The Rocket

Issue date: 10/19/07 Section: Opinion

I am so tired of this nonsense about how "hard" it is to be a Christian in America. Many Christians seem to think that this secular country is not accepting and often aggressive toward people of their faith.

It's surprising, actually, that people are under the impression that American society is hostile toward the religious. I've heard people tell me that they have been so beaten down by the "hurtful" words of the nonreligious that it causes them to question their faith in their god.

Maybe I'm just a magnet for Bible thumpers, but I can guarantee you that I have gotten more snide remarks and irrational judgment placed on me because I am not a Christian than any Christian ever has. Just because public schools aren't allowed to preach an ideology to an innocent group of schoolchildren doesn't mean the country is somehow "against" you.

In fact, a Gallup poll conducted in early 2007 asked Americans who they were willing to elect as president. To me, the results were alarming. While most Americans didn't have much of a problem saying they would elect women, Catholics, blacks and Jews, what was at the bottom of the list was the most frightening.

The only group of people Americans were less likely to vote for were atheists, at 45 percent, compared to 55 percent of Americans who would vote for a gay candidate, and the 95 percent who would vote for a Catholic candidate.

When broken down by political ideology, only 29 percent of those polled who considered themselves "conservative" would vote for an atheist, as compared to 67 percent of those who considered themselves "liberal."

I don't know about you, but I am much less likely to vote for a candidate who is ruled by religion. As Bill Maher put it, the action of flying airplanes into the World Trade Center buildings and the Pentagon on Sept. 11 was a "faith-based initiative," an action completed by people who were diluted into believing that their religion justified killing thousands of people. I don't want to be led by someone who could potentially believe it's okay to do atrocious things in the name of a god.

I know I've probably lost some of you with that last statement, dismissing it with a defiant "not all religious people are like that," and that's true. Not all religious people are like that, not even people who are popularly considered "non-Christian heathens" and believe in other gods. What I meant to impress upon you was that many wars have been waged in the name of religion. The conflicts in Israel and the Middle East are about religion. More people have been killed in the name of religion than any other reason, and there has to be an explanation.

Studies have shown that many people with frontal lobe brain damage unconditionally adhere to ideas or actions.

This leads scientists to believe that some people who adhere to religious tenets unwaveringly may not be using the frontal lobes as much, instead focusing on older portions of the brain, the less-evolved parts that enable humans to participate in consistent behaviors.

Historically, religion was born out of fear and insecurity about the world. Back in the early days of humankind, it was dark and kind of scary.

Sometimes people died for seemingly no reason, and people were having sexual relations with their family members. Religion helped to shape and mold a society, and created shared societal rules that kept people from killing each other as frequently because they were afraid of afterlife repercussions.

But in 2007, we're a lot further away from apes than we used to be. We shouldn't have to placate ourselves with fanciful fairytales of punishment handed down from a "benevolent" god. We might not stone adulteresses to death anymore, but we're not far from it.

As the Gallup poll shows, it's not hard to be religious, especially Christian, in America. Christians are more accepted than gays and atheists ever will be, based on misconceptions, prejudices and illogical assumptions.

It's time that America wakes up and realizes that it doesn't need religion as a safety blanket.

It's OK. I know it's kind of scary, but the country will be ultimately more tolerant, and if nothing else, people will stop ringing my doorbell, trying to convert me.

Lisbeth Wells-Pratt is a freshman creative writing major and a regular contributor to The Rocket.

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