Obama vs. Superman vs Abraham Lincoln

There is a scene in Superman II where Clark and Lois are visiting Niagara falls. Clark (SPOILER ALERT!) changes into Superman to save a boy who falls into the falls (heh). As he is returning the boy to his greatful mother, you can faintly hear an old woman say something like "what a nice Jewish boy." Clearly refering to Superman.

My grandmother is Jewish. She once tried to claim Abraham Lincoln the same way. "I was reading an article that said Abraham Lincoln had a Jewish great-grandparent" or someting like that.

I've seen atheists do this as well. They will try to claim "ownership" of people they like. I've seen this recently with both Barack Obama and Abraham Lincoln.

Superman isn't Jewish.

Abraham Lincoln wasn't Jewish or an atheist.

Barack Obama is not an atheist.

...and that's okay.

It's okay to like someone you disagree with.

Unfortunately us humans have something called ingroup/outgroup bias.

We tend to like those we see as belonging to our group, and dislike those we see as not belonging to our group. 

What is often missed as that ingroup/outgroup bias goes both ways. Not only does it effect how we feel about people in and out of our groups, it also makes us want to move people in and out of our groups.

When we already like someone, we want them in our group. When we dislike someone, we want them out.

Theists are wrong about god. That doesn't make them bad, we all know that. Right?

The reason I dislike theism is because it causes harm. Most of the people it causes harm to are theists themselves. They are victims, not idiots. They have been duped.

I don't think we are going to fix that by perpetuating ingroup/outgroup bias.

So let's stop trying to claim Obama, Abraham Lincoln, and whomever else. Not because they aren't atheists, but because it doesn't matter what they believe.

At least that is one way we can get away from ingroup/outgroup bias. Do you have any other suggestions? I'd love to see them in the comments.

Trying something new. Again.

I've been an atheist my entire life, and most of that time I've tried to be active in the community.

I've gone to local atheist meetups. I've been in Facebook groups. I've been a member of the American Atheists and the FFRF. I have even tried to start a local atheist group, modeled off of groups like the ACA. It actually started when I regularly participated in the IRC chatroom for the Infidel Guy show. 

I've never found any of these things very satisfying though. The atheist meetups weren't horrible, but they didn't really want to do anything about the issues we discussed. It felt more like an atheist singles group. With a male-to-female ratio of 10-to-1. With a total of 11 members.

The facebook groups are mostly atheists patting each other on the back. Honestly, I get more out of listening to podcasts in this regard. It's nice to talk about things and agree with people... but that isn't all I want to do. I want to do more.

I thought the larger atheist organizations would be better. I've even spoken to some of the fairly prominent members of those groups. Annie Laurie Gaylor of the FFRF for example. I wanted to see if I could get one of those billboards put up in my town. It turns out they are now working with a national company. I already do almost all of the things they suggest on their participation page.

My attempt to start my own atheist organizatoin failed miserably. I couldn't find a single other person within 20 miles willing to participate.

Then, of course, there is the comic. I did manage to stir up a bit of activity there, but it didn't last. The constant negative feedback hasn't helped. My artist is ready to quit. I can tell it's not going to last much longer.

This blog is yet another attempt to do something. I'm not sure what yet. I'd really like to find some sort of niche within atheist activism. Maybe writing about it will help me find that niche.