One might be tempted to think that in today’s 21st century society there is enough tolerance, respect and space for everyone’s rights, opinions and liberties. Well, the reality does not necessarily match with these expectations. It has been agreed that in our modern society everybody is entitled to personal beliefs and opinions and one should not be discriminated at any stage, especially based on these beliefs.

The Atheists are one of those groups who are still facing a lot of prejudice based on their belief or rather the lack of it. Some say that the road to atheism is a very personal and individual experience and is based on more things than just the simple lack of belief in a deity. There still are people who do not know how to behave towards an atheist and there are still people who cannot go beyond their own boundaries in order to manage a relationship with an atheist.

An atheist is often portrayed as a person, who if rejects religion, rejects the basis of morality, therefore has no moral values. It is a person who cannot understand compassion and love (because these two concepts are at the base of the religion), a person who is selfish (because again, religion is the one teaching us to love our neighbor), a person who is actually against the religion and perhaps maybe even a communist (that is because most of the totalitarian, communist regimes rejected the idea of the people believing in God).

Every corner of this world had its share of atheism and tried to respond accordingly. Europe seems to have been more liberal towards atheists but even here the prejudices against them have been and still are more than obvious. For example in Ireland, in order to work as a teacher in government funded schools, one needs to have religious training from Christian colleges. In the UK one third of state-funded schools are faith-based, the Swedish parliament organizes sermons, in Germany there were administrative fees for leaving the Church and one member of the Parliament (Martin Hohmann) stated once that the guilt for Nazi crimes should not be placed with Germans, but with “godless people and their godless ideologies.”   

The Islamic countries totally exclude atheism and in Africa religion is mandatory in schools in some countries.

In the United States, seven state constitutions (Arkansas, Mississippi, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas) officially include statements referring to religion, statements and articles that could prevent atheists from holding office or in some cases, they could prevent an atheist from being a juror or a witness in a court trial.                                                                                                                                                   There were cases recorded when judges considered atheism to be a sufficient reason for denying custody to a parent during custody hearings. Since 1990 there have been cases filed against the Boy Scouts of America for not allowing atheists to be members of this organization.

The prejudice against atheists reached the highest levels of the states and levels. In 1987 in a conversation with between Robert I. Sherman of American Atheist Press, President Bush was asked if he recognized the equal citizenship and patriotism of Americans who are atheists answered, “No, I don’t know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God.”

U.S. Army Reserve Maj. Juan Borges when talking about the chaplains in the army said, “There are no atheists in a foxhole” (…) “Soldiers have spiritual needs that have to be met. If there were no chaplains around, soldiers’ morale would be worse off.”

In 2001 in Gray, Tennessee Carletta Sims joined a financial firm and after  two Baptist coworkers found out that she was an atheist they took offense upon that and asked the management to be assigned workspaces further from Sims. Their request was granted.

In Minneapolis, Minnesota, Michael Bristor, a first grader and an atheist, was denied an honor roll certificate because he refused to participate in an unconstitutional “prayer time” at a public school.

The examples could go on and on. The truth is that although we like to describe ourselves as open-minded, tolerant and a democratic society, we still have barriers that we refuse to cross. It is very hurtful when those barriers prevent us from reaching others. An atheist might be at the end of the day just a person with a different set of beliefs and values.