Monday 29 September
2008, San José, Costa
Rica
RELIGION:
Atheists Take to the
Streets
By Diego Cevallos
MEXICO CITY (IPS)
- Atheists who have
built up a virtual
community over the last
decade will hold the
"First Global Atheist
March for a Secular
Society" on Sunday, with
the aim of defending
their views and
protesting that they are
misinterpreted and in
some cases discriminated
against.
The organisers say the
main marches will be
held in Madrid, Mexico
and Lima, while
demonstrations may also
take place in London and
Rome.
"We have decided to take
to the streets to fight
prejudice and
discrimination against
atheists, stress that
although we don't
believe in god, we have
ethics and values, and
demand that secularism
should be respected,"
Alfredo Villegas,
spokesman for the group
Ateos Mexicanos (Mexican
Atheists), told IPS.
There are hundreds of
religions in the world,
but only a handful of
large ones, of which
Christianity and Islam
have the biggest numbers
of followers. Meanwhile,
different studies
estimate that atheists
(those who deny the
existence of god) and
agnostics (those who
believe that at our
present level of
knowledge we cannot know
whether or not a god
exists) number between
500,000 and one billion
people worldwide.
The "First Global
Atheist March for a
Secular Society" is
organised by people from
several different
countries who over the
last 10 years have
established an active
on-line community.
"We have been engaging
in virtual communication
for 10 years. But in
February the idea came
up to take to the
streets to express our
concerns, and we agreed
on a date to hold our
global march," said
Villegas, a student of
English language at the
National Autonomous
University of Mexico.
"There may not be many
of us coming out on
Sunday, but you have to
understand that this is
just a start, and that
funds are scarce. Next
year we’ll repeat the
march, and we’ll
organise seminars in
universities and a world
congress," said Villegas
who, like most Mexicans,
comes from a Catholic
family.
The main organiser of
the march is CyberAteos
(CyberAtheists), a group
that is registered as a
not-for-profit
association in Spain.
Other participants are
Ateos Mexicanos, Ateos
del Perú (Atheists of
Peru), the Asociación
Madrileña de Ateos y
Libres Pensadores
(Madrid Association of
Atheists and Free
Thinkers), and Ateus de
Catalunya (Atheists of
Catalonia, a province in
northeastern Spain).
According to a study by
Pitzer College, a
private college in
Claremont, California,
between 15 and 24
percent of people in
Spain do not believe in
god.
In Mexico, 3.5 percent
of the population of 104
million people said in
the 2000 census carried
out by the national
statistics institute
that they do not profess
any religion.
But Ateos Mexicanos says
that proportion is
undoubtedly much higher
today.
The Asociación Madrileña
de Ateos y Libres
Pensadores says atheists
are people "who have
decided to stop being
slaves of religion and
to exercise their own
freedom."
"Atheism is the
philosophy of those who
believe there is no
reason to accept that,
beyond material reality,
there are beings of a
different nature,
superior to humans, in
which lie the origin and
meaning of our
existence," says the
group’s web site.
To be an atheist is to
have "a positive mental
attitude that promotes
freedom of consciousness
and stimulates
knowledge, seeks to
establish a lifestyle
based on man as the
motor of progress and
well-being, and
encourages the
development of an
ethical system that
foments mutual respect,
comprehension and
tolerance," it adds.
Villegas complained
that, out of ignorance,
many people who are
religious think atheists
"don't have ethics and
can't tell good from
bad, when in reality
most of us have strong
values.
"We are opposed to any
religion imposing its
point of view,
influencing the public
administration, and
discriminating against
atheists," he said.
The report
"Discrimination Against
Minority Religious
Groups in Mexico 2007",
by Mexico’s National
Council for the
Prevention of
Discrimination, says
that many people who
belong to religions
other than Roman
Catholicism or who do
not believe in god have
problems finding stable
jobs that pay decent
wages.
"Since it rejects or
denies the existence of
God, atheism is a sin
against the virtue of
religion," says the
Catechism of the
Catholic Church.
The "First Global
Atheist March for a
Secular Society", which
in Mexico will be held
under the name "First
Global Atheist Pride
March", will take place
in the capital in a
downtown park, the
Hemiciclo a Juárez, and
in the Juárez Park in
the city of Guadalajara,
the second-biggest city
in the country.
In Madrid, the Spanish
capital, the march will
take place in the Plaza
Mayor, and in Lima, the
capital of Peru, in San
Martín square.
"If these atheists feel
misunderstood and have a
need to express
themselves, I think it’s
right for them to come
out on the streets,"
Sabino Herrera, a high
school philosophy
teacher in the Mexican
capital, told IPS.
"I’m an atheist, but in
my case I haven't had
any need to draw
attention to it as
something special,
although people do
definitely react with
surprise when I mention
it," he said.
Villegas said he hoped
public demonstrations by
people who do not
believe in god or
religion or by agnostics
can help build social
tolerance and contribute
to "toppling
prejudices."
"We also hope other
atheists will realise
they are not alone, but
form part of a wide
community," he added. |
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