David Silverman - Fighting God: An Atheist Manifesto for a Religious World

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For Hildy.

Our love is like a storybook story.

I was raised Mormon in a comfortable suburb, protected from the urban dangers of impiety. Soon after my eighth birthday, my father baptized me in the font tucked behind an accordion door in the humble church hallway Id scurried along since I was old enough to walk. I thought everything would change that day. I was, after all, a Latter-day Saint of my own volition now, washed away of the sins Id accumulated in my childhood. As the song I sang every Sunday morning went, I want to live the gospel, to know I am heard when I pray, to know that I will be happy, because I have learned to obey. This was my chance to show my parents what a good Mormon girl theyd raised.

Unfortunately for my folks (and the whole lot of unnaturally friendly churchgoers), my obedience wouldnt outweigh the forces of logic and reason brewing within my developing brain.

Suffice it to say, I grew up not knowing other atheists. I often felt that I might be the only person in the world who didnt require the comfort of an almighty beingwho scratched her head, perplexed, when she heard others pontificate about personal relationships with the Lord. After brief exposure in an elementary-school class, I began smuggling philosophy books from the library. By fourteen, Id had enough of the confusion, manipulation, and lies, and I officially broke away from the Church (a defining decision for my own life and my relationship with my family). A decade later, I found myself working in the nascent field of science communication.

* * *

I met David Silverman for the first time at the American Atheists Convention in Austin, Texas, in 2013. It was an important gathering, celebrating fifty years of advocacy, education, and activism by and for the atheist community. David invited me to come and speak to the attendees. It was an exciting time for me, as Id given many talks about science, but Id never spoken to a live audience about my own atheism.

Of course, Id known of Davidfrom television and print media. I knew he was the president of American Atheists. And I knew him on Twitter as @MrAtheistPants, a fitting handle if there ever was one.

At the time, I was working as the senior science correspondent for a major news outlet, and I supplemented my income with on-air appearances and speaking opportunities about science communication, women in the sciences, and evidence-based thinking. I had spoken frankly on a small number of television and Web programs about my lack of a belief in god, but my atheism still felt personala fight within, a worldview that took years of lonely struggle to cultivate and fully own. I didnt understand the depths of the atheist community that existed outside my comfortable life.

David saw me as a contributor to the cause, and he reached out to me. He asked me to speak and I obliged. Just as his story rings familiar to so many people, mine too resonated with my fellow nonbelievers. Perhaps thats why David asked me to write the foreword to Fighting God .

* * *

I think this book is important for a number of reasons. But in the interest of time and respect for your patience (you came here to read what David has to say, after all), I will focus on two.

First, it will arm you with a vast array of toolsweapons, if it so pleases youto face the not-so-hospitable world as an out-loud and proud atheist. I wish Id had these tools available to me as I struggled to come out as a teenager. I wish the firebrand tactics outlined in this book had reached me way back then. A billboard, a television appearance, some way to see that there was a movement out there, and I could be a part of it.

Second, and perhaps most important, Fighting God chronicles the how and the why of Davids intense hunger for activism and social change. Make no mistake about itDavid is an unapologetic atheist. He will make it known to whoever comes within earshot of him, and he will gladly engage in heated debate or even attempt his brand of de-indoctrination of dogged theists who dare approach him on the street.

But to be plain, David is not a dick . He is thoughtful, kind, and highly moral. But to those who incorrectly presuppose that the atheist lifestyle is one of dickish confrontation, David may just deliver on such prejudices. I myself take a fairly different approach. I speak publicly, yes. But I avoid debate with creationists and the like. I find common ground with the agnostics, skeptics, freethinkers, disbelievers, irreligious, and all the other thesaurus-loving, god-questioning people out there. (But we all do have our limitsI suppress an eye roll every time someone describes him- or herself as spiritual.)

Ive found in my personal conversations with many prominent thinkers, such as Sean Carroll, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, the late Chris Hitchens, Lawrence Krauss, Bill Maher, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and even Seth MacFarlane, that it takes all types. We nontheists are as varied as any other group of random people, bound together by the single commonality that we dont believe in something. We approach our secular lives as differently as our histories will allow us.

I cant speak for everyone when I say this, but I wouldnt be surprised if it was echoed in the sentiments of many strong thinkers both within and beyond the so-called atheist movement: David Silverman has been instrumental in defending the First Amendment rights and civil liberties of nonreligious Americans who would otherwise fall through the cracks of a political system powered by evangelical crusaders, hell-bent on maintaining a moral majority in this country.

You see, Davids fight is not his alone. Its important to all of useven if we choose to go about it in a different way. He may never have met another person from the Third Ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Plano, Texas, but he has made the path easier for the next young girl who wakes up one day realizing its all a bunch of bullshit.

Cara Santa Maria

Science communicator

Television presenter and producer

Host of the Talk Nerdy podcast

Los Angeles, California

December 2014

You will see one word a lot in this book, and the way I write it is going to get me into trouble because my style diverges from the style used by other leaders of the atheist movement, including some of my greatest predecessors.

I spell atheist with a lowercase a I dont capitalize it (unless it begins a sentence or is part of a proper noun, such as American Atheists). The arguments for capitalizing the word atheist come from the idea of demanding equality and include: Christians capitalize Christian, and Jews capitalize Jewish, so why not capitalize Atheist and bring ourselves up to their level?

Its more firebrandy to capitalize. Im not just an atheist; Im an Atheist with a capital A !

We should demand reverence the way Christians do. To make believers capitalize atheist would be a feat in and of itself!