By Hemant Mehta | 5 December 2014
Friendly Atheist
Bill Donohue of the Catholic League loves to complain about all the persecution people of his faith have to deal with — for example, other people sometimes put up billboards that offer a different perspective — but he has no problem saying the very things he’s flipped out over if the tables were turned.
He just told Newsmax host Steve Malzberg that atheists are clinically insane:
[Atheists] believe that freedom is license to do whatever you want… They don’t want to be told anything, which is why they die prematurely, they’re unhappy. That’s why we have a disproportionate number of agnostics and atheists in the asylum. All of this is true.
…
[“Secularists” have] got to work it out… I’ll help pay for their therapy. Just keep your hands, your mitts, off the Catholics during Christmas.
Donohue added that he was only talking about the “militant” atheists… like the folks at American Atheists who behead Christians put up billboards.
He also complained about how AA’s conference is on Good Friday (and Easter), as if that’s a sign that they hate Christians.
He never considers the possibility that hotels tend to be available for conferences on holiday weekends… and atheists are probably free to travel since they don’t have to go to church.
This is the same guy who once compared atheists to neo-Nazis and Klan members.
But let’s get to the heart of his statements.
Are atheists actually less happy? In some cases, like on Twitter, yes.
Are atheists more likely to die young? In some studies, yes.
Are atheists disproportionately insane? Not really. He’s probably taking out of context research that suggests religious people have better mental health.
In all of these cases, though, Donohue purposely ignores the elephant in the room: None of these things happen because people are atheists. It has everything to do with the social aspects of it.
Atheism correlates with all those awful things because religious people tend to have things like stronger communities and more hope (albeit false hope) and people to turn to when they’re depressed. Atheists have to essentially fend for themselves or create alternatives that are nowhere near the scope or size of what religions provide.
Similarly, when atheists speak about their beliefs publicly, it’s usually in response to events that make us upset or angry — so we come off as more defensive (i.e. unhappy). Christians, on the other hand, tend to talk about their relationship with God when they’re writing blog posts or books. (These are huge generalizations, of course, but you get the idea.)
So back to the point: Donohue is doing what he does best: Lying to make himself look better. He takes general pieces of information, siphons off all the necessary nuance, and pretends that the evidence suggests atheists are inherently immoral, unhappy, and insane.
And Steve Malzberg, instead of pushing back, just irresponsibly laughed it off.
Reprinted with permission from the author.
Hemant Mehta is the editor of Friendly Atheist, appears on the Atheist Voice channel on YouTube, and co-hosts the uniquely-named Friendly Atheist Podcast. You can read much more about him here.
Donohue: Organized Atheists Are Mental & Need Therapy
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Reminds me of the old 'eating bread causes people to break the law, because most people in prison have eaten bread' crapola.
RE his claims that non believers have 'shorter lives' and are 'unhappy'…
"Countries with a high percentage of nonbelievers are among the freest, most stable, best-educated, and healthiest nations on earth. When nations are ranked according to a human-development index, which measures such factors as life expectancy, literacy rates, and educational attainment, the five highest-ranked countries — Norway, Sweden, Australia, Canada, and the Netherlands — all have high degrees of nonbelief. Of the fifty countries at the bottom of the index, all are intensely religious. The nations with the highest homicide rates tend to be more religious; those with the greatest levels of gender equality are the least religious. These associations say nothing about whether atheism leads to positive social indicators or the other way around. But the idea that atheists are somehow less moral, honest, or trustworthy have been disproven by study after study.”
― Greg Graffin
He can call me or us what he wants. He really has nothing on us, so he had to search desperately to get his point across. Wow, we are really "sticking it" to the Catholic Church by having a meeting on Good Friday. How much more can they take from our attacks? LOL They have so much power and money, but they are afraid it will all go away if atheists get their point across and that is what really scares him and other people of faith.
Relgion is being questioned, rather, religion is being challenged. Challenging religion to support its extraordinary claims is not an attack, it is a demand for proof of those extraordinary claims.
I have yet to hear a single statement of worth come out of that man's pie hole.
News organizations need to stop giving this turd a platform to spew his ignorance.