, or Atheism+ and its back to business as usual.
The players change, but the game stays the same.
